Mini Motor Racing X
Nintendo Switch

Developed By : The Binary Mill
Published By : The Binary Mill
Category : Racing, Arcade
Release Date : Sep 17, 2020

Games as a whole have come a long way since the 8-bit retro days. Racing games specifically are easy to see how much they’ve grown and evolved. Your choices were either the top down simple racers like R.C. Pro-Am or an attempt at driving from behind the car with games like Rad Racer. But, as with all genres of gaming, despite how much things have changed a lot of developers like to go back to the retro feeling. The added bonus is now, the games can be come a lot more detailed. Mini Motor Racing X on the Nintendo Switch is one of the newest titles to try and bring us back to that old setting.

The game does away with any sort of story or narrative, and puts you straight behind the wheel to show you’re (hopefully) the best on the track. There’s a wide variety of vehicles to choose from, each one with it’s own starting stats for speed, handling, nitro boost strength and acceleration. Within moments you’ll be hopping into one and choosing which career you’d like to start.

That’s right. There’s two careers. You can choose between the Classic Mode career, or Type X. Both are basically identical to each other. They cover the same tracks in the same order, across the same four difficulties of seasons. The only difference between them is Classic focuses purely on your racing skills with the limited help of some nitro boosts. Type X introduces some weapons and power-ups to make the racing a bit more combative.

Completing races earns you stars and money. The money is what will help gear your cars up to be better than ever, which will come in handy when racing in the more advanced championships or on the harder difficulties. Each upgrade purchased will cause the next one (in the same category) to cost more. And, like I said before, each vehicle has it’s own starting stats so your first purchase price can vary wildly depending on where you start.

As you race, some things can appear on the tracks. No matter which career you race in, you’ll have bottles of nitro and bundles of cash randomly spawn on the track. The first driver to cross over it picks it up, so if you nab the cash it can make the victory pot even sweeter. While in Type X races, each time you complete a lap you’ll be rewarded with a random power-up or weapon. Things like landmines you can drop on the tracks for anyone to drive over, or wrenches to throw ahead and try to clock someone in the head.

Mini Motor Racing X is an excellent combination of the way racing games used to be and how they are today. One of my favorite features is the many camera options you can race with. By default, the game starts you off in a skewed top-down view, giving you a wide range of view over the track. You can change this to a traditional behind the car perspective, or there’s even a first-person behind the wheel camera as well. This latter view offers the least amount of help in terms of seeing where your opponents are but it’s honestly a ton of fun to use.

It’s a great game and a lot of fun. It looks beautiful, it handles well, and the upgrades for the vehicles actually feel like they’re improving your car. One thing worth noting is a feature that isn’t available to Switch players. Buying this game on Steam or PS4 grants you a fully compatible VR version of the game as well. This lets you stand over the track and control your car like an actual RC car, complete with a mini steering wheel or RC remote in your VR hands. It’s not at all a reason to shy away from this game, but if you’re like me and own other platforms besides the Switch, it’s an incredible feature that would be foolish to pass up. In the end though, no matter where you pick it up you’re adding a great game to your library, and that’s a feature that’s available to everyone.

The Switch Effect was graciously supplied a code for review purposes

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