Drag X Drive Review

When the Nintendo Switch 2 Direct revealed the system’s launch window lineup back in April, I’m certain that every Nintendo fan would have walked away from the showcase with one or two titles that, above all else, they simply couldn’t wait to get their hands on. There were plenty of hard hitters on offer, including a fresh take on Donkey Kong, the first brand new Mario Kart game in over a decade, and almost too many third-party properties to count. Out of everything shown that day, though, the game that gave me goosebumps was Drag x Drive, a sports game designed to show off the full utility of the new system’s mouse controls. While the trailer promised classic Nintendo novelty and fast-paced gameplay, the thing that I could scarcely bring myself to believe was that the sport in question was wheelchair basketball.

Like over five million Australians, I have a disability. While this is nowhere close to being the most interesting thing about me, it affects my life significantly, and there’s a quiet grief that comes from living in a society that explicitly isn’t built with one’s needs in mind. I personally find comfort in genuine and thoughtful disability representation; it is meaningful to see an experience that you relate to given prominent airtime when the world often forgets that people like you exist.

While there has been a lot of progress in diversity and representation in media over recent years, it is still extremely rare to see video games that truly centre disability. I am not a wheelchair user, but by building its core concept on a recognisable sport that is played by disabled athletes, Drag x Drive makes me feel seen as a disabled person in a way that I have never before experienced in a video game. Perhaps what is even more remarkable about this title, then, is that the game isn’t really about disability at all; Drag x Drive is a game about a demanding and mildly dangerous contact sport where you just so happen to use a wheelchair to play, and I cannot overstate just how meaningful it is to see a first-party release where disability is centred without the major focus being on one’s limitations.

Customise your avatar with a range of helmet, armour, frame, and tire options

Drag x Drive is set in a large enclosed sports stadium that houses a selection of obstacles and structures including half-pipes, ramps, and heavy-duty skipping ropes, in addition to two basketball courts where the game’s three-on-three matches are held. There are a variety of timed single-player skill challenges, some requiring a very high degree of both precision and speed to earn the associated trophy, and it’s deeply satisfying to reach that level after the initial learning curve for the controls. Collecting all of the trophies unlocks a fun range of helmet styles that you can use to change your appearance, and there are also some default customisation options which are a welcome inclusion despite being somewhat limited. The aesthetic is also sleeker than what you’d typically expect of Nintendo properties, but there’s certainly enough flair in the music and overall style of the game to give the experience character.

While the single-player content is satisfactory, the heart of the Drag x Drive experience lies in live online matches. Matches are a short three minutes each and there are also a couple of mini-games that you can play with others. Match scoring is straightforward, with two- and three-pointer shots the standard depending on where on the court you shoot the ball from, although you can also earn bonus points by incorporating tricks into your attempts. While any bonus points you earn are fractional and are unlikely to make the difference between a win and a loss, bunny hops at least can help you get a little more height on your shots, allowing you to throw the ball a little further and potentially score a three-pointer that you might not otherwise have had the reach for.

Teamwork in online matches is also essential to your success and enjoyment of the game. Learning to position yourself in offensive or defensive positions depending on the state of play will allow you to respond effectively to the action on the court, and it unfailingly feels fantastic to set up a series of quick passes with your teammates to pull off well-coordinated points. You can also steal the ball from others and mess up your opponents’ positioning by ramming into them with your wheelchair; as you might expect, this does lead to some moderately aggressive encounters, and if you’re not quick, you’re likely to get crowded in by opponents when you’re in possession of the ball. The action is dynamic and genuinely fun, requiring quick thinking and a decent grasp on the game’s technical elements to bring your team to success, even if the content is a little more limited than what I would have liked. It doesn’t take more than a couple of days to see most of what the game has to offer, and I enjoyed my time with the game enough that I simply wanted more.

Play online in public or private rooms, or offline in bot matches of varying difficulty

As the release designed to show off the Switch 2’s mouse controls and the improved Joy Cons more broadly, there’s pressure on Drag x Drive to deliver something technically sound, and I was pleasantly surprised with this aspect of the experience. You control each wheel of your wheelchair independently, with your left hand to turn right, your right hand to turn left, and both hands to move forwards or backwards, although there are also brake buttons that you can use for sharper turns. It’s probably expected that the steering takes some time to get used to; directional control in Drag x Drive effectively requires a re-learning of the muscle memory involved in standard video game control schemes, but once it clicks and you’re dodging and weaving at breakneck speeds, it feels awesome. The improved rumble in the new Joy Cons also adds to the experience, and there’s a lot of feedback that you get through this mechanism that helps round out the experience into something that feels tactile and solid despite the novel control scheme.

Steering is nevertheless sensitive to small variations in your motions, and you’re likely to find yourself veering off to the side on occasion due to differences between the motions of your hands or if you don’t get the controller’s narrow mouse edge perfectly flat on your playing surface. Similarly, while it’s fun to pull off tricks using various combinations of the mouse, motion, and button controls, the timing required for some of these is unforgiving. The forward-rolling tilt, for example, requires a quick press of a brake button with an upward hand gesture to lift one of your wheels off the ground, but it’s easy to miss the timing and end up in a sharp turn instead of with the forward motion you’re aiming for.

As for the motion controls, I never quite could get my avatar to clap, wave, or high-five in a way that didn’t look a little silly on screen, but the gyro tends to work best when you’re shooting the ball, which is ultimately where it matters the most. You can exert a surprisingly fine degree of control and direction over your shots with just a flick of the wrist, and it always feels great to land a goal. As with the mouse controls, there are moments where it doesn’t come together, such as the occasional issue when you’re trying to lob a shot into the hoop from the air mid-trick and the ball flies off in the wrong direction. For the most part, though, you don’t feel like you’re fighting against the system’s limitations as you might have with some older Nintendo consoles.

Matches are fast-paced, dynamic, and perhaps a little aggressive

There is, however, the problem of ergonomics. Using the Joy Con mouse controls on a desk or table requires an awkward bend in the wrist and it’s simply not comfortable to play in this fashion for any period of time. It feels far more natural to use your legs as your table surface, but the repetitive motions still did result in some wrist pain after a few hours of on-and-off play, and you can’t customise the control scheme to use buttons and the joysticks if you’d prefer. While Drag x Drive was clearly made to demonstrate the capabilities of the Switch 2’s mouse controls (and I admittedly wasn’t expecting much from any alternative controls given Nintendo’s spotty track record on mapping gyro to traditional control schemes), it is more than a little ironic that a game centring physical disability has effectively no control customisations outside of menu navigation options to improve the game’s accessibility at all. It’s also worth mentioning that I have small hands, and I suspect that the ergonomics might be worse for anyone with a moderate handspan or above due to the size of the Joy Con controllers.

Final Thoughts

My anticipation for Drag x Drive was a certainty from the moment I learnt of its existence, but Nintendo has turned what could easily have been a forgettable gimmick into something that, despite some issues, is surprisingly solid. The awkward ergonomics are the main downside to the experience and the lack of control customisation just goes to show that representation does not necessarily translate to inclusion or accessibility, but the game’s fast-paced action in live games is genuinely energising, especially when playing in voice chat with friends. The game would have been strengthened with a bit more content and variety, but I’ll definitely be going back for more.

Reviewed on Nintendo Switch 2  // Review code supplied by publisher

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