This is mitigated somewhat by the Party Mode, where players can take turns to beat each other’s score, but this mode is also available in the other Remastered editions, so it’s not like it’s anything new. Had EA given Stellar Entertainment, the studio that handled the port job, latitude and budget to bolt on an ad hoc mode, this version would be an absolute no-brainer. The flexible nature of the system would allow for grand meet ups with local players, a great way to bond with friends and an even better way to annoy strangers at a convention. This latter part is also where EA missed a golden opportunity to make this version worth a triple dip. Thus, there’s a bit of a trade off for those that like playing in handheld. There’s nothing quite like meeting up with some friends, queuing up some Adam Ant and trying to pull off simultaneous stupidity in the vast playground of the city. Still, a huge portion of the fun to be had in Burnout Paradise is in online play. The life would have been extended had Airplane Mode been engaged. To be fair, testing was done on a first generation version of the Switch, which has a slightly smaller battery, and WiFi was turned on the entire time.
After about an hour’s worth of play, half of the battery was gone from a full charge.
It should also be noted that Burnout Paradise Remastered drinks the battery’s milkshake in handheld mode. It does look better than the Xbox 360 version, to be sure, but the older edition didn’t have the framerate issues. It also chugs a bit during a the post event celebration screen. The only times it choked during testing was during Showtime mode where the player is literally bouncing down the street, crashing into everything possible. While docked, the frame rate is more steady. In handheld mode, there are hitches often enough, so much so that it’s possible to biff a drift or the threading of the needle in tight spaces. EA likes to boast that they’ve locked the framerate at 60fps. The textures feel crisper and the jagged edges that pop up in docked mode aren’t noticeable at all. With the smaller screen, it actually looks better in handheld mode. In handheld, the limit is the expected 720p.
When docked, the game runs at 900p, though it upscales well on any TV with the capability. But it doesn’t stand up against its big brothers. That isn’t to say that the Switch version is horrible far from it. The bad news is that it’s not worth snagging for players who game at home and have already snagged a copy of the 2018 release on more powerful hardware. Coming in a couple years later with the Switch version, EA is looking to allow fans of the versatile system to get their crash on while out and about. Throwing all of the DLC in, upping the resolution to 4K,and the fresh pass over the textures revitalized the title for the current generation of consoles and PC. When it released in 2018, Burnout Paradise Remastered felt like a breath of fresh air, despite the fact that it was a re-release of a title from 2008.
This is why the Switch release of the objectively best game in the series, Burnout Paradise, is so welcome. Publisher EA has been trying to recapture the magic with recent Need for Speed titles, but there’s simply no substitute for Burnout. If the player isn’t driving like their vehicle was full of bees and the only hope was to smash them against the windshield from the inside, then they were playing wrong. Instead, the developer utilized fictional vehicles to create a string of racing games that threw all possible craps anyone could give to the curb. Criteron’s Burnout franchise knew what it was doing, foregoing licensed vehicles and the finicky manufacturers that don’t want to see their babies get trashed in the most ridiculous ways. There’s nothing like the feeling of blazing through a turn, bouncing off of an opponent to correct for being overly ambitious with the accelerator, watching them eat it in slow motion and cruising along like the smartest racer on the road.