The joy of one-thumb racing

Neon Drift League reminded me that arcade racing was basically made for phones. One thumb, one drift button, and pure momentum. No fiddly steering wheels crammed onto a screen.

Simulation racers keep trying to port the console experience over, and it rarely works on a touchscreen. Arcade games embrace the constraints instead, and they're more fun for it.

The best moments in Neon Drift League are the long drift chains where you're barely off the accelerator, just riding the slide around corner after corner. It's flow, plain and simple.

It's not a deep game and the tracks blur together after a while. But for a quick hit of speed, it's exactly the right shape for a phone.