MotoGP 18 Has Raced Its Way Onto Nintendo Switch, Available Today

I've played it on handheld so far. Good news, and bad (bear in mind, this is 3 laps worth of play in 'tutorial').

It looks like hot garbage and I think Reddit in particular are going to kill it. I wouldnt like to say what the res is, but its like 320 or something lol. Can barely make out any details on your rider.

Preface this with the fact I'm by no means a graphics elitist and very much a Switch apologist. I thought Doom looked and ran brilliantly for example, whilst most of Reddit crapped on it from a great height. Once you are riding along, I really dont think its an issue - but as I say, take that with a pinch. You have to realise its not going to be 1080, especially handheld.

I believe from what I've seen that docked looks better - I wont be able to test this right now.

Now... the good. I think it runs really well so far. Smooth frame rate (felt like a solid 30 - but again, only me on track so wait to see what a race is like) and controls felt snappy enough.

In summary, despite the horrid vasoline-ish handheld visuals, I enjoyed it A LOT....

Oh and load times seemed fine.

EDIT: Tried a grand prix at USA with a field of 16 and all seemed fine. FPS was solid and ran fine. Still ultra low resolution though.

@pbb76 Thanks for that - I had similar problems with NBA playgrounds where it looked very blurry to me.

Interestingly, the one thing that doesn’t get mentioned much with the Switch, is that it seems the built-in upscaling /anti-aliasing is at least really good - you do get the blur which is unavoidable if the res is low, but it’s a smooth look as opposed to giant pixels.

if it's that bad portable that just shows the switch is somewhere probably south of say a ps3 when handheld.

i skip games like this. i'd like a good racer on the switch but it seems handheld just can't cope. so close but so far.

really really need a switch upgrade. it was fine when the gba, ds were hot garbage but the switch is so close to being able to do decent graphics but still so far.

maybe this isn't indicative. i'd still like to see something like burnout paradise. should look like a ps3 handheld which would be perfectly fine to me. dumping the res down to nothing is not going to cut it and if it HAS to be played docked; then ps4 or steam link.

Ok tried docked now. Its not that much better - definitely a resolution bump (not much lol) but I did notice a couple of stutters that I'm pretty sure were not there handheld.

Overall, for me at least, I'm happy with it. Feels like a technical achievement to get something like this on Switch and run more or less solidly smooth. Yes it looks awful and I have no doubts people are going to crap all over it, but the actual racing itself I've found really exciting so far and its just brilliant to have a sim on the Switch!!

$39.99 / £49.99.
Really??
Now that’s a UK switch tax in action.

Silent/sneaky release doesn't usually bode to well.

@sword_9mm

Not really an "apples for apples" comparison I would say.

@pbb76 Thanks for reporting in with your findings so far, man! With the game costing only $39.99 compared to the UK’s £49.99 I’m really interested in this.

As a biker who loves the real MotoGP (well, in the days of 125, 250 and 500cc classes at least), I’ve been eager to see how this is, but considering I pretty much exclusively play in handheld, I’m not so sure now. At least it runs real good.

@Bod2019 Not really a stealth release! LOL Its been on the 'coming soon' section of the eshop for ages and they've released no end of teaser trailers on YT for the Switch version.

NL even did a 'behind the scenes' video for it a while back. Its hardly dropped out of nowhere today!

@pbb76

I know, I saw a lot of those things your referring to, but it feels like, to me, that they have just woke up this morning and decided let them have it today. Instead of a more traditional confirmed release date.

@EasyDaRon

well that's a pickle. i'd rather not buy and not see another one if they continue with these shoddy ports.

N NEEDS to get an update to the switch out asap imo. it was already too old to be released when it was. i REALLY wish they'd pick up a partnership with apple for their arm chips. best in the business with those things. no company should trust nvidia for anything imo. they'll just bail and leave N having to scramble anyway if N ever cares about updating the thing in the first place.

First person view available?

@Audiobrainiac Not tried it myself, but yes I assume so as there is a button for camera views.

@Bod2019 I'm not sure what your beef is with it? Its had 28/6 release date for ages!?

