Riptide GP: Renegade

Genre: Futuristic Racing

Players: 1-4 (Local Splitscreen), 2-8 (Online)

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Review:

Riptide GP: Renegade is a Futuristic racing game that combines elements from F-Zero, Wave Race, and the SSX series to make something new and refreshing.

Like Wave Race, you’ll be be piloting a Jetski “personal watercraft” through courses where disparate weather conditions can make the same course play very differently based simply on how the water is acting. Like F-Zero, the action is very fast-paced, with impressive futuristic locales and a silky-smooth (for the most part) frame rate. And like SSX, you have a boost meter tied to doing tricks, making you weigh the risks of each stunt you do against the need to get every advantage in the race. Add in cops that chase you and try to slam you into walls a la Need For Speed: Hot Pursuit, and you have a good mix of disparate elements here.

For the most part, this all comes together very well. Races are fast, and every new lap has the potential to bring new challenges based on how the waves are acting, and the stunt mechanic gives the game an added bit of depth.

What’s more, the game supports four-player split screen, making this a great one to get a group of friends to play. There’s also 8-player online play, but the online lobbies aren’t too lively, so you’ll want to coordinate with a friend if you want to play that way.

As for complaints, there are two main issues I have with this game that keep it from being an absolute must-have on the Switch. Firstly, it’s damn difficult – after a few initial races in the game’s campaign mode, expect things to heat up surprisingly fast, to the point where you might wonder if the game has rubber-band AI (that doesn’t benefit you). However, the bigger issue here is there are only 9 tracks in the game, and the scenery gets repetitive a bit quickly.

However, while it’s not perfect, Riptide GP: Renegade is nevertheless a superb racing game on the Nintendo Switch, and well worth a purchase from any fan of the genre.

tl;dr – Riptide GP: Renegade is a futuristic racing game that’s like someone took F-Zero, Wave Race, SSX, and Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit and threw them into a blender. The result is an intense high-speed racing game that, while light on the number of tracks it offers, is nevertheless a fantastic entry in the genre, well worth getting.

Grade: A-

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