Assoluto Racing Switch Review

Assoluto Racing Switch Review
Version Reviewed: Nintendo Switch

I love racing sims. Whether it’s Forza Motorsport or Gran Turismo, I enjoy the more realistic approach to cornering, fine-tuning your car to shave precious seconds off a lap time, earning credits for your next performance upgrade, and building a garage full of finely tuned machines. Outside of Gear.Club Unlimited, which leans more towards the arcade side of things, Nintendo platforms haven’t really had a grounded racing simulator to call their own. Assoluto Racing wants to change that. After debuting on mobile, it’s now made the jump to Nintendo Switch, bringing realistic handling, a huge selection of licensed cars, and that unmistakable Gran Turismo feeling many handheld racing fans have been craving. But can it shake off its mobile origins and earn a place on the starting grid? What’s It Like? Choose your starting vehicle, pull on your racing suit, and prepare to burn rubber as we review Assoluto Racing on Nintendo Switch.

Assoluto Racing is a racing simulator that lets you compete across circuit racing, drifting, rally, and tandem chase events. Every discipline, with the exception of tandem chase, features Amateur, Pro-Am, Pro, and Veteran series, offering hundreds of races and challenges to complete. There is an impressive amount of single-player content here, and it’s unlikely you’ll run out of things to do any time soon. Unlike traditional racing games, most events have you racing against the clock rather than a pack of AI opponents. Your lap time is uploaded to global leaderboards, giving you the chance to compete against thousands of other players for bragging rights. Every event is also graded, with gold requiring you to hit a set number of apexes by taking the correct racing line, beating the target time, and completing the race without leaving the track. At first, I was happy just to earn a gold medal and scrape into the top 1,000 rankings. Before long, though, I found myself chasing top 100 finishes, and in a few cases even breaking into the top 25.

Perfecting your driving is exactly what Assoluto Racing rewards. Braking late into corners, carrying momentum through the apex, and carefully applying the throttle on corner exit are all essential to setting faster times. The realistic handling immediately reminded me of Gran Turismo 3 on the PlayStation 2, the game that introduced me to racing simulators. Every type of drivetrain feels different, with front wheel drive, rear wheel drive, and all wheel drive cars each demanding a different approach. Drifting is also well implemented, even if it’s not personally my favourite discipline, while the rally events are enjoyable enough, although they never quite capture the loose, unpredictable feeling I’d expect from driving off-road. Once you’ve mastered the standard championships, you can spend your hard-earned credits on performance upgrades. Carefully tuning your car while staying within each event’s class restrictions opens up the Modified series, adding another layer of strategy as you chase even faster lap times. Outside of the single-player content, Assoluto Racing also includes multiplayer and custom races. Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to properly test the online component during my review, as matchmaking queues never seemed to find enough players.

Because Assoluto Racing began life as a mobile game, some of those design choices remain. Players can carry their progress between the mobile and Switch versions, and the game regularly features rotating challenges, limited-time events, and special car imports. Initially, I was worried these imports would lean heavily into pay-to-win mechanics or aggressive microtransactions. Thankfully, that wasn’t my experience. Many of the imports, which act as loot boxes, can be earned simply by playing the game, while Switch owners also receive the Founder’s Pack as part of the purchase. Rewards include paint colours, wheel rims, new cars, and highly desirable legendary vehicles with unique liveries and upgraded performance. The drop rates were surprisingly fair during my time with the game. After buying a starter pack of coins, I managed to unlock two of the three featured legendary cars. Later, after earning more currency through normal gameplay, I returned for one final import and landed the legendary Porsche. I actually cheered out loud when it appeared on screen, and moments like that made the system feel far more exciting than it probably should have been.

This leads into Assoluto Racing’s biggest shortcomings, because while the driving model itself is excellent, there are a handful of rough edges that stop the game from feeling as polished as it could be. The biggest issue at the time of writing is the Battle Pass system, which simply isn’t functioning correctly. Progress is tied to completing objectives such as driving a certain distance or purchasing vehicles, but none of these challenges registered during my time with the game. As a result, I wasn’t able to make any progress through the pass at all. Assoluto Racing also requires a constant online connection, even when you’re playing single-player content. While this makes sense given the game’s cross-progression and online leaderboards, it does limit the portability of the Switch version. If you’re travelling, commuting, or simply don’t have access to an internet connection, you won’t be able to jump in for a quick race, which feels at odds with the pick-up-and-play nature of Nintendo’s handheld systems.

The user interface also feels like it needed more time in the workshop. Some menu text is clipped due to scaling issues, while certain options are partially cut off, making parts of the interface difficult to navigate. They’re relatively minor issues on their own, but together they give the impression that the menus haven’t been fully optimised for Nintendo Switch. Another frustration is the steering assist which appears to be a leftover from the mobile version and makes the handling feel unnatural with a controller. Thankfully, it can be disabled, but the process is frustrating because rather than adjusting a slider, you have to repeatedly press the minus button to reduce the assist from 100 down to zero. Even more frustrating is that this setting doesn’t appear to save, meaning you’ll need to repeat the process every time you restart the game.

Despite these shortcomings, Assoluto Racing comes together with highly detailed licensed cars ranging from street tuners and track-focused machines to exotic supercars and even open-wheel racers, creating an authentic racing experience. While the tracks may lack environmental detail and the game runs at a lower resolution, there’s such a great sense of immersion behind the wheel that I rarely noticed, or even missed, the simpler trackside scenery. Some of my favourite cars, like the Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution VIII and the Porsche 911, are here in all their glory, and Switch players even receive an exclusive Nintendo Switch Edition Porsche to kick off their journey. On both Nintendo Switch and Switch 2, performance is solid, targeting 60 frames per second and, for the vast majority of my playtime, stays there. The lower resolution undoubtedly helps achieve that, but it’s a worthwhile trade-off for such smooth racing. I did notice the occasional hitch on the original Switch, usually a dropped frame or two as a new section of the track loaded in, but these moments were brief and rarely detracted from the racing.

For my racers looking into accessibility, there are unfortunately no accessibility features to speak of. As always, I recommend doing some further research to determine whether Assoluto Racing suits your individual accessibility needs.

At just under $28 AUD, there’s plenty of racing across multiple disciplines to keep motorsport enthusiasts busy. Rotating challenges add replayability, there’s a plethora of single-player events to complete, and thousands of players to compete against on the global leaderboards. Sure, some mobile elements have made the transition across, including microtransactions and loot crates, but the rewards, and particularly the legendary drops, feel far more fairly balanced than most mobile games. Better still, they’re a completely optional part of the experience. While there are some rough launch issues, such as the Battle Pass not functioning correctly and a user interface that still needs some refinement, there’s a solid and satisfying foundation here. The racing is finely tuned, the leaderboards are addictive to climb, and the selection of cars and customisation options is fantastic. Assoluto Racing may have a few issues back in the pits, but once you’re out on the circuit, it’s hard not to feel like this is the beginning of something special.

So, What’s it Like? Assoluto Racing is Like Gran Turismo 3, crossed with Gear.Club Unlimited.

In the interest of full disclosure, a review copy was provided by the publisher, but this doesn’t influence my score.

Enjoyed our Assoluto Racing Switch Review?

✨ Support What’s It Like? Want to help keep this independent Nintendo outlet running? Here are a few ways you can support:
🌐 More Nintendo reviews and guides: https://www.whatsitlike.com.au/
☕ Buy me a Ko-fi: https://ko-fi.com/whatsitlike
🎥 Join the Patreon for behind-the-scenes content: https://patreon.com/u102681944