Slipstream (Switch): all the updates (latest: Ver. 1.3.1)

On this page, you will find all there is to know about the various updates for Slipstream on Nintendo Switch (originally released on April 7th 2022 in North America and Europe)!

Click here for more Software updates!

Slipstream – Ver. 1.3.1

• Release date: ???
• Patch notes:

Audio Improvements, Engine Sounds

The whole audio system has been refactored, and this brings back a feature that was lost in the v1.2 update: The engine pitch shift. Now the car engine sound is slightly more realistic and a lot more pleasant to the ear.

Leaderboard Improvements

The leaderboard system was one of the last things I implemented in Slipstream v1.2, when I was already tired of the whole rewrite and far beyond what should be my deadline. It’s always been buggy and weird. Now I took the time to rewrite it properly and it should work better in general. One tangible improvement is that it doesn’t show “Leaderboard Empty” when you don’t have a entry on the Leaderboard.

Also, two tracks from the Blue Hour DLC, Transylvania and Pompeii, had a bug that prevented them from being added to the Leaderboards system. That is also fixed, and the Blue Hour Cup now has its own Leaderboard too.

UI Change: Navigation Arrow

The in-game radar now displays an arrow, like a compass, indicating the direction of the next curve. This should improve QoL on low-visibility tracks like Mystic Cave and Pompeii. The arrow becomes red when the next curve is to the right, and green when the next curve is to the left. This should allow players to predict the next curve without having to take their eyes off the road, just seeing red/green in the corner of the eye should be enough to feel where the next curve goes.

• Additional notes: none.
• Source: ansdor (Steam)

Slipstream – Ver. ??? (blue hour expansion)

• Release date: June 28th 2023 (North America, Europe)
• Patch notes:

No patch notes available. This update brings the following to the game:

• adds 3 cars
• adds 5 tracks
  • Marseille
  • Pompeii
  • Transylvania
  • Granada
  • Edinburgh
• adds 5 songs
• adds 2 game modes
  • Random
  • Reverse
• adds new graphics features
  • a fog system
  • a dynamic lighting system that allows cars’ headlights to illuminate the track in real time

• Additional notes: none.
• Source: BlitWorks PR (23/05/2023)

Slipstream – Ver. 1.3

• Release date: May 23rd 2023 (North America, Europe, Japan)
• Patch notes:

* A new rubberbanding system

For those who don’t know, ‘rubberbanding’ is a type of dynamic difficulty adjustment that’s very common in racing games. It basically makes the AI cars more or less powerful depending on the player’s position relative to them. If a player is far ahead, the AI gets faster, if it’s far behind, it gets slower. A great example of a heavily rubberbanded game is Mario Kart 64.

Slipstream v1.1 had a lot of rubberbanding too. In the v1.2 release cycle, I tried to remove it completely, but that created a series of new problems. It’s very hard to balance a game like Slipstream, that doesn’t take place in a fully 3D space where minor adjustments to the racing lines can be the difference between winning and losing. In Slipstream the cars’ raw attributes matter more, and the AI got out of control because it drives in a very optimized way. To mitigate this, I had to add artificial speed limits to the AI and the whole system became more complex, ugly and cumbersome than the v1.1 solution I was trying to replace.

For v1.3, I decided to bring rubberbanding back, but in a very different way. There are two types of rubberbanding, let’s call them ‘power-based’ and ‘skill-based’. Power-based means the AI cars get physically faster or slower depending on their position relative to the player. That’s the kind I used in v1.1. Skill-based rubberbanding feels a lot more natural, the cars don’t change physically at all, the only thing that changes is the AI’s skill level. It might hold the brake a little longer when it’s winning, or make more precise turns when it’s losing. This is the kind of RB I’ve implemented in v1.3. In my own experience it feels pretty good, the game still has its challenging difficulty but it doesn’t feel impossible to win some races like it did in v1.2.

* Car attributes, rebalanced

I really like the way the difficulties are handled in v1.2, with three different weight classes like in Mario Kart. However, that system was still too tame. In v1.3, the differences between the weight classes are much more noticeable. Heavy is still the ‘classic’ mode, with the highest top speeds. Medium is a little slower than before, which I feel is a more sensible default setting for experienced players and beginners alike, and Light is beginner-friendly, more relaxing and less challenging.

