It only took 11 games to figure that out, but publisher Nacon eventually realized that their WRC game numbering was probably starting to get a little ridiculous. Thus, the sequel to WRC 10 abandoned the numbering system and switched to more accessible titles WRC generation. Still, it’s an exciting time to make changes, because it’s the last game in the WRC series before EA and Codemasters take over KT Racing.
WRC games are notorious on Switch for not delivering optimal performance, and that’s largely the case here too. Generations looks a bit better than WRC 10, but that doesn’t mean we’re reviewing Forza or anything like that.
The texture quality is still very low, the landscape still appears a few feet away and some levels continue to have an extremely distracting effect as the shadows appear on the ground right in front of you and spontaneously disappear. disappears as you drive, almost as if you were chasing some ghostly snake on the road.
As for the controls, the handling is extremely responsive and it still takes quite a bit of tinkering before you can find what works best for your racing style. And, as before, acceleration and braking suffer because their default controls are mapped to the ‘ZR’ and ‘ZL’ buttons, not the same ones. This would be a thing in a regular racing game but for a racing game you really need more nuance in controlling your pedals rather than toggling the brakes and throttle.
Instead, the main way to fix this is to assign the accelerator and brake to the right lever – move up to go, down to stop – thankfully this can be done in the options. However, you then have to find somewhere to assign the camera, which is usually what the sidebar is supposed to do. Frustratingly, the game doesn’t let you decide that you don’t want to control the camera (why would we want to look aside to see more bad scenes?) So we ended up putting it in ZL button just to avoid it’s path. It’s a solution, but it’s hardly an elegant one, and the preset right-joystick acceleration control scheme would be welcome.
The main addition to the game this time around is the appearance of hybrid cars, as featured in the latest real-life WRC season. The idea is that these cars give you extra power when accelerating, then charge the battery while you brake. It would be a lie to say that we noticed a huge difference between hybrid and non-hybrid driving, so it seems more like a gimmick than a truly game-changing experience.
The only other selling point alluded to in the title. As well as track highlights from the latest WRC season, Generations includes a selection of tracks from previous WRC games, bringing the total track count to 165 across 21 locations. It’s a great variety and will ensure that those who can accept the dull visuals and awkward controls will have plenty to go through.
While it may seem like WRC Generations is essentially an enhanced update of WRC 10, it’s not quite as simple as this. Indeed, one of our favorite modes in WRC 10, the 50th Anniversary mode, has been completely removed this time, meaning anyone else who loved the mode in the previous game will have to quit. through this mode this time.
The 50th Anniversary mode allows you to recreate classic rallies from WRC history, which has added some rich variety to the game. This time, historic races have been included in Career mode almost exactly like calendar events, meaning you only get to play them once as you progress in your career and are not free to choose Which race to play. This is a pretty bad compromise for a mode that was once a great addition and has now been dropped.
But hey, that’s not all bad news, there’s also a brand new Tournament mode where you can challenge other players online in a series of regularly updated competitions. Or that’s what we’d tell you if we could actually find the thing anywhere.
Even though eShop description quite clearly stated that “the new Tournament mode allows players to challenge online opponents with the same level” and that players can “finish the finish line before your opponents to advance in the Legendary category.” dialog”, no online content to be exact was found in the Switch version of the game at the time of this writing, a few days after the game was released digitally and about four weeks after the original version. physics.
Indeed, this review would have been published earlier if we had dug into the matter, but we contacted the PRs, searched the forums and searched through the Discord servers and so far we haven’t seen anyone from the development or game development department. The publishing team sheds light on why an important new feature advertised on the eShop comes as a complete SURPRISE, without even multiple asterisks indicating that the feature will come later in an update.
One of the reasons this worries us is that WRC 10 also promises “an exceptional competitive e-sport, with daily and weekly clubs and challenges for you to create its own contest,” a statement that remains on the game’s eShop description to this day. No online features have been added to WRC 10, though, which leaves us feeling a bit misleading. The idea of frequent challenges would be a great way to extend the life of the game, so their absence – both in the previous game and now in Generations – is a huge disappointment. .
Therefore, given what happened last time, we will not doubt the benefit of WRC Generation and just assume that Tournaments will be added to the WRC Generation Transition version anytime soon, although advertised. It’s been ruled out weeks after the actual launch with no explanation at best a sign of poor communication and at worst a case of the mode being abandoned and left with false advertising. As soon as we receive a response, we will update this review accordingly.
For now, though, let’s assume that Generations won’t have any online games, and at the very least, you definitely shouldn’t buy games based on the promise of regular online competitive leaderboards – at this stage. This part of the game’s lifecycle, it’s simply not a feature.
Quite an offline-only experience instead, WRC Generations is similar to its Switch predecessors in that it looks raw (especially in handheld mode) and has a solid handling system. too sensitive, requires quite a bit of tuning and practice. We just hope that Codemasters and EA decide to keep the Switch in their plans when it takes over the WRC license, because otherwise it would be a not-so-good ending for the Nintendo console game. .
Conclusion
WRC Generations marks the end of a series of games that never really hit the airspeed on the Switch. Like its predecessors, its interface is average, and despite the abundance of content, it’s hard to enjoy it to the fullest due to how many compromises you have to make. After a lot of time spent with it, you will eventually start to see results, but this is probably a game that requires players to compromise too much to appeal to anyone but the most avid fans.
