Can arcade racers really work with touch controls?

Racing games and touchscreens have a rocky history, so I went into Neon Drift Circuit expecting to fight the controls. I came out convinced that arcade racers are actually the genre best suited to a phone, as long as they lean into it.

The trick is designing around the drift rather than precise steering. When braking traction is a single tap and the game forgives small mistakes, tilt controls stop feeling like a liability. Buttons work too, and I found myself switching depending on how bumpy the tram was.

Simulators are a different story — they need precision a thumb just can't reliably give. But the pure arcade end of the spectrum, all boost and combos, plays to a touchscreen's strengths. Short tracks help, since your hands never cramp.

If you've written off mobile racers because of some fiddly experience years ago, it's worth another look. The good ones have figured out that the phone wants chaos, not realism.