Nintendo has always been the face of innovation and games that are easy to pick up and play. It’s obvious when looking at Super Smash Bros. Ultimate and Mario Kart World that anyone can have fun within seconds of picking up a controller. Nintendo is known for creating games that are intuitive, flashy, and, most importantly, fun! It’s reasons like these that make me wonder what exactly happened with Drag x Drive, Nintendo’s newest sports game for the Switch 2. In fact, it very well might be the first-ever wheelchair basketball game.
I found the Drag x Drive concept super interesting back when the game was announced, and I thought using the Joy-Con in “mouse” mode was a cool way to pilot the wheelchair. Other than showcasing the interesting and innovative new way to play, the trailer didn’t show too much of the game… or so I thought. The trailer actually showed way too much of the game. There really isn’t much worth talking about.
Once you boot up Drag x Drive, you are immediately dropped into the tutorial and taught how to move. The first few swift drags across my couch had me feeling a little excited. It genuinely feels pretty cool! You can feel the clicking of the wheels, and it’s actually quite satisfying at first. If you push the Joy-Con behind you, it’ll push the wheelchair forward, drag it forward, and you’ll move back. Spinning around works exactly as you’d expect – just move the controllers in opposite directions. Again… this is fun for a little bit, but it quickly fades away as you realize that it’s hard to get a proper straight or backward dash. I couldn’t seem to get a consistent direction going for the life of me. Not to mention the game doesn’t feel very fast. For a game called Drag x Drive, you’d expect some high-octane action and fast-paced gameplay, but you’d be far from accurate. I actually had a very frustrating time playing this game. I think somebody who is living with disabilities would actually struggle to play this game, which is ironic. The control scheme is the bones of the experience, and there is no way to shut it off. People who lack mobility in their upper body simply won’t be able to play this game. It just seems like an absurd thing to me to completely leave that audience in the dust in a game about wheelchair basketball.
As stated above, Drag x Drive is a wheelchair basketball game! You use this mouse-based control scheme to ride around the map, throwing a basketball into a hoop. You have some ramps you can ride up and do tricks off of, and they can even help you dunk the ball. There’s also some jumping mechanics which went completely without use for me, as I couldn’t figure out a way to incorporate them properly into a match. If you want to get the ball from another player, then you’ve gotta ram into them from the front to snatch the ball. Drag x Drive is a 3v3 experience. What blows my mind is that there is no getting into a lobby with your friends. You can’t have two friends go online and dunk on some randoms, and that is a major miss in my mind. The biggest joy of playing pickup basketball is with your friends. You simply do not have the ability to make that happen in this game. Unfortunately, Drag x Drive is just wheelchair basketball with very little else to bring to the table.
What boggles my mind the most is how little is actually going on in Drag x Drive. It looks like a prototype of a game, not a final product. The game’s colour palette is just a wash of various grays and some bland browns. They’re clearly going for a skatepark aesthetic, but it’s just so uninspired and boring to look at. You’re able to unlock different colours and helmets to customize your character with after prolonged gameplay, but there’s so little to do to make your character stand out. Not to mention the music is completely forgettable, and the overall vibe is just snooze-city.
Personally, Drag x Drive is a complete miss. Thankfully, though, it is not a full-priced game, and I’m glad Nintendo realized that making it a budget title was the right move. I think this could have easily been packaged with the console alongside the Nintendo Switch 2 Welcome Tour. I think Nintendo missed the mark by not letting these be games that everyone with the console has access to. Both showcase what the console is capable of, and act as interesting ways to display what’s only possible on a Nintendo Switch 2. I think there are tons of reasons you should get your hands on Nintendo’s latest console… this just isn’t one of them. Drag x Drive is a total drag.
