Asphalt 6: Adrenaline

Asphalt 6: Adrenaline from 2010 was already a full-fledged game for smartphones and tablets - Gameloft programmed a graphics engine into it that made full use of the new devices' power, including reflections on car bodies, more elaborate track environments, and smoother damage animations on impact. The game offered over sixty licensed cars from manufacturers like Lamborghini, Ferrari, and Aston Martin, and expanded the location roster with destinations like Aspen, Tokyo, and Hawaii, each with its own track character, weather, and time-of-day lighting.

Compared to previous entries, it added multiplayer for several players over Wi-Fi and Bluetooth, as well as online leaderboards that gave the series a more competitive dimension and motivated players to keep coming back to races. Tilt controls were refined for greater precision, and the game also supported an on-screen virtual steering wheel for players who preferred a touch button over the gyroscope, or a combination of both based on personal preference. Adrenaline thus became one of the first mobile racing titles whose scope of content - number of cars, tracks, and game modes - approached the console arcade racers of the time, while still retaining the typical mobile gameplay in short bursts.

Why play it: Anyone who wants to see how mobile racing caught up to consoles in both graphics and content will find one of the key steps on that path in Asphalt 6 - with a rich lineup of cars, tracks across the world, and multiplayer that was still far from a given on smartphones in 2010. It's also a good pick for players who want to see how fast mobile games were changing year over year back then, and how close they managed to get to the console experience.