{"id":5843,"date":"2017-11-21T17:00:00","date_gmt":"2017-11-21T17:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nintendolife.com\/reviews\/nintendo-switch\/gear_club_unlimited"},"modified":"2017-11-21T17:00:00","modified_gmt":"2017-11-21T17:00:00","slug":"review-gear-club-unlimited-switch","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/2017\/11\/21\/review-gear-club-unlimited-switch\/","title":{"rendered":"Review: Gear.Club Unlimited (Switch)"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"\">\n<aside class=\"picture embed\"><a title=\"Screenshot 1 of 7\" href=\"http:\/\/images.nintendolife.com\/screenshots\/86051\/large.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/images.nintendolife.com\/screenshots\/86051\/900x.jpg\" alt=\"Gear Club Unlimited 3\" \/><\/a><\/aside>\n<p>When it comes to video game expectations, context really is king. As the first thing resembling a \u2018proper\u2019 racing game on Switch, <strong><a href=\"http:\/\/www.nintendolife.com\/games\/nintendo-switch\/gear_club_unlimited\">Gear.Club Unlimited<\/a><\/strong> has a certain amount of goodwill stored up for it.<\/p>\n<p>Conversely, Gear.Club\u2019s mobile past means that racing fans will be watching with an unusually critical eye. It initially launched last year as a freemium iOS and Android racer, where it received a very warm welcome. Of course, the words \u2018freemium\u2019 and \u2018mobile\u2019 don\u2019t win you any points with die-hard console gamers. Quite the opposite, in fact.<\/p>\n<p>Gear.Club has both little to prove and everything to prove, then. So let\u2019s just start with the basics: is it a good racing game?<\/p>\n<aside class=\"picture embed\"><a title=\"Screenshot 2 of 7\" href=\"http:\/\/images.nintendolife.com\/screenshots\/86055\/large.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/images.nintendolife.com\/screenshots\/86055\/900x.jpg\" alt=\"Gear Club Unlimited 2\" \/><\/a><\/aside>\n<p>It\u2019s not bad at all, but expectations need to be reined in. If you\u2019ve skimmed over the screenshots and the marketing blurb for Gear.Club you might be fooled into thinking that this is a true racing simulator in the mould of Gran Turismo or Forza. It isn\u2019t.<\/p>\n<p>Rather, this is an arcade racer with real cars, an approximation of authentic handling, and a few tweakable performance settings. It\u2019s a boy racer hatchback with the silly spoiler taken off and a smart black paint job.<\/p>\n<p>The handling is tight and grippy across the game\u2019s predominantly short, snappy, tarmac courses, with the odd slippery off road excursion. It generally hits an accessible middle ground between Mario Kart and Gran Turismo, though obviously weighted towards the latter.<\/p>\n<p>That being said, the lack of analogue triggers on the Switch meant that we found ourselves reverting to the face buttons for acceleration and braking, calling to mind Nintendo\u2019s madcap kart racer. Fortunately there are no blue shells in sight.<\/p>\n<aside class=\"picture embed\"><a title=\"Screenshot 3 of 7\" href=\"http:\/\/images.nintendolife.com\/screenshots\/86052\/large.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/images.nintendolife.com\/screenshots\/86052\/900x.jpg\" alt=\"Gear Club Unlimited 5\" \/><\/a><\/aside>\n<p>Controls aside, once you\u2019ve turned all the racing aids off (essential if you want to attain any kind of convincing racing sensation or challenge) Gear.Club Unlimited largely follows the principles of real racing. You\u2019ll make swifter and tidier progress if you brake early for the tighter corners, steer in decisively, and stamp on the gas once your car is pointed in the right direction.<\/p>\n<p>There are rally stages here too, but we didn\u2019t find that this adjusted our approach too radically beyond a little more caution when re-engaging the throttle. This isn\u2019t the kind of pure arcade racer where you spend most of your time with your back-end out, and the provision of a specific rally modification system went conspicuously underused.<\/p>\n<p>While Gear.Club Unlimited\u2019s handling is solid, the AI opposition isn\u2019t particularly convincing. They all tend to line up politely ahead of corners, braking early rather than jostling for position and leaving gaping holes for you to nip into. Taking a slightly different line and applying the brakes a little later will see you taking multiple places without much effort. You can bump up the difficulty to Hard, but this doesn\u2019t seem to change the basic sheeplike behaviour of your opponents &#8211; it just makes their cars faster. Given that it\u2019s a simple matter to put your own car into the garage and supercharge it with a few upgrade purchases, overcoming this spike isn\u2019t too much of a bind.<\/p>\n<aside class=\"picture embed\"><a title=\"Screenshot 4 of 7\" href=\"http:\/\/images.nintendolife.com\/screenshots\/86053\/large.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/images.nintendolife.com\/screenshots\/86053\/900x.jpg\" alt=\"Gear Club Unlimited 1\" \/><\/a><\/aside>\n<p>Indeed, the whole garage system feels like a curious leftover. There\u2019s an elaborate mixture of upgrade stations that you can purchase for enhancing several key elements of your car, from a tire and brake station to a wind tunnel and a couple of cosmetic stations. All of these must be slotted into a limited garage space, which can be expanded over time.<\/p>\n<p>Even without knowledge of Gear.Club\u2019s past, it would be glaringly obvious that this was all constructed with a free-to-play system in mind. While the virtual currency flows far more freely in this premium version, however, we can\u2019t help thinking that it would have been better to scrap the convoluted upgrade system and install a streamlined alternative in its place.