racing wheel | GIZMODO.cz

Nobody sits down to play Mario Kart and thinks “what this experience needs is a force feedback wheel, a pedal set, and a clamp-mounted desk rig.” And yet here we are, with Hori releasing two officially licensed racing wheels for the Switch 2, timed to launch alongside Mario Kart World on March 23. The Deluxe has an 11-inch wheel, a full pedal set, seven sensitivity levels, an adjustable dead zone, and a Quick Handling Mode that toggles steering output between 270 and 180 degrees. That last feature exists so you can more precisely navigate a rainbow-colored highway while a cartoon turtle throws a shell at you.

To be fair, the wheels look genuinely good. The Deluxe goes for a dark, almost aggressive red-and-black motorsport aesthetic, while the Mini leans fully into Mario’s red-blue-white color scheme with the Mario Kart World logo stamped on the base. Both add a C button for Switch 2’s GameChat, connect via a 9.8-foot USB-A cable, and work with the original Switch and OLED too. The Deluxe is $129.99, the Mini is $79.99, and both are available for pre-order now.

Designer: Hori

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The two wheels are closer in spec than the price gap suggests. Both have textured rubber grips, ZL and ZR buttons, racing paddles, programmable buttons, and the same ZL hold function that lets you drag items behind your kart in Mario Kart 8 Deluxe. That hold function is disabled in Mario Kart World, which handles item use differently, so if World is the primary reason you’re buying one of these, that particular feature is decorative. The Mini’s 8.6-inch wheel is smaller but not dramatically so, and for a game where precision steering matters about as much as knowing when to deploy a star, the size difference probably won’t register mid-race. Both also carry the Nintendo/PC toggle on the back, which is new to the Switch 2 versions and means you can run either wheel through a PC racing title if the Mario Kart novelty wears off.

The Mini, with its Fischer-Price aesthetic, attaches via suction cups only, which works fine on a smooth desk but becomes a liability if you’re the type to slam the wheel hard into a corner. The Deluxe, on the other hand, adds a physical clamp mount, a meaningful upgrade for anyone who takes their banana peel delivery system seriously. The dead zone adjustment and the 180/270 degree toggle are also Deluxe-only, and those matter more than they sound: dialing in the dead zone tightens center response considerably, and 180-degree mode makes the wheel feel snappier in arcadey conditions where full-rotation sim behavior would actively work against you.

The Deluxe reads like a peripheral that wants to be taken seriously, with perforated black leather-look grip material, metallic red spokes, and a fairly restrained button cluster around the center M logo. The Mini abandons that restraint completely: solid red rim, blue and white spokes, yellow accent buttons, Mario Kart World branding on the base. They’re aimed at different buyers within the same audience, and the visual split is deliberate enough that you wouldn’t mistake one for the other in a product lineup.

Both wheels connect over USB-A, which is worth flagging because the Switch 2 uses USB-C natively. You will need an adapter or a hub, and Hori ships neither in the box. The 9.8-foot cable is generous in length, but the connector mismatch is a friction point on a product designed specifically for a new console, and it’s the kind of thing that should have been sorted at the design stage rather than left to the buyer.

Hori has been the default answer for Switch racing wheels since the original console launched, and these Switch 2 versions do not reinvent that position. The older Switch wheels already work on the Switch 2, so this is really a product for new Switch 2 buyers rather than existing Hori customers looking to upgrade. For that audience, $79.99 for the Mini is a reasonable ask, $129.99 for the Deluxe is justified by the clamp mount and calibration options alone, and both are about as good as a wired USB wheel built around Mario Kart is ever going to get. Whether you need one is a separate question, but if you’re going to sit down with a dedicated racing rig to hurl banana peels at a go-kart driven by a plumber, at least Hori has given you two good ways to do it.

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The post This $130 Mario Kart Racing Wheel for the Switch 2 Has Seven Sensitivity Levels for Throwing Banana Peels first appeared on Yanko Design.

The lines between real racing and simulated one are blurring with every new advancement. The racing rigs with surreal force feedback, visually stunning displays and the 360-reality audio put you right in the middle of the action. Adding to the realism, a racing wheel enhances the experience by providing precise force feedback of every chicane and high speed bump.

For those who love racing F1 cars in the simulator at home, Sim Lab has revealed a sim racing wheel designed in collaboration with the Mercedes-AMG PETRONAS Formula One Team. The officially licensed gaming accessory makes every G-force and high-speed overtake as authentic as possible. It is the closest thing to driving the real thing. Something that the Silver Arrows drivers – Hamilton and Russel vouch for to learn track behavior and practice before the team lands at the paddock of every race circuit.

Designer: Sim Lab

Compared to other racing wheels designed for Motorsports, this one is far ahead in terms of sheer level of detail and realism. The gaming accessory is designed using the CAD data that the F1 team uses for the multimillion-dollar racers. Hardware used in the making is also the same as the real F1 steering wheel used by the team. It is handmade out of a carbon fiber shell keeping the weight at 1,240 grams in total, so that every vibration and force feedback is felt the same as Lewis would feel driving at 150 mph going into a turn.

For superior grip and control during long stints of gaming, the racing wheel features anti-static rubber silicone grips. The carbon fiber shifter paddles, magic buttons and clutch mechanism have the same realism. It doesn’t stop there, as the gaming accessory features a 4.3-inch LCD screen that displays complex data to replicate the real-time data Mercedes F1 car’s drivers see while driving around the circuit. For those who follow F1 closely, the inclusion of 25 controllable RGB LEDs for telemetry data is unbelievable, showcasing the level of detail put into this one.

For those wanting to recreate the real Formula-1 experience, the Mercedes-AMG PETRONAS Formula One Team Sim Racing Steering Wheel costs a whopping $2,500. You’ll need to add on other accessories like a wheelbase to complete the realism, so it’s going to be a costly affair only manageable by a few passionate sim racers and the odd gaming affectionate. The officially licensed racing wheel is going to be compatible with wheelbases other than Formula One including Simucube, Fanatec, Moza, Simagic Alpha, Asetek, and VRS.