‘Burnout Paradise Remastered’ smashes onto Nintendo Switch this year

One of the best racing games of the previous generation of game consoles (PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, PC), “Burnout Paradise” got a visual remaster and re-release a couple of years ago for PlayStation 4, Xbox One and PC. This year, it gets added to one more system, the Nintendo Switch, so you can enjoy the fast paced vehicular destruction anywhere.

Besides offering high-speed fun on the go, “Burnout Paradise Remastered” coming to the Switch is significant because this is the first time it will have been available for a Nintendo console. With the original release, Nintendo’s only home console, the Wii, didn’t have the digital horsepower to handle the high-definition graphics of the then-new Burnout game. So publisher EA and developer Criterion Games didn’t create a version for the system. The remaster skipped the Nintendo Wii U, too, which considering the system’s sales, wasn’t a terrible idea. So this marks the first time for Nintendo loyalists to play the game.

It’s a fantastic game, too, if you haven’t played it. It was the first fully open-world Burnout game, giving players a giant city to race in and to explore, with loads of shortcuts, giant jumps and collectibles to discover. Controls were extremely tight, and crashes were super satisfying with realistic car body deformation.

The remaster was done by Stellar Entertainment, and the Switch version will be released sometime this year. EA hasn’t given a more specific date. In addition to the game’s visual enhancements, the folks at Stellar added a city map that can be interacted with via the Switch’s touchscreen, and they claim it will run at a full 60 frames per second refresh speed, so it should be just as smooth and fluid as the home console remaster. Like the other versions of the remaster, it also comes with all the old downloadable content including the Big Surf Island expansion pack, motorcycles, day and night cycles, and extra cars. All of this will cost $49.99.