On the topic of balancing, ever since the original release, Top Speed has reigned supreme as the most important attribute. Again, due to the game not taking place in a 3D space, it’s impossible to make Top Speed less important. All else equal, the car with the highest top speed will inevitably win the race. That said, I tried to mitigate this issue a little. Now both Handling and especially Acceleration have a stronger effect on the car’s behavior in the race, and that should make the low top speed cars more viable.

Finally, since everything was changed, a whole new set of online leaderboards will be used for v1.3. The v1.2 records will still remain accessible from the legacy-v2 branch, but it wouldn’t make sense to preserve them for the new builds. Time Trial ghosts and individual records will also be cleared, but the save file progress will carry over from v1.2 to v1.3.

* New modes, more randomness

When I added the Battle Royale mode to the game in v1.1, it was intended as kind of a joke. Back in 2018, when PUBG and Fortnite were starting to become massive hits, people joked that “now every game needs to have a battle royale mode” and I decided to actually do it. I didn’t expect people to give much attention to that mode, but as the years passed I noticed experienced Slipstream players seem to really love that mode, and I think I understand its appeal: It takes almost no configuration, unlike Cannonball, and it’s perfect for a relatively long, relaxing and varied race. The randomness is an important part of the equation, Battle Royale was the only “true” randomized mode (you can shuffle Cannonball tracks, but you can still see the track list before the race). Well, not anymore!

The update brings randomized versions of Grand Tour and Grand Prix modes. Both follow the same rules as the default versions, but with a random pool of tracks. I’m also trying to give a little more love to the Reverse versions of the tracks, they have been in the game since v1.0, but always stayed tucked away in just two modes, one of them probably the least played of all. Now all the random modes (including Battle Royale) will reverse half of their tracks, for maximum unpredictability. That means 7 out of 15 possible Grand Tour stages will be reversed, and 2 out of 5 Grand Prix tracks.

Also worth noting that, for these modes, the game can pick any of the available tracks, including the ones from diamond cup, and also…

* Some graphical changes

All the cars have new sprites, with more vivid colors and a slightly different perspective. I just felt like they needed a bit of a punch-up. The verticality of slopes in the game has been very noticeably reduced. Reverse tracks don’t invert slopes anymore, the reverse track is now an (almost) exact mirror image of the regular version. The Slipstream engine got some new features, one of them is a new fog system, used in two of the diamond cup tracks, Aquatic Ruins and Mystic Cave. Aquatic Ruins now has a more underwater-y feel and Mystic Cave gets dynamic lighting provided by the cars’ headlights, instead of just shortening the draw distance as it used to.

• Additional notes: none.
• Source: ansdor (Steam)

Slipstream – Ver. 1.2.4

• Release date: August 2nd 2022 (North America, Europe, Japan)
• Patch notes:

• Photo Mode. When activated, the screen will be frozen and the HUD disabled. This will allow players to take better screenshots of the game. Pressing the CONFIRM key will toggle the HUD on/off, and pressing up/down will switch between some photo filters: normal, pixelated, CRT, NTSC, VHS.

  If you had a save file prior to this update, the photo mode will probably be assigned to the F7 key. This is because this feature used to be available only in my personal Debug/Test builds, and I used the F keys for debug-only stuff. The new default/recommended binding is TAB. If you restore the default controls or create a new save file, the game will restore the correct mapping. On gamepads, it’s mapped to the equivalent of a ‘select/back’ button. I believe it’s the ‘share’ button on PS4/PS5 controllers.

• New localizations: Greek and Russian.
• As usual, bugfixes and difficulty adjustments. Notably, I had forgotten to re-implement the “darkness” effect in Mystic Cave, but it’s back now.

• Additional notes: none.
• Source: ansdor (Steam)

How to download updates for Slipstream for the Nintendo Switch?

To download the updates for Slipstream, you have three options:

• let the console do its thing if you have automatic downloads activated, and didn’t completely turn it off

If not…

• try to launch the game from the Home Menu while being connected to the internet. You should get a prompt when doing so: simply follow the instructions on screen;

OR

• select the game > press either + or – to go to the Options page > select Software update > select Via the Internet.

To check that you have the latest version installed, simply select the game on the Home Menu, and press – or + to go to the Options: the version number is displayed just below the game title.