Descenders, the downhill mountain bike racer, has been on our radar for nearly two years now. We first reported on the game coming to Switch way back in July 2017. Later in August publisher No More Robots told us the response had been 'incredible', but in March the following year (after the PC release in February 2018) we heard that developer RageSquid was prioritising the PS4 and Xbox One ports and that the Switch version would take "a lot of work" to get right.
After that things went worryingly quiet, although thankfully that seems to be due to the hard work going into the port - the above trailer appears to signal that the Switch version is nearing completion. It's certainly been a long time coming on Switch and we're still lacking a solid release date.
Going into detective mode for a moment, Not Tonight: Take Back Control Edition is scheduled to be publisher No More Robots' first Switch release and that's coming "within a few months", so hopefully we'll see Descenders skidding downhill before the end of the year, at least.
With the subtitle 'Extreme - Procedural - Freeriding', the trailer gives us the sort of feeling we'd hope to get from a 1080 Snowboarding or Excitebike 64. Whether it can live up to those lofty standards is a question to come, but it's good to see Descenders still alive and kicking on Switch and we're excited to see how it holds up on Nintendo's console.
Excited to see Descenders still Switch-bound? Have you played the game elsewhere? Let us know if it's something to look forward to below.
Comments 21
Nice, I hope it can measure up to the near perfection of Downhill Domination! Actually, I wish someone would port Downhill Domination to Switch! As long as they preserve the 60fps smoothness of the PS2 original : )
Whatever happened to that Lonely Mountains game being put out by Thunderful? That game looks way more compelling than this.
As an avid mountain biker and past downhill racer, I hope they can get the animation right. A lot of what’s shown in the trailer just doesn’t look right. The whips for example look very stiff and initiated when the rider is already in the air, where in reality, a whip is really generated on the take off of the jump. It’s still on my radar and I’m hoping it’ll be a fun time though.
Wow, this game looks so fun! I wonder what sacrifices the Nintendo Switch version will have, if any.
I hope this game goes downhill, fast!
You get what I mean!
@Dijita I play the game on PC (have around 400 hours clocked in) and I can tell you that this is the early access footage. the physics has been tweaked since then. like they added in a new trick system back in october 2018. but the thing about this game is that it is heavily physics based. so to do proper whips you have to learn how to do them yourself. mainly because the game uses both joysticks. the left is to steer/ rotate in the air, and the right stick is used to tweak, pump, counter pump, and to jump. This is one of those games that you will not be good at when you start playing it for the first time. and can take time getting used to the physics.
@60frames-please downhill domination is class still play it to this day
I’m a huge sucker for extreme sports games. From Tony Hawk to Steep. But I had no idea this game existed until now. It looks really great. Hope it runs well, and doesn’t run choppy.
@dogtorque Thanks for the response. That sounds promising to me. 😊
@SpicyBurrito16 Steep RIP. Glad this one is actually coming to the Switch
If this is 1080° with bikes instead of snowboards, but all of the love and fun, I'm very much interested.
@Gs69 Yeah, I played it about 9 months ago on a PS2 using a component cable to an HD TV and it looked and played beautifully. It's a testament to the greatness of 60fps graphics and perfectly tuned gameplay!
Hope this turns out good. Very interested
@60frames-please you’re right that’s how I set my ps2 up burnout revenge plays amazingly well too in 480p on component and of course 60fps
That looks incredible! This has gone instantly to the top of my most anticipated list.
@Dijita
Nice to know someone else on here jumps some bikes : )
I like a bmx & some transitions just fine : )
@Woomy_NNYes nice! I used to BMX but found the transition from small to big whee always jarring. I still jump me some bikes but got myself a dirt jumper for that purpose. high five
@Gs69 Yeah! Burnout 2, Burnout 3, Gran Tourismo 3, Gran Tourismo 4 (which can even run at 1080i and looks incredible, way better than any realistic car racing game on Switch!), Ape Escape 2, Grand Prix Challenge, SSX Tricky, Outrun 2006, Wipeout Fusion, Klonoa 2 and many more all look amazing and run at 60fps. I don't understand why so many games since the PS3 and Xbox 360 generation look so bad and run so choppy. Oh, and one more awesome 60fps PS2 game, Sky Odyssey. Great flight game!
@Dijita
I started with bmx. College was a bit of MTB and MTB trials. But I really missed doing turndowns, and someone had a 6ft mini halfpipe locally, so I went back to bmx.
Have you played Trials Rising or Fusion? On the outside chance you hadn't tried one of the Ubisoft Trials games, I HIGHLY recommend it, especially since Trials Rising has the tutorials in the game called "Trials University", which helped me get to the Extreme difficulty levels. The bike jumping & handling physics are pretty on point. My brother and I spent tens of hours taking turns getting gold medal runs.
From the look of it I can see why it would take so long to get right on Switch. 😮
I have a feeling this may be getting a physical release via super rare games. If so I will buy it.
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