Wreckfest

Wreckfest is the long-overdue return of serious, high-quality destruction racing. Fierce, frantic fun.

Destruction Derby meets Flatout in this excellent new racing game.

The creators of Flatout channel a little of the classic Destruction Derby as this brilliantly destructive racer emerges from Early Access.

The scope is ultimately limited, but what a roaring spectacle of broken car bits Wreckfest manages.

Smashing up cars is fun, and Wreckfest is an old-school racer that delivers on that thrill

Wreckfest is a splendid antidote to the po-faced severity of the current crop of Need For Speeds, Crews, and so on.

Wreckfest just fully embraces what it is, and you have to respect it. Bugbear's brash, fender-bending racer has been unleashed on PlayStation 5 as part of May's PlayStation Plus lineup, and it's still very much the chaotic, crash-happy, Destruction Derby-esque experience people love. In the jump to new hardware, the game definitely benefits in a few areas, though some enhancements are better than others.

Wreckfest is one of the more impressive Switch ports we've seen, taking a game that already had performance issues on more powerful hardware and delivering a relatively stable version with reasonable loading speeds and all its debris-flinging carnage fully intact. Handheld play is a little less visually acceptable, and the Switch tax rears its ugly head again, but just like the rough-and-ready roadsters in the game, we ultimately had a great time behind the wheel.

Undoubtedly, Wreckfest itself is an absolutely fantastic racer and you'll have a blast on Series X regardless of whether you stick with the free 4K, 60FPS patch or go one step further with this paid next-gen upgrade. This is without doubt the definitive way to play the game on Xbox Series X, but thanks to that free patch a couple of months ago, there's really no need to pay the extra money unless you're a devoted Wreckfest nut.

The Nintendo Switch port of Wreckfest delivers chaotic and enjoyable demolition derby-style racing, capturing the spirit of classic crash-heavy racers, while missing the necessary corny aspect that usually accompanies this type of game. Despite some visual compromises, performance can be described as solid for a game where more than 10 vehicles drive around like crazy, slowly turning into big piles of scrap metal. Repetition is the main thing that holds the experience back, but if you don’t mind something fun and simple to squeeze between more “complete” racing experiences it’s a big recommendation - just be sure to wait for a discount.