Wheels are blazing and guts are flying in this ballade of Guts and Glory in… Guts and Glory for Nintendo Switch. Join the world’s most popular game show (source unknown) as you try to reach the end of various obstacle course quickly, while everyone and everything is trying to maim or otherwise destroy you.

Is Guts and Glory a ‘wheely’ fun game, or will it completely butcher the will to play games anymore? Find out in our review after the break!

Guts and Glory
Nintendo Switch, PC, PS4, and XBOX ONE
Developed by HakJak Productions
Published by tinyBuild Games
Released: 19th July 2018
Review copy provided by tinyBuild Games
Reviewed on the Nintendo Switch version

The premise of Guts and Glory is really simple, all you need to do is just control one of the various different vehicles and get to the end of the 70+ obstacle courses. The catch? Literally 95% of the course, pedestrians included, are trying to kill you while the other 5%, especially pedestrians, will be laughing internally at you as your guts spill onto the pavement. But that is where a lot of the fun lies. It’s actually fairly hilarious to see the many different ways in which your character can ‘fail’, expect the urge to take several of those 30 second video captures.

Be warned, this game is not suitable for those faint of heart (or those who lack a Nintendo Switch protective case), as each course gets more and more difficult as you progress. For the most part, the difficulty is great and you get a fantastic sense of accomplishment when you finally defeat an obstacle course, however there have been various instances where that difficulty has just been too much. I understand that the game was developed to be difficult, but sometimes having to constantly try and beat the level to be able to progress onto the next can be tedious. The respawn checkpoints definitely help though… for the most part.

One of my biggest gripes with Guts and Glory though is the fact that it still very much feels like the game is in early access. The controls for movement are okay, but the camera completely sucks. You can only either look in front of you, to the side of you, or behind you, some courses could really benefit from proper 360Ā° camera control. There have also been times where the game just feels completely broken. One level in particular has one respawn checkpoint which you will instantly get complete head trauma from a canon as soon as you respawn there, forcing you to completely restart the level.

One thing I think is rather disappointing is how the Switch version (along with the other console versions) seem to have a lot of content omitted. Sure, 70 or so levels isn’t too bad, but when you realise the Steam version includes a level editor, as well as 500+ user created levels, you can’t help but feel a bit cheated when you are essentially paying the same price for a version without all those features.

The graphics are also fairly sub-par for as far as the Switch goes, they almost look like an upscaled GameCube/N64 game hybrid. The frame rate can become an issue too, making it the first Switch game I’ve played where the frame rate has negatively impacted my enjoyment. This is especially the case when there have been several collisions at once in a small space. Just look at those gore effects. Of course, these were only observed in the Switch version. The Steam version seems to be much less broken.

Guts and Glory is a very fun and hilarious game but is largely let down by the broken camera, heavy framerate dips, omitted content, and poor graphics. It’s a shame because it has the potential to be a great Switch title with a decent price, but in all honesty, it should have gotten a lot more polish before being submitted onto the Nintendo Switch eShop.

These observations are, of course, only from the Switch version. The Steam version looks to be far more superior, so it’s probably better to look into that version instead. Either way, I am unable to recommend the Switch version at this stage. If there is an update to vastly improve the performance and graphics I would reconsider, even more so if the cut content were to be patched in. Please HakJak, I really want to love this game!

Final Rating – 1 out of 5

Guts and Glory is out now for the Nintendo Switch, PS4, XBOX ONE, and PC.

Leon Fletcher

I am a huge Nintendo fan, hence why NintyBuzz exists. I especially love all things Zelda and Metroid. NintyBuzz was started by me back in the Summer of 2014, it started out mainly as a hobby, though the site has gradually grown, and I hope it grows for many years to come!