#RaceDieRun review for Nintendo Switch

Despite #RaceDieRun?s modern-sounding name, it feels like it owes its existence to a pair of much older games.

The first is obvious: it presents itself as a futuristic racer, so the comparison to F-Zero (or, I guess, Wipeout, if you want something a little more modern) feels almost perfunctory. This has some merit, since you?re piloting a hovering racecar, but seeing as it?s a single-player game, and you?re really only racing against yourself, it doesn?t quite capture what this game is all about.

No, to really get an understanding of #RaceDieRun, you need to look to Battletoads. More specifically, you need to look at those near-impossible Turbo Tunnel levels, which are less about racing and more about getting your timing just right as the world zooms past you. Obviously, #RaceDieRun looks a whole lot more modern. But its devotion to killing players as much as possible via annoyingly-placed rock walls could have been lifted straight out the adventures of Rash, Zitz, and Pimple.

Of course, that leads to the question of why anyone would want to play #RaceDieRun. At best, I think, most people found those levels to be an exercise in frustration, something that you?d tolerate because the rest of the game was so much fun. Now just imagine an entire game full of those levels, and you can see why #RaceDieRun manages to hit the not-so-sweet-spot between frustrating and painfully repetitive.

In the game?s defense, it does what it sets out to do relatively well. The controls are as tight as they need to be — which, in this case, is quite a bit, since you have to make all kinds of tight turns.

But just because it?s fine for what it is doesn?t make #RaceDieRun any more interesting. Unless you have a masochistic desire to crash a whole bunch, your interest in being challenged will probably wane long, long before this game is over.

Qubic Games provided us with a #RaceDieRun Switch code for review purposes.