Thank you Nacon for sending us this game to review! WRC 10 The Official Game on Nintendo Switch is a ported and reduced version of WRC 10 FIA World Rally Championship that was released last year on PC and the more powerful consoles. This Switch version is remarkable in several ways - both with what was kept compared to its bigger cousins, and what was removed to fit on Nintendo's diminutive console. It's also a sequel to WRC 9 (and 8). Graphically and otherwise, it has many of the same compromises that WRC 9 for Nintendo Switch did, while updating it for this latest release. WRC 10 that I reviewed on PC was my favorite of the recent WRC releases, because of the many new courses and anniversary cars available celebrating the 50th year of the WRC. This Nintendo Switch version keeps the new features, retaining the essence of the experience while trimming down some of the things the Switch can't handle while maintaining a reasonable quality level of the experience otherwise. For those who haven't played a Rally racing game before, WRC 10 The Official Game is a 3D racing game where you can drive over one hundred and twenty different courses, racing against the clock, as you try to maneuver through tarmac, gravel, mud, and snow, through all kinds of weather and terrain challenges. It is also the official game of the real-life WRC league, and the levels are faithful recreations of real locations and tracks, and I believe the racers you complete against are real, also. During a race, you have a co-driver who gives you a heads up as to what is coming up next, as without his help, you could find yourself off of a cliff in a hurry, at speeds ranging from one to one hundred+ miles-per-hour. One thing I noticed is that your co-driver can occasionally react to mistakes or successes, like yelling 'Yes!' if you are doing really well, or 'Woah!' if you make a mistake. It's a subtle gesture that makes it feel more real - and also made me laugh. Thankfully, the physics and handling feel truly excellent, and seem realistic to this untrained player. It's also more difficult to tell because I am used to playing WRC games on my PC with a racing wheel, but when played via controller, the physics seemed substantially similar to when I played on PC via controller, with the caveat that the default control scheme uses the Switch's digital triggers for acceleration. Many Switch gamers change the acceleration/braking to use the right stick because it's analog, and that's a pretty good plan. I do not believe the Switch has any racing wheels available, so if you want that kind of simulation experience, I recommend getting this game on a more powerful console or PC instead of the Switch. (Looking it up there is a very basic racing wheel for Switch designed for Mario Kart, but it's nothing like the PC/Xbox/PlayStation equivalents that admittedly cost a lot more.) Like previous WRC games, this one attempts to offer you most of the races that the official WRC teams compete on in real life. The locations on offer here are based on their real-life counterparts, and this new Anniversary mode is quite remarkable - but you'd better be really good. Though I have started to get better in career mode races, I am nowhere close to being good enough to match or exceed world-record settings times with no advantages. That's what Anniversary mode expects of you, and it's no cakewalk.

You see, in these Anniversary races, you replay the same course and in the same vehicle that the original racers did in their time. The earliest courses start in 1973, and continue through to nearly the present day. While it might seem like it should be easy to beat the winner of the very first WRC, the fact that you are limited like they were, and use their vehicle, shows just how good they truly were. If you aren't good enough, this feature is all but locked out for you. On the plus side, you still get to play Anniversary Races in career mode, so you still get to experience what those older racers went through, even if victory and its spoils may seem out of reach. Thankfully, career mode is quite well fleshed out, and very enjoyable. It hasn't substantially changed since WRC 8 or 9, but the Anniversary Races are a nice new addition that adds a certain something to the otherwise similar game mode, and it's well appreciated. Given the removal of the online modes in the Switch version, I feel Career mode is a great way to enjoy WRC 10. Though I must say that you are reminded constantly of the Switch's limitations. These show up not only in races with lower-detail environments, but the fonts in the Career mode are very hard to see on a handheld Switch, and frame rates drop dramatically even when moving around the Career mode menus, as your camera pans around the room while dropping frames all over the place. Starting as a new driver, you work with your corporate sponsor (it usually starts as Ford), trying to win race after race. At the end of each season, you have the opportunity to choose a new contract; if you have taken enough opportunities to drive manufacturer tryouts, you may be offered a chance to switch to a new car brand, or to a new league. Like many games with a career mode, you get to manage your budget, repairs, and your crew. Money is easy to come by, as long as you are willing to replay levels as often as you need to in order to win each race. Outside of just repairs, crew also help you be more efficient. Better Mechanics allow you to repair more in between races on a multi-day rally than a poor mechanic would be able to. Their salary costs a bit more, but it's more than worth it in earning potential. Speaking of which, Financial