When it comes to racing games on the Switch, I’ll continue to hold onto the hope we’ll finally begin to see them showing up with greater regularity. If I had my druthers though, I’d additionally ask the gaming gods to make sure at least half of those are combat racers as well. Sure, some sim-style racing can be fun, and I’ll never turn down some high-speed arcade-style insanity, but for me there’s nothing quite as much fun as having the option to either out-race my opponents or to simply destroy them. With that in mind, in theory a title with an emphasis on bulky vehicles and some rocket-powered carnage would be a perfect match. Unfortunately, in this case it’s not quite as pleasingly intense as I would hope though.

Starting with what works, if you simply want to get on the track and enjoy some pretty bite-sized races that keep things simple, this does deliver on that promise. Granted, it looks like it was optimized for systems a generation or more ago, no doubt tied to the game’s mobile roots, but if quick and relatively intense is your favorite gear, this valiantly tries to scratch that itch. Another positive is that while everyone on the track will be chasing the same pretty limited power-ups, you’ll get to choose your base inclination to work with, whether that’s being a speedster, focusing on contact, or simply lighting everyone else up with firepower. I, myself, am a firepower kind of guy, and at least early on it was fun to have the power to end races quickly by simply obliterating the competition by generally staying focused on picking up every missile power-up in sight.

The problem is that while that can make for a few quick bites of a satisfying snack, it struggles mightily if you’re hoping for a meal. The mobile roots are heavily on display, inviting you to participate in what they hope will be a daily grind, working to gain a variety of currencies and getting partial unlocks for new rides and improvements. The thing is, more often than not once I really got my vehicle of choice properly tuned up, I found that most races didn’t make for much, if any, competition or challenge. The underlying one-note flavor of gameplay really begins to come through, and while chained successes can be sort of fun, it also starts to become clear that at best all that awaits is more of the same with different packaging. By no means is this a bad game, it just has very clear limits, and if you’re expecting rewarding play this may stall out well short of that finish line.