Riptide GP: Renegade Reviews
Niggles aside, Renegade's lengthy Career Mode and local and online multiplayer support all make for a robust package.
Riptide GP: Renegade boasts many of the qualities that you would hope for from a racing game; a rewarding career mode, a solid racing experience, and – delightfully – a rather different element in the way that the waves throw you around a little. There are some little niggles and difficulty spikes that keep it from sitting alongside the best of the genre, and there isn't quite enough fun in the racing alone for multiplayer to be particularly exciting, but if you're after a slightly different racing game to dip in and out of on the fly, this wouldn't be a bad choice, especially for the asking price.
When it comes down to it, Riptide GP: Renegade is not a significant step up from its predecessors, despite the developer's PR rumblings. It is, however, a flashier, more content heavy upgrade with a lot to get stuck into, whether you favour single-player or multiplayer. While there are some obvious flaws holding it back, such as the lack of interesting varied tracks, if taken at face value, Renegade packs a big punch for its price point. This is not a Wave Race-like classic, but it has potential.
If you want to take your racing game with splashes of great waves, you may want to check this out.
But this game is silly fun, and fun you’ll have. It certainly doesn’t lose out anything in multiplayer. Split two Joy-Con and you’ll get a more simple control-scheme with automatic acceleration and simple trick input. It performs great in multiplayer docked or portable. Obviously, the big screen will emphasise more of the graphical blemishes, but you’ll be too busy performing sick tricks to care. Bring your wetsuit and get ready for a wild ride. Cowabunga dude!
"Jet Moto and SSX go home drunk together. Riptide GP: Renegade shows up 9 months later."
Riptide GP: Renegade is a decent racer where the vehicles handle really well. The majority of the tracks look good and are fun to race in. However some of the elements put in to make the game harder for players stick out really obviously, like being the sole target of police vehicles. The campaign becomes a grindfest and the online is quiet at launch. There is only one event option which may get stale quickly due to the limited amount of tracks. If you’re looking for an arcade racer then Riptide GP: Renegade is a decent enough choice.
Similar to a good RPG, any time spent with Riptide GP: Renegade is not wasted, even in defeat
It's nice to see jet ski racing making a return, but chances are you've probably played this already on literally any other format including mobile. The Switch version offers very little that is new to make you want to pick it up again if you have already sampled its watery delights (oo er), But considering the absurd value for money this game is (just £9.99), or if you haven't played it before then this is a fun solid racer, that's definitely worth picking up.
Nothing really stood out to me while playing Riptide GP: Renegade and it left me with a very “average” feeling. The most fun I had with it was kicking back and doing some races against friends with the local play option.
Despite its faults Riptide has some good things going for it: the animations are pretty good, the vehicle models look very attractive, and so indeed is the entire game. Heck, the game even manages to keep your attention for about an hour before mundane sets in. It's a good looking racer; I just wish it were nearly as good technically.
As someone who used to enjoy the Riptide games on the Android and iOS platforms, I really can't recommend Riptide GP: Renegade to anyone. The difficulty is ramped up too high to start off which, the story isn't enjoyable and the overall presentation of the game is poor. I wanted to like this game, but it just seems like a half-hearted attempt, which is disappointing. I was excepting perhaps a game similar to the one great Jet Moto, but that didn't happen. It just feels half baked.
Renegade is a serviceable nod to the arcade racers of yesteryear.