The era of outrageous arcade racers is all but dead these days. The likes of Forza Horizon and The Crew Motorfest have picked up the mantle, but we miss the days of sliding our Ferrari F50s around corners at right-angles, with retina burning SEGA blue skies and pumping c*ck rock providing the perfect backdrop. It’d be a criminal offence to compare Asphalt Legends Unite to the classics of yesteryear, like OutRun 2006 – but it’s the closest you’re going to find on PS5.

First, all of the bad stuff: this is a free-to-play game, so there are loot boxes, card packs, microtransactions, and more. You unlock new cars by collecting cards, and then earning duplicates will boost their stats, a little bit like in Disney Speedstorm. You’re also restricted by gas which regenerates over time, so if you want to keep playing for long periods, it’s best to have a large roster of cars because you can’t keep using the same one over and over again.

The actual gameplay, though, is good. Courses like San Francisco and the Himalayas are ridiculously oversaturated, with one race seeing you sprint down a mountain while hot air balloons hover overhead. It really captures that old SEGA Dreamcast nostalgia; it’s not quite as over-the-top as the Nintendo Switch’s unfathomably underrated Cruis’n Blast, but it has a similar kind of spirit with oncoming trains and other similarly silly track flourishes.

Despite the inclusion of real cars, it also defies physics. Double tapping the handbrake button allows your car to perform a full 360-degree turn, and you can then pair this with ramps so you’re effectively spinning around in the air before you land. All of this trickery builds boost, and there’s a level of depth added in the way you use it: tapping the boost button at the right time for a Perfect Nitro adds a little extra speed, otherwise you can opt for shorter sharper sprints when your meter is full.

The monetisation will put plenty of players off, but the free-to-play format means anyone can jump in and enjoy the sheer absurdity of some of its track designs. This is a bite-sized game, intended to be played in short bursts, so if you’ve been pining for something silly, simple, and completely over-the-top, there really aren’t many better options on PS5. Sometimes all a game needs to be is fun, and Asphalt Legends Unite is exactly that.

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