

From there, countless iterations were developed until we found the right balance between AI assistance and player’s input,” he says.įurthermore, he adds that the split between users choosing Touch Drive versus other existing control options is in “good parity”. Touch Drive control was designed with the same goal of making the game playable with one finger only so that it can be enjoyed by the widest audience without requiring too much efforts. “Mobile gaming has evolved with more games perfectly fitted for touch devices. Germain revealed the thought process and development path behind it. It’s a new option that lets you control your ride similar to Subway Surfers or Temple Run - allowing you to select your path and dodge out of harm’s way. Moving on from hardware, we had to ask about Asphalt 9’s Touch Drive control scheme. “Of course, we’re always looking at new features that can enhance the Asphalt experience but it’s too early for us to commit on anything yet,” he says.

At the moment, Gameloft’s focus is to ensure Asphalt 9 “runs perfectly on as many devices as possible for launch” though Germain isn’t ruling them out entirely. The likes of Razer and Asus have devices primed towards gamers sporting high-refresh rate displays and bespoke controller options. Speaking of Android, there’s been a lot of attention garnered by gaming phones. Higher-end devices with faster GPU allow for more intense graphics, however those additional graphics details do not affect the gameplay so a mid-end device user can enjoy the game like a high-end device user would and compete fairly against him/ her,” Germain says.

“We’re trying to deliver the best gaming experiences to all supported devices. This made us wonder what Gameloft looks at in terms of base performance for mobile hardware. Needless to say, it even scaled well on cutting-edge smartphones like the OnePlus 6. We noticed that Asphalt 9 looked exceptional on an iPhone 6s, hardware that’s nearly three years old. Gadgets 360 spoke to Gameloft’s Gary Germain, Product Marketing Manager on Asphalt 9 to find out more. However there are still some unknowns such as Asphalt 9’s release date in other markets and why developer Gameloft stuck with one lap sprints we’ve experienced in our time with the game. In our first impressions of the sequel to 2013’s Asphalt 8: Airborne, we noted a marked improvement in almost every department, from controls to visuals and, of course, the variety on offer. Despite still being in soft-launch in select markets like the Philippines and France, Asphalt 9: Legends for Android and iOS is one of the more polished racing games at the moment.
