Beyond 'arcade perfect' - Virtua Racing is a triumph on Switch

The Switch port of Virtua Racing first appeared on the Japanese Nintendo eShop at the beginning of the March. It's now available in all key territories, so we thought we'd republish our existing coverage to remind you about what makes this conversion so great.

First released in 1992, Virtua Racing ushered in a new era for Sega trading super-scaler technology for full on 3D polygon graphics and now, thanks to the wizards at Japanese developer M2, Virtua Racing returns for Nintendo Switch - and if you're into arcade racing, I highly recommend that you check it out. This new Sega Ages release replicates and enhances AM2's original masterpiece while introducing support for higher resolutions, higher frame-rates, increased draw distances and local split-screen for up to eight players.

The choice of Virtua Racing for the full-on M2 treatment is inspired. During the heyday of the arcade, companies such as Namco and Sega moved into the pseudo-3D space releasing new, more advanced games at a regular interval. Classics such as Pole Position from Namco and 1986's seminal Outrun really set the standard for what a driving game could be. With the camera placed behind the car, it was now possible to deliver a more realistic three-dimensional experience even if these games ultimately relied on 2D sprites. By the end of the decade, however, companies were beginning to experiment with real 3D graphics using polygons. This almost experimental time resulted in some expensive and exotic machines that produced convincingly 3D visuals at a relatively low frame-rate. It was a magical time.

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