Over the weekend, we speculated that NASCAR Heat would be heading to the Nintendo Switch after an early Amazon store listing. That posting wound up to be true as Motorsport Games officially announced as much on Friday.
NASCAR Heat Ultimate Edition+ for the Nintendo Switch brings the official NASCAR game from 2020 portable. It’s the first official NASCAR title for the Nintendo Switch. Not only does it have everything from the Xbox and PlayStation console editions, but it also has an updated NASCAR Cup Series roster for the 2021 season.
On the surface, it’s everything that NASCAR Heat 5 was, plus all of the DLC packs, but now on the Nintendo Switch. Looking a little deeper, there are a few added details to the concoction besides the updated rosters and paint schemes.
There are “gameplay enhancements” to the AI, hopefully taking cues from whatever was learned in development beneficially for NASCAR 21: Ignition. There will also be more camera options and an online Challenge mode. The NASCAR Heat Paint Booth will also see some enhancements coming in the way of new number fonts and schemes to choose from.
If you’ve never played NASCAR Heat 5 before, there are four racing series to compete in. Those series include the NASCAR Cup Series, NASCAR Xfinity Series, NASCAR Camping World Truck Series and the fictional Xtreme Dirt Series. There’s a Career Mode that allows players to start in any of the four series and work their way up the ranks as a driver or a driver/owner.
There is also split screen multiplayer for two players locally and online multiplayer for up to 16 players. Yes, the other console versions of NASCAR Heat go up to 40, but this seems like more of a Nintendo limit as Mario Kart 8 only supports 12 players online.
Pre-orders for NASCAR Heat Ultimate Edition+ on Nintendo Switch officially start, per the publisher, at noon on 15th October at retail and digital stores. It will retail for $39.99 USD, releasing in full on 19th November 2021.
