Burnout Paradise Remastered review for Nintendo Switch

I?d be lying if I said I went into Burnout Paradise Remastered on the Switch with anything in the way of a neutral attitude. After all, I loved Burnout Paradise back when it first came out on PS3 more than a decade ago, and I loved playing the Remastered version on other current gen systems. Really, all the game had to do was run on the Switch, and I?d be a happy man.

It works. I?m happy with it. The end.

Okay, I?ll write a little more than that. I should probably concede that even if Burnout Paradise runs on the Switch, it doesn?t always run perfectly smoothly. There are moments, particularly when you?re going very fast, that the world around you looks a little blurry and blocky. I mean, looking blurry at high speeds is kind of the point of a racing game, but in this case, it?s because you get the sense the system is struggling a little on the visual front to keep up.

But quite frankly, if you?re grading Burnout Paradise Remastered based on its graphics, you?re doing it wrong. This game is all about the crashes — the glorious, metal-twisting, sparks-flying, car-flipping-end-over-end crashes, all in slow motion. And on that front, it delivers.

Of course, how could it not? The great thing about Burnout Paradise — whether in its original incarnation, or in this Remastered version — is that the game sets you free on the streets of Paradise City, and instantly allows you to wreak havoc to your heart?s content. You can drive around on an enormous map that features highways and streets as night turns to day, crashing through fences and billboards, completely ignoring the wide variety of challenges the game offers — or you can take up those challenges, and smash into other cars and race the clock and outrun enemies and do all those other things that make this game such a blast.

And, fortunately, even if the graphics aren?t entirely up to par, the game still performs pretty well. Despite the fact the world (and countless cars) is whizzing by you constantly, you never have to deal with slowdown, nor do you have to deal with particularly onerous loading times. The whole thing just works.

None of this, obviously, will be a surprise to anyone who?s played the original. But if you?ve never experienced Burnout Paradise before — or even if you just want the convenience of having an all-time classic racing game with you everywhere you go — you?re in for a treat with this Remastered version on the Switch. It may be more than a decade old, but time hasn?t diminished it in any way, and it?s still a must-play for anyone who likes a whole lot of destruction in their racing games.

Electronic Arts provided us with a Burnout Paradise Remastered Switch code for review purposes.