Drag X Drive - Review
When Nintendo revealed the Switch 2, they did so alongside a few new games and two of them took advantage of the hardware features that the new console offered. While Welcome Tour was more instructional than interactive, Drag X Drive, pronounced ‘Drag and Drive’ looked like it could be something fun. But after that first reveal and then a Treehouse live presentation, the game went silent until a few weeks before release. Was this an omen of things to come or was keeping quiet the right thing to do?
Honestly, it would not have mattered either way, as the game is just dry. Do not misunderstand the game is technically competent but in terms of fun, I rarely had any and when I did, it was often due to my exuberance in playing. So, you will have seen by now that you play the game by using your Nintendo Switch 2’s Joy-Con 2 face down, so the mouse sensor comes into contact with a surface. Then with that done, you just push them forward or backwards and your character moves in that direction. Once you get that down, the game introduces you to turning, shooting and then you are basically on your own. The game tells you about the tutorials, but there is no practice space to master these skills, well outside of the lobby.
The lobby is where you will live unless you are playing a game and it is not a pro or a con, it is just a space. The game will ask you if you want to jump into a match as soon as one becomes available, or wait until they need someone to fill a spot, but that is all the control you have. You can’t say no to a match, so if you jump into the game and don’t want to play, you are out of luck. I know it defeats the point of jumping in but still, maybe you just want to practice your bunny hops. After a few rounds of the game, it will let you take part in some mini-games, in order to relax a little from the chaotic action of main draw, which feels like it should be nice. The problem is that is like offering someone who just ran a marathon, the chance to walk another 5km back to their car, sure it ain’t running but still no ideal. You can play in a private lobby with your friends, and it does support up to 12 players, but that means you need to find 11 other people who have the game.
When you are playing the game, it really comes down to how much effort you want to put into your motions. If you do minimal motions, you will still move, but you won’t hit top speed and therefore won’t be able to do tricks. If you do put your all into the game, you will feel your arms getting sore after only a few rounds and depending on how engaged your opponents are, you could be even worse off. Getting around the court is easy enough, but trying to line up a shot, whilst dealing with the opposing team and a shot clock, it add some pressure to the game. Once you have a few rounds under your belt, you are ready to move onto the main league, to prove… oh wait, there is no career. In fact, outside of those mini-games between rounds or the challenges around the court in the lobby, there is nothing else to do here. Drag X Drive is a prime example of some fundamentally decent gameplay, just not a lot of game to play.
Now to be fair, there is a little depth in the gameplay, if you want to spend time exploring it. There are three different character builds, Guard, Forward and Center and each have their own stats to pay attention to. Center is the biggest of them and as such has the most strength, which means he won’t get knocked around that easily. There are no stats to level up, so the only way to get better at being a Forward, is to quite literally get better at playing. You can customise the colours of your frame and wheels, so you can have a Professor X themed setup, but they are just colours, they do nothing to performance. Sorry to those folks who think red coloured wheels go faster. This just highlights that they had something in mind for variations, but just either decided against it, or thought this was all that was needed.
If you thought the actual playing of the game was barebones, have I got something to show you, well actually I don’t because the visuals are just bland. Nintendo have often been seen as pioneers in creating games with some incredible art styles, that hold up years and decades after they first released. Nintendo Switch 2 has already had two amazing games that feature some stunning visuals and now we have Drag X Drive. There is a nice style to the park you play in, but it would be like if Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater only offered a giant bowl to play in and nothing else, the locations matter and here you get one and that is it. The characters are brimming with personality, just not colour and it is a shame. There could have been a lot done with accessories, well far more than what there is, just to give players a reason to keep on pushing forward in playing.
Drag X Drive is not a good game, I would not really call it a game, it feels more like a tech demo. If this was included within a Nintendo Switch Sports update for Switch 2, then sure why not, but as a standalone product, there is just nothing here that demands your attention. The controls are unique to be sure, but you can really only play for a few rounds before your arms get to sore and even worse if you engage in those in-between games. If you are a Nintendo completionist, then you likely already own the game, but if you are on the fence still, I would suggest not picking this one up.
The Score
4.5
Review code provided by Nintendo
The Pros
Novel way of using the Joy-Con 2
When the controls work, they work really well…
The Cons
…but it can be tiring to use them and there are no alternatives
The game is lacking in just about every area, but mostly in fun