@pbb76 I hope so. Please comment back if u find out for sure.

@Audiobrainiac I'll go check for you.

@Audiobrainiac Yup, 2 first person views in

@pbb76 SOLD. Thanks

The game plays good enough in handheld mode, better in docked, but the rain effects are just terrible. I didn't expect it to go toe-to-toe with the PS4 and Xbox 1 versions, but still...

Hefty update for it already, I see.

@pbb76

No beef, I'll admit I didn't know it had this date pencilled in. The article here made it sound like it was just driopped with no pre-warning.

If the game plays as well as you've suggested I'll be going for it as I have been craving a decent racer.

WHAAAT? But, but...I wasn't ready. Will get next friday.

The ports seem halfhearted so far, but I'm glad Milestone is at least trying. Will buy this to support their efforts. Hopefully they are selling well enough to warrant more optimization in future releases, but bikes are already a niche thing to begin with.

Played it some more, and despite what seems to be a slight frame rate drop due to the raindrops, I recommend this as Milestone's finest Switch outing to date (and I liked their previous two games also, but this one is faster for sure, and looks better too), even if it makes the Switch very warm. 8/10

I never quite get why some people think if a game/port looks like crap on Switch, it's Nintendo's fault for not making it powerful enough, although there are many beautiful and smooth-running games on Switch.

Some devs put in the work, others just phone it in.

@Dualmask or too be fair to them, perhaps just not as talented as other devs. Doesn’t mean they are lazy or phoned it in. Not all devs are as talented as others.

@pbb76 you're right, what I said was overly harsh. I certainly know nothing about porting games.

Is this the Switch's first track racing sim? This doesn't look bad. Not bad at all...

@GrailUK yep it is. There was Gear.Club but that was more street tracks, albeit a more serious take compared to say Mario Kart. If you can ignore the smeary graphics then it certainly plays well.

Watching football at the moment but certainly thinking about the next time I’m going to play it excitedly.

@pbb76 sorry to be another person asking you questions. Would you say the eShop Screen Shots are representative of the Switch version ?

I knew this was going to be crap. We saw everything we needed to know with their last motorbike game on Switch

@Gerald No, they are ripped straight from the other consoles photo mode. Each version on each store has the same screenshots.

Certainly interested in a good motorcycle racing game... I just wish this was good.

@Gerald Just had another look and no, absolutely not. Really naughty really for Nintendo to allow it. Look to be high res PC shots, Switch nothing like that.

Perhaps if you squint tight and look at them again, that would be more representative!

@JaxonH Who’s said its crap? It’s fun to play.

@pbb76
I said its crap.

You can have fun playing catch with turds in the lawn, too. Doesnt mean it ain't crap.

@Hughesy @pbb76
Thank you both for your feedback. Thought it was too good to be true

@Gerald Its still not bad considering the amount of bikes on screen and the physics involved. Even on Xbox One X it's not mind blowing, although compared to 17 it's a big improvement as they moved go unreal engine.

Unless you're a Moto GP fan it's probably not worth it, but I'm a huge fan and go to watch it at Silverstone each year, so for me it's essential. I got it for free on Xbox so I also bought the Switch version, as a portable version I think it's good, much better than it was on PS Vita.

@Dualmask

some devs do yes but i would expect a switch game, in portable or docked to look as good as a ps3 game.

this doesn't. if a game like forza or gt can be released and look good on the 360/ps3 then there's no excuse for that to not be the case on the switch. sadly it looks like that is the case UNLESS the devs are just lazy/not very good at optimization.

@sword_9mm Milestone are a small studio, go look at their work on PS3 and 360, they never compared well to Forza or Codemasters Dirt series.

@pbb76 - many thanks for the comments!

my question - how good are the controls with sim mode and hand-held? This game on home consoles gives you sweaty hands with a lot of manuals switched on. Does the game feel OK to play and not a knuckle-twister (if you get what I mean? 😀)

@pbb76 @Dualmask Rather than the talent of the developers or their experience or phoning it in, it probably has much more to do with budget and time. A publisher does the math and allocates whatever it wants to to hopefully get a return on the investment. Doesn't always turn a profit, and not all publishers are aware of the potential, or brave enough to give sufficient budget of money and time. For all we know, a couple of insanely talented developers worked themselves to the bone for the few weeks allocated to get this out the door.

