Not many people know this guys, but I secretly love racing games. They are definitely my guilty pleasure, especially arcade-yish ones. They calm me, since so many games are all about action, flashing lights and all the bells and whistles now a days. So, I was more than happy to review Gear.Club Unlimited 2, as the Switch is also my console where I go when I just want to sit and chill out, it’s a marriage made in heaven.

Gear.Club Unlimited 2, newly released on the Nintendo Switch by Eden Games, is a surprising edition to the collection. While the original was a pretty satisfactory arcade racer, I in no mind thought it would develop a community of players that liked it enough to warrant a sequel. Yet here we are.

The campaign this time round attempts a somewhat weak story. As usual, you, a test driver must stand in for a M.I.A pro driver and take your manager and pit crew to the world series. Pretty average stuff, that I neither felt obligated to care about nor did it interest me in the slightest enough to invest. In fact, the ugly character animations that slide into view often distracted me from the actually quite pretty cars in the background.

In Campaign mode, just like the previous game, you must rank up, earn credits doing races and build your XP to unlock areas and buy upgrades. The aim is to finish races in different areas, buy new cars for another area, race again. It is a very tried and tested lather, rinse, repeat method used in most racing games but still mind numbingly enjoyable.

You have the opportunity again to build your own performance centre with different workshops such as tires, engine, cosmetics etc. to upgrade your car. While the workshops are almost exactly the same, just with updated animations, one difference this time is their addition of a decals bay to attempt to add more customisation to your cars. Different levels of stickers required a certain amount of grinding, that to be blunt, didn’t look good enough to even warrant trying to unlock them.

You can still reverse time when you get into a jam like the prior game and grind achievements, and while happily playing I couldn’t help keep thinking it is all is just so much the same. What actually was different? Not too much sadly, but it was noticeably a lot shinier.

The environments were a lot more detailed this time round, and actually interesting to look at. It felt rough on gravel, it felt like you were ever so slightly sliding out on the snowy tracks and the graphics are fresher. The upgrades too also felt like that they actually made some improvement to your ride and performance in the races to come. Due to these visual upgrades, I found it took a bit longer to load scenes. I was also sad to see it also still didn’t include any cosmetic damage when crashing into others or barriers. It was just a nice touch that I feel racing games need.

It also comes with an Online and Multiplayer modes. Online unfortunately is coming soon so only time will tell how that fairs. As for Multiplayer, it comes with split screen which adds family value fun, especially docked and playing on the television. I personally don’t like playing with the two joycons as they are small and finicky, but I love that it is an option and the game plays well in this mode with little latency, but that is more a Switch gripe than the game. They also have clubs and leagues you can join online. These Nintendo clubs are created by users and friends and group people with similar interests.

Overall, Gear.Club Unlimited 2 wasn’t a bad time, to be honest I actually enjoyed it, but I only enjoyed it because it was so much like the last one. Upon further reflection, the game really didn’t add anything of real value to me that would make me want to buy a sequel. Would I hand over my hard-earned cash for just a rehash of visual upgrades? Definitely not, however if you have never played a Gear.Club title, Id probably start here.

Written by: Stacey