Review: WRC 10

By: Laura Collins (Blu3Rizing

Developer: KT Racing

Publisher: Nacon

Platforms: PC (Microsoft Windows), PlayStation 4|5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S, Nintendo Switch

Just in time to be here for the 50th anniversary of the World Rally Championship and give us a taste of the action before the event itself begins, we’ve been given WRC 10: The Official Game. The game’s team was kind enough to provide me with a look at the Nintendo Switch version of the game.

Admittedly, I was more than a little overwhelmed when I first launched WRC 10 for the first time. There was so much content and information in the menus, so much to learn and do; it was hard to know where to start. Thankfully the game does have something like a mini-tutorial, just enough to get your toes wet but leaving you space to figure out most of it on your own.

There’s a learning curve, and it’s steep, even with the ability to dial down the difficulty level for most parts of the game. With most racing games, I’ve found myself able to pretty much jump in and know what I’m doing within the first few minutes or after a race or two at my absolute worst. Even in the beginning, it can take a bit to learn how to handle the car properly. This challenge only grows as you progress and learn which tires handle on which specific tracks and how they can ultimately interact with other tires to give you the best advantage…or the worst disadvantage if you aren’t sure what you’re doing. Speaking from experience, I’d highly recommend experimenting with this in the beginning as opposed to later in the career mode, where it’s more imperative to have a grasp on such things already.

I was a little sad to see that the Nintendo Switch version didn’t include online multiplayer or clubs, but even without that, there should be more than enough content to keep anyone entertained for a while without missing it much.

There are several modes, including a career mode as well as one celebrating the 50th anniversary of the World Rally Championship. This mode will allow you to race a series of courses and historical challenges from the important key points of years passed. You’ll visit 19 different locations and end up with about 142 courses to race on with 35 vehicles by the time you add legendary cars from the history of the World Rally Championship. Once you get far enough into WRC 10, you also have access to a Private Team Career option, which seems to have not been present in previous WRC games. This option lets you not only build your own racing team but also purchase and design the team car yourself. If you somehow still find yourself looking for an extra challenge, manufacturers will still give you extra goals or conditions as a bonus objective for some of the races.

I will admit there are a few graphical and performance issues you will find yourself facing. The loading times can be a little rough if you’re an impatient person, and you may find some questionable spots within the frame rates of the environment whilst you are racing. (Don’t worry, the cars are still pretty.) This is likely because WRC 10 is a lot to pack into a console like the Nintendo Switch that lacks the capabilities of PC and other consoles. There’s no doubt that it plays better in docked mode, but no one can deny how valuable portability is. If you can get past this, there’s the potential to have a racing game you can really throw some time into and opens the door for future potential interest in more games on the Nintendo Switch of the same genre.