@Hughesy yes, I am also a Moto GP fan (although I don't watch live anymore after BT Sport took over), and a fan of Motor Sport in general. It's good that the game plays well, but if time was not taken for optimisation, I don't believe £50 is a fair price. Will maybe pick this up in a sale.

@Gerald I got it from Canada eshop for 27. Maybe go that way? Think it’s similar price from South Africa store, which is a bit easier to set up.

@Filbert_Wang I’m not sure exactly what assists I have on, but it feels fine to me.

ZR accelerate, ZL front brake, B back brake. Works well.

Moto GP has sucked from the point Capcom took over and onto this day. The original XBOX title is still the very best.

Been reading a lot of comments on this site regarding various games and how the graphics look crap and all the other negative comments. Why don't you people go and buy a ps4 to play games on. Remember, this is a portable handheld unit. Treat it as such when slagging everything off. Be interested to know how many of these whinging sad people have a switch anyway.

@Woosh193 Not sure if this is aimed at me too as the OP, but there is no denying the graphics are pretty awful - and as I said originally, I'm a big Switch apologist. Even to the point of this game, it looks terrible, but I'm still enjoying it a lot and would recommend it at the £27 I paid.

I have a PS4Pro too and its crazy that I will even play most of my Switch games on the same HD TV as the PS4, but prefer to play Switch. I'd say my play time between the consoles over the last year is 90% Switch, 10% PS4 and most of that 10% was on Fortnite, which I now play on Switch despite it having a better resolution and framerate on the PS4 plugged into the same TV!

I have also bought games on the Switch I'd never buy on PS4, yet still mostly play them on TV - MotoGP would be a good example actually - and another is coming today in Wolfenstein.. Now I've played MotoGP on Switch though, its definitely piqued my interest in having it on the PS4 with better graphics etc.

But there is absolutely no denying - for my usage anyways - that I prefer all my games on Switch now (and I have over 100 lol) just because of that freedom to pick it up from the dock and walk away and play it elsewhere.

I played about 50/50 of MotoGP between docked and undocked last night because I could. If I had it solely on PS4, I'd have played it for half the time. So I look at it as the Switch allows me to get more value out of a game just purely because I have 2 ways to play - on the couch, or anywhere else if I'm away from the TV.

@pbb76 Exactly the same as you. But to have the take it anywhere option there has to be a compromise but most of these people don't seem to comprehend this. Not aimed at you actually. You actually sound like you enjoy your switch the same as myself.

@Hughesy

that's fair.

which is why i'd like to see EA or whoever bring out burnout (3 preferably).

@pbb76 That review was...

WONDAHFUL!

Standing ovation! Standing ovation!

@DragonbornRito You insolent mule!! I must..... DELETE YOU!

@pbb76 AHAHAHAHAHAAAHAHAHAHA

YEEHEHEHHEHHEEEHEHEHESSSSSSSS

completely agree guys about the portability of Switch being it's biggest asset. I have to steal small moments of gaming when I can and it's ideal for that. If I was sat in a gaming basement with surround sound and playing 10hrs a day I might have a different PoV though.

@pbb76 thanks for the tip fella, will check it out

After a fair amount of play with this game it's not bad, definitely an improvement over previous versions. The graphics in handheld mode are acceptable (I won't say good), but the updated handling and 'sim' experince more than compensates.

The biggest negative (and I haven't seen this mentioned in other reviews) is that the game limits the field to 16 riders. What a joke. It means that classes that thrive on swarms of smaller bikes (Red Bull, or Moto 3, which has getting on for 40 bikes on the grid IRL) instead are in just a stretched out, Spartan field. This kills the simulation element for me, and means that randomly your WC rivals won't be in a race.

I would much rather have had less background detail or even lower bike detail as an alternative. I wonder if the other platform versions suffer from the same issue?