Open world racing has finally come home to the Nintendo Switch platform, courtesy of Criterion Game’s latest installment of its iconic racing series, Burnout Paradise: Remastered. Granted, its arrival comes quite some time after release on other next-gen consoles, but it’s a welcome gem(or should I say Gin Gem?) for a Switch library whose current line-up of racing titles leaves a little for the wanting. That said, let’s strap in, tune our radios to Paradise City’s favorite station, “Crash F.M,” hosted by the infamous DJ Atomica and see where the road takes us.
First things first. Interestingly enough, the re-mastered version of Burnout Paradise looks fairly good on the Nintendo Switch platform. Though, it would be hard to go out on a limb and say this remake was a slam dunk in the graphics department, there are definitely noticeable visual enhancements including high resolution textures and improved dynamic lighting making the overall look of things a bit more polished. What is more impressive, however, is the game’s 60 FPS feature which lives up to the hype after being heavily touted by the development team.
Along with its visual facelift, Burnout Remastered ships with all eight post release DLCs from Year of Paradise. With about 100 cars at your disposal and a good bit of content already available from the jump, you won’t find nice rides too hard to come by. You’ll have the option to drive a wide range of vehicles including stock, toy, cop, legendary, “boost-special” cars and even a select lineup of motorcycles during your time in Paradise City.
With no serious story-driven plot, driving goals and objectives are pretty straight-forward in Burnout Paradise. You start your drive venture off with a Learner’s Permit. The goal is to get out there and earn yourself the prized Burnout License. There are roughly 120 events to take part in and all can be initiated at nearly every traffic light in the city. From there, you can access a series of race-type events including open-world sprint competitions, stunt shows, and takedown challenges.
This is the 7th installment in the Burnout campaign and if you’ve played a few of the earlier games then you know it’s the “no-rules-no-limits” gameplay experience that has defined the series over the years and thankfully the tradition is continued in this remastered rendition. You can race anytime and nearly anywhere in the city and how you get there or who you knock off the road along the way is entirely up to you.
As you progress through winning races and upgrading your licenses new cars will become available in the game world. When see something new you want, you don’t pay for it. You take it down and send the scraps to your private junk yard to be rebuilt and re-purposed. It’s a dog-eat-dog world out there and it’s easy to get lost for hours in the fun.
When you’ve conquered the solo life you can take a stab at multiplayer mode and hook up with up to 8 friends to race for pride and bragging rights. The Switch lobbies are a bit hit and miss in terms of availability but if you are persistent enough you can find a group of friends or at least some crazy randoms to roll with.
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Ultimately, Burnout Paradise: Remastered is a great addition for any racing enthusiast’s library of racing titles on the Switch. Its visually improved and ships with a ton of free DLC most of which is available at the start of game. Not to mention, it’s still a ton of fun to play even after all this time since the original game debuted. For that, this one earns a solid 4 Gin Gems.