Super Street: Racer
Super Street: Racer Sees The Gas Tank Half Full
I’ve talked about classic titles, personal favorites, newer titles, and underrated gems many times before with the general opinion for each review is a largely positive response. The truth is, I’m a player who is very easy to please in that even if the game is horrible, I’ll try my best to look at the game’s positives.
Very rarely does a game have zero positives going for it for me to tear into and fortunately for Super Street: Racer, it continues the trend as there are a lot of positive traits to mention. However, it’s not so much for the game itself, but because of the platform that the game is on.
Super Street: Racer is the Switch version of Super Street: The Game, which is a game that I feel I may need to cover separately from this game as the differences between the two titles are massive enough that they are individual entities.
A Port That Does It Better Than The Original
In many ways, Racer is its own identity cut from the same cloth as the original Super Street. The latter being a mediocre racing game that was ambitious in bringing back the glory days of Need For Speed Underground. Unfortunately, it was plagued with glitches and shoddy handling upon launch.
A year later in 2019, Team6 released a major patch in Super Street: The Game, adding content and gameplay improvements including the way the cars were handled. On launch, there was much resistance to how the cars were handled, making the game feel more slidey and less responsive. Fortunately for the Switch version, Super Street: Racer is based on the updated patch, making the game a much more complete experience upon release.
Super Street: Racer Goes From Junkyard Dog to Racetrack Legend
At the beginning of the game, the player chooses a beater car from a used auto shop, intending to turn the banged-up ride into a street-bred racing monster by earning money through various racing events. The game’s campaign mode, if it could be called that, consists of going through different leagues, winning events to race money, and earn respect to move on to the next league leading up to the finale, the “Super Street” league.
The races lack any major form of diversity, including your standard typical circuit racing, point-to-point sprints, lap knockouts, and an obstacle course-like mode where the objective is to cause as much destruction as possible. Occasionally, there are time trial events and a one-on-one duel mode, known as a “Boss” race. Except for the destruction game mode, the selection of races is safe and up to par with other similar racers on the Switch, but compared to Super Street: The Game, many game modes are missing.
Incredible Customization For A Portable Racer
This isn’t a bad thing as minus the inclusion of a free-roam mode for the Switch, which would be an interesting addition for the mobile version. Despite that, the lack of game modes compared to the PC and console versions is not a detriment towards Racer, as the main campaign flows a lot better without pointless game modes breaking the monotony. While the Switch version had to cut corners to make the game work for the handheld device, it ironically trimmed the fat that made the console versions slow in pacing in comparison.
The major selling point of Super Street: The Game was the in-depth car customization, which is also retained in Super Street: Racer in its full glory. As the player wins more money, players can buy parts including engine upgrades, turbo, superchargers, suspensions, tires, and many more. Anything that can be thought of as a car part is more than likely in the game, including various licensed aftermarket brands including HKS, Greddy, NOS, and many more.
Build Your Dream Ride --- Then Destroy it
The transformation from a junkyard car to a street racer that looks like something from a Fast and Furious movie is fulfilling to achieve, almost like a rags-to-riches story. No two cars are guaranteed to be the same as even the amount of cosmetic options rival that of the Underground series that the game draws much of its inspiration from. There is, however, a lot of humor in taking a beautiful ride you poured thousands of currency in, only to ding a wall slightly and watch your car explode to an exoskeleton.
The damage model in this game is exaggerated to the point that it is comical, although it can quickly turn into mild frustration as cars can get totaled with enough damage. The variable in which a car is totaled is seemingly random as the lightest tap can be enough to lose precious time while several hard shunts will do almost nothing at times.
Super Street: Racer’s Difficult Isn’t All There
The difficulty is also inconsistent as the CPU is amusingly aggressive, to the point that it becomes detrimental to the AI themselves. A perfect example that happened was during my playthrough against a Boss race. The boss’s car was leagues better than mine as it was close to stock and it was enough for the CPU to pull away almost immediately.
The problem is that the boss AI was doing everything it could to push me out of the way as fast as possible, often crashing into walls and totaling out. Sometimes the AI follows a decent resemblance of a racing line, but more often than not, the AI only knows how to go fast whether it ends in a car crash or self-sabotage. This makes races too easy as all the player needs to do is drive with an inkling of sense.
Super Street: Racer -- A Rather Lonely Single-Player Experience
Unfortunately, the lack of online multiplayer means that players will complete the game in no time. Its short campaign does it no favors as well. The number of currency players will obtain within the midway point of the game outpaces the game itself. This means that players will quickly max out their ride’s performance. A faster ride early on means the difficulty gap widens between the player and the bumbling AI.
Despite the bugs, something is enticing about playing Switch versions of existing video games. Chances are, I’ll have an enjoyable experience playing it on the Nintendo device over its “superior” generation counterparts. While the Switch may have lesser specifications than its competition, it's in a league by itself as a handheld. Playing the leading titles of video games within the comfort of one’s bed or commute adds a sense of fulfillment. The one where I’m playing console-quality games without sacrificing much for convenience.
One Of The “Better” Realistic Racers On The Switch --- “On The Switch”
Super Street: Racer is a solid recommendation whenever it goes on sale. Occasionally, I've seen it discounted as low as $11, which is a fair price. As racing titles on the Switch are scarce outside of the obvious Mario Kart 8 Deluxe, Super Street: Racer is a valid racing game in a rather shallow pool of available racing titles for the Switch. That aside, the game is middling at best and repetitive at worst.
Super Street: Racer is now available on the Nintendo Switch.