The Nintendo Switch doesn’t allow for too many racing games to shine with the well-regarded Mario Kart 8 Deluxe hogging the spotlight. But Gear.Club Unlimited is stealing the limelight this holiday season with its racing sim action, RPG-lite upgrade system and beautifully rendered licensed cars. Although it’s not a true racing sim, this is still the best racing game available on the Nintendo Switch to date.

Aside from sub-par sound design, Gear.Club Unlimited offers up an outstanding racing experience for Switch. It straddles the line nicely between offering up a sim-infused experience while keeping the on-track action fast and exciting. The amount of racing types available is impressive and the sense of progression makes it easy for a quick play session to turn into a marathon. GCU is a flawed experience but winds up being greater than the sum of its few flaws thanks to it providing a lot of fun on the track in all of its racing styles. Off the track, it’s fun to expand and customize. It’s a great-looking game and a fine showcase of what can be done with the Switch for racing games — even at an early stage in its lifespan.

Gear.Club Unlimited is an all-around simple affair. Almost all of the races are short, which is complemented by the very lengthy campaign. The racing is purely arcade in style, and it's more exciting when playing against others instead of against the passive AI. It may not look like a AAA title, but the performance holds up well, and the sense of speed feels right. While not the greatest representation of what a traditional racing game on the Switch should be, Gear.Club Unlimited will hopefully serve as a catalyst to bring more racing titles to the Switch.

I really like Gear.Club, though it is overly simple as far as “serious racers” go, while also lacking the personality and spirit that makes an arcade game soar. It’s a game that’s hampered by being on the Switch – a console that’s not really mechanically built to enable serious racers. At the same time it benefits from being on the Switch, where there isn't any real competition just yet.

Ultimately, Gear.Club Unlimited may have been better served doubling down on either the arcade or the simulation aspects of driving, not both. In attempting to do both, Gear.Club Unlimited stretches too thinly in trying to cater to both crowds, creating a merely serviceable package filled with content brought down by unsatisfying driving.

A quite passable arcade racer with licensed race cars and with cleary noticable free-to-play roots.

Gear.Club Unlimited is just a bad port of an otherwise successful mobile racing game. Even if the content is generous, the game is expensive, the gameplay is a joke, the AI is crap and the graphics are ugly. Don't bother with this one if you really like cars and racing games.