<\/p>\n<p>As it stands, upgrading your car feels both arbitrary and fiddly. Meanwhile, a UI that sees you moving a cursor to navigate a scrolling map feels like another vestigial mobile limb that should ideally have been lopped off.<\/p>\n<p>One element that has been excised is the damage system, and it\u2019s arguably to the game\u2019s detriment. We can understand that waiting to have your expensive car fixed in between races wouldn\u2019t have sat well in a premium game, but removing damage from the equation altogether feels counterproductive in a game with sim-shaped aspirations.<\/p>\n<aside class=\"picture embed\"><a title=\"Screenshot 5 of 7\" href=\"http:\/\/images.nintendolife.com\/screenshots\/86050\/large.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/images.nintendolife.com\/screenshots\/86050\/900x.jpg\" alt=\"Gear Club Unlimited 6\" \/><\/a><\/aside>\n<p>It pushes the dynamics of each and every race into an even more arcadey direction. Collisions are virtually penalty free here, barring a momentary loss of straight line speed and an achievement system that only meekly encourages clean racing.<\/p>\n<p>Any lingering misapprehension that this is the Switch\u2019s first out and out racing sim is dispelled by the presence of an unlimited rewind facility, which lets you roll back any mistakes you make with a press of the \u2018X\u2019 button. It\u2019s neatly implemented, but feels a bit like a cheat button.<\/p>\n<p>Once you\u2019ve accepted that Gear.Club is not the racing sim you might have been hoping for, there\u2019s plenty of fun to be had. Races whiz by at a snappy rate, with many lasting just a minute, and they vary between multi-car scraps and time trial dashes. In many ways it\u2019s the ideal racing game for the Switch as a handheld console, and is more amenable to being whipped out for a few minutes at a time than even <a href=\"http:\/\/www.nintendolife.com\/games\/nintendo-switch\/mario_kart_8_deluxe\"><strong>Mario Kart 8 Deluxe<\/strong><\/a>.<\/p>\n<aside class=\"picture embed\"><a title=\"Screenshot 6 of 7\" href=\"http:\/\/images.nintendolife.com\/screenshots\/86054\/large.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/images.nintendolife.com\/screenshots\/86054\/900x.jpg\" alt=\"Gear Club Unlimited 4\" \/><\/a><\/aside>\n<p>You\u2019ll find yourself unlocking new racing territories, car categories and dealerships at a consistently snappy rate, while you\u2019ll be able to purchase some of the tastier hardware on offer in no time at all. The fun definitely picks up once you start accessing (and enhancing) the more exotic hardware, too.<\/p>\n<p>Suddenly the game\u2019s plentiful sweeping curves become a good deal more hair-raising, and your use of both throttle and brake needs to be more deft. You\u2019ll find noticeable range in the handling here, too, from the twitchy go-kart precision of a Lotus Elise to the hefty balance of a Bentley Continental GT.<\/p>\n<p>There\u2019s also a provision for multiplayer in Gear.Club Unlimited, though that doesn\u2019t include online races. Rather, you\u2019ll have to console yourself with local split screen for up to four players and a competitive daily online ghost mode. On the plus side, the split screen multiplayer runs at a solid 30fps and can be pretty entertaining.<\/p>\n<aside class=\"picture embed\"><a title=\"Screenshot 7 of 7\" href=\"http:\/\/images.nintendolife.com\/screenshots\/86051\/large.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/images.nintendolife.com\/screenshots\/86051\/900x.jpg\" alt=\"Gear Club Unlimited 3\" \/><\/a><\/aside>\n<p>Technically Gear.Club Unlimited is a solid runner, if a little plain. The car models are all detailed and sufficiently shiny, while the action moves smoothly even with a dozen or so cars on screen at once. But there are also some ugly background textures, like the lakes and buildings of some of the European stages. There were also a few unusual sound bugs in our pre-release build, but these will hopefully be eradicated in the promised day one patch.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<div id=\"conclusion\">\n<h2 class=\"heading\">Conclusion<\/h2>\n<p>Gear.Club Unlimited is a highly entertaining racing game that sits firmly at the casual end of the realistic racer spectrum. It can be a thrillingly immediate experience, particularly on the go, where you can blast through one of its sweeping courses in just a minute or so.<\/p>\n<p>Switch owners hoping for a Gran Turismo or a Forza to call their own will have to wait a little longer, however. What was a commendably rounded console-like racer on mobile seems just a little bit lightweight on Switch, while a few ill-fitting parts have survived the console rebuild.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>When it comes to video game expectations, context really is king. As the first thing resembling a \u2018proper\u2019 racing game on Switch, Gear.Club Unlimited has a certain amount of goodwill stored up for it. Conversely, Gear.Club\u2019s mobile past means that racing fans will be watching with an unusually critical eye. It initially launched last year [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5843","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-nintendo-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5843","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5843"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5843\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5843"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5843"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5843"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}