Virtua Racing on Switch to feature 8 player split-screen action

[Sonic Angel Knight]

Call me when Daytona usa comes to switch.

 

[Pleng]

YES! I never understood why modern games don't go for 6-8 players locally. The average HDTV is definitely big enough for it!

Probably because there's not much demand for it. I can't imagine there's many people who will ever actually make use of this in Virtua Racing.

 

[Stwert]

How the f*ck did I miss this when it was announced?? Weird. But it’s another one to look forward to I suppose. Been playing it on my 32X quite a bit lately, so I’m definitely in the mood for it.

 

[Pleng]

Call me when Daytona usa comes to switch.

Then throw in Sega Rally (2), and perhaps ManxTT for @AmandaRose, and you have the ultimate Sega Racing console

 

[pedro702]

wouldnt mind getting dreamcast daytona usa,Toy Commander, kao the kangaroo and jet set radio released on switch, i would say stuff like shenmue but i already got the collection on ps4

 

[Rabbid4240]

Because having 8 players use split screen on a tablet is genius

 

[pedro702]

Because having 8 players use split screen on a tablet is genius

you can connect it to an hd tv of any size ...

 

[Rabbid4240]

you can connect it to an hd tv of any size ...

Well, yeah but if you were to do it on a tablet, each screen would be the size of a thumb

 

[DANTENDO]

wouldnt mind getting dreamcast daytona usa,Toy Commander, kao the kangaroo and jet set radio released on switch, i would say stuff like shenmue but i already got the collection on ps4

Shit tht jet set radio was hard really wanted to complete it but couldn't and tht super brother song was a great track may hav to look on ebay and find a dreamcast now

 

[Pleng]

Well, yeah but if you were to do it on a tablet, each screen would be the size of a thumb

So what? I highly doubt any marketing material is going to revolve around 8 people trying to crowd around a tiny 6 inch screen.

 

[Pleng]

It releases on April 25th in Japan. No word of a US or Europe release date yet. I may have to make a Japanese account on my Switch for this!

--------------------- MERGED ---------------------------

So it's releasing for 925 yen... That's about 8 dollars which is a bargain if you ask me.

Apparently they talk of a Grand Prix mode which increases the lap count to 25, and features tyre wear.

Preas releases talk of this being an in game option which changes the arcade board setting so I guess they did go the emulation route as opposed to the source code port. I doubt we'll therefore see the 32X tracks included. Maybe as dlc sometime, if it sells well?

 

[EmulateLife]

I hope they do Naomi/Dreamcast and it gets hacked to play any game you want.

 

[Pleng]

Well I purchased it from the Japanese eshop, which wasn't easy seeing as I don't speak Japanese! Luckily the game UI is in English.

You do just get the arcade tracks. It's definately an emulator. If they found the source code they didn't do much with it; the attract mode still says "Insert Coins" instead of "Press X".

Other than that; it's Virtua Racing!!!! Amazing! If only I hadn't gotten rid of my big TV last week - this would have looked awesome on that

 

[Pleng]

OCD overload: why not 6 or even (odd) 9 (hehe), 8 just doesn't fit on screen....

It's exactly this. 8 controllers Max on the switch.

They should keep it evenly in 3 rows of three, and just have the very middle slot be a minimap.

As well as the issue of controllers, of course, there's the fact that this is an emulation of the original arcade machine, which could only handle 8 players. As they had the source code and were able to make changes such as frame rate and draw distance, I assume they could have technically altered the game to feature a ninth player - but that would have been an awful lot of work for the amount of people who'd use the feature anyway. And as there is the controller issue anyway the whole point is moot; I just thought it was worth mentioning.

I've played the game pretty much every day since I've had it. It's a great game to play for a quick race or two between Tetris 99 sessions. I think I only ever played the arcade game once in my entire life, so my comparisons are to the Megadrive and 32X versions. The graphics are of course miles ahead of either of those two games. The analogue controls are also really nice. I do wish the Switch had analogue triggers to enable a more precise feel with acceleration and braking. There are options in-game for mapping the second analogue to gas/break, but I haven't tried that yet - it still leaves the issue of beaing able to stamp both pedals down at the same time. Every button is completely mappable apart from X which, bizzarely can be mapped to any of the view angles, or to flip between the view points, but can't be mapped to the gas or break pedal. I have no idea why this is.

The Grand Prix mode features brutal tyre wear; I think it must be sponsored by Pirelli because after 5 laps you're left with pretty much no grip - this is particularly gruelling on the Bay Bridge track as there's no pit lane! On the other two tracks I normally pit between laps 8 and 11 for some fresh polygons.

The online mode is a big disappointment, and I can see why it was limited to just two players now. What I assume they've done is just emulated the physical link between the two cabinets; unfortunately the game is expecting the latency to be almost zero with a physical link and had no intelligent compensation code. There's massive loads of slow down and the controls can get laggy as to be unplayable - sometimes the frame rate drops to maybe 10+fps and it feels like you're driving on ice. In fact it's worse than that; the car seems to respond to your movements as if it were in a position it hasn't yet arrived to. It's difficult to explain. It should be tried just for the "experience", but don't be buying this if you're looking forward to online battling. I wonder if they should have concentrated their efforts more on local multi-switch multiplayer and just forgotten the online aspect all together.

All in all it's a fantastic game. The first couple of days of playing it I was in awe of the fact that I was finally holding an arcade-perfect rendition of Virtua Racing in my hands. A perfect cocktail of nostalgia and actually enjoying a damn fine game (2 ingredients; technically that's a mixer, not a cocktail...).

It's without a doubt my favourite game on my Switch. That's not to say it's the most-played game by a long shot. Three tracks can only give you so much enjoyment so, while other games are played more often, none of them release quite as many endorphins as a quick blast round Big Forrest, Bay Bridge or Acropolis. I hope it sells well and convinces Sega to press ahead with Daytona and Sega Rally; and maybe even recreate the 32X Virtua Racing Deluxe tracks as DLC for this game.

 

[Deleted User]

Nice to see Virtua Racing get some love. Hopefully M2 can also work on more Model 1/2 ports for the Switch; seeing Virtua Fighter and Daytona USA running on it would be insanely cool. Maybe even some Saturn ports, if we're lucky.

 

[Pleng]

Was on the (UK) eshop today to preorder Mario Maker and it says that Virtua Racing is due to release today for those who haven't already got it from the Japanese shop