A brilliant racing game is, for me, the only real omission we have in the Switch’s plentiful library. We have some good FPS games, fantastic platformers and riveting RPGs. For those who love racing though, there has been little on offer, excluding the plentiful karting adventures such as Mario Kart 8 Deluxe and Crash Team Racing. So with unbeknownst amounts of pressure, GRID: Autosport lines up at the starting line, aiming to reach the finish in a blaze of glory.

GRID: Autosport oozes content and class gameplay. You really feel that this is a port which has been done with love and intent from the developers to create a fantastic experience on the Switch. Its arrival truly marks the first brilliant racing game on the Switch, and finally fills that annoying hole which has been growing bigger since the Switch launched all the way back in 2017. Anyway, let’s stop talking up GRID without getting into some juicy details. Time to shift ourselves into first gear folks!

Strap yourselves in folks! Welcome to REAL racing!

The first thing you will notice upon strapping yourselves into your seatbelt is that rather than forcing you down a fixed path, GRID: Autosport gives you the satnav and lets you decide where you want to go. A total of five disciplines of racing are immediately available for you to choose from and progress in. Remember when games would just let you do what you want? Think you can be the next Lewis Hamilton, then Open Wheel might just be for you! Or perhaps you prefer the classic touring and overtaking your rivals whilst working with your teammate to succeed?

I personally found my least favourite was the time trial-esque endurance so once I levelled it up enough I just avoided it from there on out. Progressing through the five disciplines will bag you more powerful vehicles and success in all of them will allow you to venture into the GRID discipline which is a mash-up of all of them. Of course, though, there is no obligation to do this. GRID presents its content with a complete choice to do what you want when you want, and how you want.



Check out our video coverage of this one, right here!

Avoiding fixed missions is one of my favourite parts of GRID. For me, I just want to race awesome cars, in order to use even more awesome cars. Removing the bullshit from allowing players to do this just one of many things which succeeds in this one, but a really important one. If I had been stuck in the endurance discipline for too long my review would be much less favourable. It is worth noting, that a variety of disciplines would mean nothing if they all felt the same. This is another area in which Feral Interactive have nailed the feel of racing, I mean I have never been a rally driver, but you get the point.

The street mode feels claustrophobic and tight, with a focus on strategy to navigate and overtake in narrow sections of road. Whereas, the touring races give you much more leeway to negotiate through other racers in a more expansive track with wider and smoother corners. Plus, the open-wheel tour feels straight out of Formula 1, with record speeds to go along with it.

Cruising round like a F1 driver is great fun. Plus the sounds are superb!

I said earlier that GRID: Autosport feels like a game which focuses on attention to details. Nowhere is this more present than in the variety of customisation options available to make the player experience optimal, regardless of the player. We’re shifting to second folks, let’s quickly breakdown the plethora of options on display here. Destination? The pause menu!

OPTIONS BREAKDOWN! (Trust me it isn’t actually as dull as it sounds…)

Difficulty has six total scales, including a custom level which allows you to adjust things such as the competence of AI drivers, the race length as well as the HUD elements on display. Also included is the XP boost seen in other versions which allows progress to come a little easier at any level. All in all, there is a level for every player and I appreciate the racing vets and new players alike can immediately hop in and sought a difficulty which matches them from the start.

Controls is well you guessed it, controls! One massive twist is the ability to use GameCube controllers (Those analogue triggers), as well as full control customisation to suit any of your needs! Also included is a fun albeit awful motion control option which I would avoid at all costs. Switching lanes to auto-accelerate, I personally would not use such a feature (It also exists in Mario Kart 8 Deluxe), but as an advocate of accessibility in gaming I am glad to see it here! Finally, the ability to tweak HD Rumble for both docked and handheld play is a welcome addition.

Gameplay presents us with the real fuel though. In-depth audio options are overshadowed by the optimisation options. For those who love to debate the eternal gaming conflict of 30vs60, now you can put that to the test! 60FPS is smooth, so smooth, like that soft purring of a sports car engine kinda smooth. Some minor drops occur when things get hectic, but overall, the experience is superb and I am really impressed. Graphic fidelity is clearly superior in the 30fps mode, but the drop in quality isn’t enough to push you away from the full-fat experience in my opinion.

And that pretty much offers the wealth of customisation at play here, a whole lot of it! I was staggered by how much GRID: Autosport allows its users to customise their experience.

One of the biggest issues I have seen brought up surrounding this release was the lack of analogue triggers on any of the Switch’s ‘main’ control inputs. Of course, this is no fault of GRID but it does certainly hamper the experience in comparison to racers on the other systems which use such triggers. ZL and ZR act as flat inputs to brake and accelerate accordingly. If you’re coming from other racers, you will 100% feel this issue as you play and it is certainly worth a warning. Fortunately, Visceral Interactive have incorporated not only GameCube controller support, but also a control option which utilises the right stick for a more dynamic way to accelerate and such.

So many ways to accelerate, analogue and all… (This isn’t my screenshot, but I found it too beautiful to not include!)

Another issue that GRID currently has, is the lack of online multiplayer. Now call me crazy, but in a game like this, I view an online aspect as something which is as essential as a steering wheel is to a car (Heh.)! Now before you grab your petrol and lighter, charge over to that metaphorical car, and light it on fire, it has been confirmed that multiplayer is on the way! Rejoice! For real though, it is a damn shame that it isn’t here at launch, but the eventual inclusion of it has only confirmed my overall opinion of this finely tuned engine.

It doesn’t have much competition in its realm, but I consider GRID: Autosport the best racing game on the Switch, and by a distance. The volume of content it offers players and the catering towards those same players is above and beyond. Too often, half-arsed ports are released on the eShop with little care towards ensuring a good experience for the players. Instead, it is often a quick cash grab from an audience hungry for quality experiences. Fortunately, the team behind GRID have worked tirelessly to bring us a brilliant experience, and you should definitely try this one if you want arguably the best handheld racing experience ever.

My first golden heart in a long time! Interested in my last one? My Time at Portia was, and remains, a guilty pleasure of mine, check out my review! Be sure to keep the convo going on our Twitter and join our Discord. Thank you, as always for checking out our content, we appreciate everyone who helps keep indies alive!