Gearing up.
Over the decades, my taste in racing games has greatly shifted away from the likes of Forza Motorsport and Gran Turismo to the more arcade-focused Forza Horizon, The Crew: Motorfest, and other arcade-feeling racing games. Fast cars, arcade handling, and the variety of courses that would present gorgeous vistas and allow players to race in exotic locales are what kept me coming back. While I wasn't familiar with the Gear.Club Unlimited franchise before diving into its third entry, its great handling, and slick presentation on the Switch 2 has certainly hooked me.
From Paris to Japan, you'll take on over 50 courses, purchase and drive up to 40 exotic cars, from top European and Japanese manufacturers such as Bugatti, Mazda, Nissan, and Porsche, as you attempt to build a Gear Club in Japan and lure in top talent to make your dream a reality. While France will showcase a fully functional Gear Club, it is on you to design the Club in Japan that will take you from rookie racer to top star.
When it comes to an arcade racer, the feel of the driving is what truly sets it apart. Thankfully, Gear.Club Unlimited 3 feels fantastic, with a great sense of speed, solid handling, and some impressively detailed cars that complement the Switch 2 hardware. This is on top of some fantastic mountain ranges and spacious valleys that will have you cornering like a pro, to intense highway battles where you’ll be swerving in and out of lanes as you leave your competition in traffic.
Gear.Club Unlimited 3 is easily the best racing game on the Switch 2 right now, at least one that doesn’t involve the word “Kart” in the title. There is a fully fleshed out story mode as you conquer Japan’s racing scene, to freeplay, where you can just pick a car and drive. There is also split screen, and while it does take a hit to the visuals, it is more than serviceable for what you’re getting out of a handheld.
What I do really like here is a focus on a lean number of cars, as collecting hundreds of cars in Forza Horizon didn’t mean anything when you only really drove four or five of them. Here, you have around 40 cars that you can tinker with as you build your Gear Club, bring in facilities to handle various performance upgrades, new tires, and more. There is decent customization here that really makes the cars handle better, and you truly feel it right away.
Your Gear Club is yours to design. You can place down each facility, as well as novelty items such as couches, arcade machines, and plants. You can even lay down showcase panels to have your cars as attractions in the club. It's a neat system that I'm not sure I've seen anywhere else.
However, the real meat of this racer is the story mode. Here, you’ll have a benefactor who sets you up in Japan to start your club and helps you break into the Japanese racing scene. You’ll have a mechanic, and eventually a few people on your team who will introduce you to what Japan has to offer on the roads. From the outskirts of Tokyo to racing the highways, the game does a decent job at conveying Japan, even if some of it is very service-level. While Forza Horizon is bringing its series to Japan for the first time this year, Gear.Club Unlimited has beaten them to the punch.
The story mode is told through conversations ala a visual novel of sorts with various characters talking about how your club is getting noticed, and will then provide story missions as challenges or objectives that they want tackled in order to promote and provide the club with new products and services, such as gaining a whole new tire company for taking on a few 1 on 1 battles. These objectives are fairly short, with most courses only taking 2-4 minutes to tackle.
You’ll also have a wide assortment of cars that you'll buy with your winnings, as well as a half dozen facilities where you improve the varied stats of each car, from speed to how effective your tires are, to your overall top speed. And, as you can upgrade each station, you'll get access to better options. Each race will garner you one of a few currencies that are used to purchase said upgrades. And, as you improve those stats, your car will be promoted to a different tier, meaning you'll need to pick a new car for the previous racing tier as your previous car will move on to new challenges and new races.
Handling is extremely good here as cars hug the road and steering and drifting is done with ease. Honestly, this is one of the best handling racers out there and reminds me a lot of why I adore Forza Horizon. And, to keep you racing to perfection, you have a style and performance gauge that fills up the word ‘Unlimited’ to earn you extra money and currency at the end of the race. Impress and it fills up, disappoint, and it drains.
Car models and the overall presentation is solid, and while courses can feel a tad basic, the lighting and aesthetic is impressive, making a few tracks truly stand out. The highway battles do get a bit repetitive and their respective courses are fine, mostly since you are rarely checking out the course as you'll be more focused on being able to squeeze between cars at high speed as you battle for supremacy.
Gear.Club Unlimited 3 is a fantastic arcade racer on Switch 2, with impressive visuals, and truly engaging handling as you continue to tinker with your cars as you build your showroom. The Club building system is interesting, and while I wish I could navigate the facilities more like a menu, it nonetheless is a fresh take on the upgrade systems we've seen time and time again. If you're looking for a racer that isn't of the Kart variety, then this is it, and you'll pass the finish line in no time.
Developer - Eden Games.
Publisher - Nacon.
Released - February 19th, 2026.
Available On - Nintendo Switch 2.
Rated - (E) - No Descriptors.
Platform Reviewed - Nintendo Switch 2.
Review Access - A review code for Gear.Club Unlimited 3 was provided by the publisher for the purpose of this review.
Jeff is the original founder of Analog Stick Gaming. His favorite games include The Witcher III, the Mass Effect Trilogy, Hi-Fi Rush, Stellar Blade, Hellbade: Senua’s Sacrifice, and the Legend of Heroes series, especially Trails of Cold Steel III & IV.