It previously delivered V-Rally 4 and WRC 8, both of which received fairly lukewarm receptions. This is not developer Kylotonn’s first foray onto Nintendo’s handheld platform, however. Why is that though? Does the platform not suit such a serious racing game or simulation? Sure, there are kart racers aplenty and a couple of officially licenced games for Monster Trucks and motorcycles, but the space is a little bit empty. Weaving your way through any rally in this game is an aural treat, for sure.There aren’t many serious racers on the Nintendo Switch. This accompanied with the mud squelching or the gravel rolling as well as your co-driver shouting “jump, caution!” all makes the game sound like the real deal. There’s no obvious super-compressed audio that some other Switch ports have suffered from, and the cars growl and hiss like I’m sure they would in real life. Let’s get the good out of the way: this game sounds decent. All in all, the Switch has a major problem for any high-level racing, and WRC 9 suffers because of it. You can also tap the brake, but this can often make the car harder to control than easier. Just tapping a button to get across a slightly larger or smaller input is never going to really work. You can still feather throttle sort of, but it doesn’t quite work in the same way. This is pretty important to any serious racing game and particularly important in WRC 9. In racing games on other consoles, analog triggers allow the player to feather the throttle, making tiny tweaks mid-corner or after a long jump to keep the car under control. There’s also the issue that all racing games suffer from on the Switch - the triggers. The long rallies can bring tension and fear in equal measure. Less edge-of-your-seat rallying, more like you got lost in the woods. What this resulted in for me is a much more tentative approach to pretty much anything when I was travelling at speed. But you definitely can’t rely on these when tiny, incremental tweaks need to be made. These are useful, and a great touch of realism, especially as they are voiced to a much higher standard than previous entries. These are a set of instructions as to the direction and angle of corners, as well as any notable jumps or blind hills. There are, of course, your co-driver’s pacenotes. You can tweak the difficulty quite a lot, but the way the visuals change your driving style is a bit egregious. But on any long straight, it can be really difficult to see where the course goes, meaning there could be a slight right that isn’t as slight as you thought, sending you barrelling straight off the course and incurring a five-second penalty. Taking it slower around a twistier rally is fine, as you don’t need to react as quickly to incoming obstacles. If they are visible they’re blurry and hard to see, with the lack of good lighting and shadows making it very hard to tell how far away they are. trees, rocks) and shadows jump into view when you’re getting near to them. We’ll get into that more later on, but the primary issue for driving is the draw distance. Sadly, though, the gameplay suffers due to the visual concessions. It would have been nice to see some more options for lower levels of play. This game isn’t really trying to appeal to casual players on a gameplay level, but it’s hard to imagine any hardcore players wanting to pick it up on Nintendo Switch. I like this style of rallying - I think it’s dull when a driving game just thinks rallying means “do lots of drifts!” - but I do think more casual players will find it tough. The cars slip and glide believably, constantly feeling hard to tame. Thankfully, the racing is also top-notch, so you can get really entrenched in the career, trying to perfect your driving style. It’s not that excitingly presented - reminding me more of a Football Manager game than anything else - but it does add a bit of realism to this lengthy career. There’s also Research & Development, a huge tree of different things to make your car better than your competitors. Similar to the F1 series of games, you have to manage your team to make sure they’re well-trained and well-suited to help you through. There are, however, some extra trimmings that make WRC 9 much more engaging. In terms of racing, it’s about what you’d expect: drive faster than other drivers and climb up and up until you’re at the top. This sees you climbing through the ranks to become the best driver there is, and WRC is no exception, aiming you at the big leagues - the World Rally Championship (that’s what WRC stands for, by the way). No racing game can really claim to have a story, but most have a career mode. Story & Gameplay - Drift Through The Ranks WRC 9 is out now for PC, Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S for $59.99.
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