Directors help you be more efficient with your money, by earning more and spending less. Engineers help you gain more experience, which helps you level up your team's skills. Physical Therapists help keep your crew energy levels high; if they get exhausted, you have to hire another to take their place. Agents help you get rare and valuable races, and Meteorologists help you determine the weather, which is far more useful than you might think, since you need to pick a set of tires for an entire day of races, and making the wrong choice can kill traction. There are other team member roles as well, and there aren't enough slots on your team (at least by default) to have one of everything, so making those tradeoffs is all part of the fun. You can also gain levels. Each level you gain grants you a skill point to allocate, and by doing so, you can improve one of four areas: Team, Crew, Performance, and Reliability. You also get to reply to emails (yes, more work!) and even pay the bills. If that wasn't enough, you get to set your own calendar, to an extent - certain days are big rallies, that you can't skip. But in between them you can rest (for the crew to recover), perform maintenance, train, do an anniversary race, practice in extreme conditions, manufacturer tryouts, or perhaps some other event that is escaping me. These all give you plenty to do and keep the game from getting too boring or repetitive, though at the end of the day most events are more racing, in one form or another. You can also customize your ride to an extent. While you can't change the looks (at least to the point I got to), you can adjust the suspension, differential, brakes, transmission, and aerodynamics. You can save profiles to help optimize for each road type, and choose them when you race. This, in addition to tires, should be enough for most needs.

Other modes you can choose to play include a simplified Season mode, where all of the crew management is all removed; you just go from one rally to the next, eventually getting promoted based on your performance. There is the perennial Quick Play, which simply lets you choose your track, category, and vehicle. From there, you can have a race without consequences - just have fun. In the 'Skill development section, there is a Test Area where you can drive and car on a test track in any car with any weather you choose. There is also a Training mode which helps you get better at certain driving skills. Challenges is the final mode, and you go through a bunch of planned levels with times (or distances) to beat to get a bronze, silver, or gold medal. As I mentioned before, the Nintendo Switch port is both amazing and lacking. In one sense, it's absolutely amazing how much of this game, from the full-fat versions, made it into a tiny handheld console! It's certainly the best way to play this game on the go - unless you are blessed with some of the powerful handheld PCs that are on the market these days, like the Steam Deck. (While not officially supported on Linux/SteamOS, it works pretty well for me with some tweaking, so the PC version should run on Deck.) It's also a bit over 14GB, which can take quite a chunk out of your console's system memory or microSD card. While the load times can be long, it's understandable. Most of the main game modes are all accounted for outside of anything multiplayer. The graphics took a huge hit with the port to Nintendo Switch. In some sense it's understandable - racing games generally need to run at at least 30 frames per second (fps) in order to be enjoyable, and that frame rate has to be rock solid, or players will be able to feel stutters during gameplay. But what surprised me is that it's noticeably lower than even the PC version's graphical fidelity when everything is set to the lowest settings. What this means is that they had to create an all-new graphical preset that is even lower than what integrated graphics can handle on PCs. I did a recent stream comparing the Switch and PC versions of WRC 10, and while I do believe each WRC game has been getting slightly better, most of the limitations are generally similar. Check out the side-by-side comparison embedded in this review. Most of the environmental items, like trees, fences, and so on, are rendered at much lower resolutions. The sky is empty, with no clouds to speak of. The grass is missing most, if not all, foliage. The dirt, hills, and other parts of the environment also have dramatically reduced polygon counts. These, all together, make the game look not just a bit dated, but generations out of date. While I know this isn't entirely accurate, my first thought was 'wow - does that look like Wii-level graphics?' Thankfully, the solid frame rate, tons of content, and ability to play this on the go largely makes up for this. Just keep your expectations in check. WRC 10 The Official Game takes the foundation laid by the more powerful platforms, like the new tracks, locations, and the really neat Anniversary mode, and also takes the hard work shrinking the game previously explored with WRC 8 and 9, and gives us the latest edition of this portable racing gem on Nintendo Switch. This port to Switch, while some necessary compromises were made, largely plays great. It's also completely appropriate - unless you believe hitting a pedestrian should deserve a higher penalty, or consider driving off of a cliff violent. If you have any interest in rally racing games, I'd recommend sticking with PC or the big brother consoles if that is an option for you. But if not, or you really want to race while on the go, then WRC 10 The Official Game on Switch is an excellent choice.