Nintendo truly are the masters of the controller gimmick, from the dual screens of the DS and Wii U, to the waggling motion controls of the Wii, and detachable Switch Joy-Con. Each one has come with first party games that really showcase their use, and for the Joy-Con 2’s optical sensors and mouse mode, that game is Drag x Drive.
Drag x Drive is all about pick up games of wheelchair basketball, with teams of three and the core rules of basketball like the 3-point line rewarding longer shots and a shot clock forcing you to use the ball within 14 seconds all preserved here.
Playing the game requires that you unclip the Joy-Con 2 from your console and then use them as mice, tipping them so the optical sensor faces a tabletop or trouser leg to track your motion inputs. Pushing forward along the surface with your hands pushes your character forward with the corresponding wheel, and it quickly becomes generally intuitive to race forward, turn through corners and navigate the play space, accompanied by a neat ratcheting click effect from the HD Rumble. The triggers then pull the brakes for a quick stop, and can be used on one side for a rapid spin and pivot.
Coming into contact with the ball grabs it and puts it on your character’s lap while you manoeuvre, trying to avoid head-on collisions that will knock the ball loose as you head to the opposing team’s hoop, and there’s a quick and easy pass by tapping both shoulder buttons. Taking a shot, though, relies on motion controls. Pull up your hand and flick in the direction to send the ball flying, with more accuracy coming from the direction you’re facing, speed your going, and distance it has to travel to score.
Extra decimal points come from pulling off a shot with a bit of flair, and there’s a handful of quick tricks that you can pull. There’s quarter pipe ramps at either end of the court that you can use to launch yourself up and go for a dunk – easier said than done – or you can hop up in the air by pulling both brakes and yanking your hands up one after another.
It all combines for some quick and pithy wheelchair basketball action with bitesized three-minute matches. There’s plenty to master here, like the perfect angle to go for a dunk, and it’s difficult to feel truly precise in your actions, to get the subtle turns that you need. Team play could also be rewarded with quick passing getting around a defence, but the end-to-end nature of basketball is definitely here.
The game is wrapped up by the Park, a shared play space for both public and private lobbies. This has a lot of the appearance of a skate park, and it’s littered with challenges to help you learn the controls. There’s races, cone slaloms, obstacle courses, shot challenges, ramp time trials and more. The general matchmaking will mix and match players in a lobby into teams – filling in an AI if there’s an odd number – while matches are broken up with a couple shared minigames. You have preferences to let you engage with or avoid these, as you like, but you can also disconnect and take to the Park solo to practice against bots. That’s the extent of the single player in this game, though.
What’s most surprising about Drag x Drive is just how dour the game’s visuals are. The Park is a grungy, grey warehouse of an arena, and all of the characters default to black and grey clothes, helmets and wheelchairs. Yes, there is colour from the paint inside the 3-point line, around the side of the courts, and from spotlights, and yes, you can change your avatar’s outfit to have different colours, but they’re muted at best, and the overriding memory you’ll have of this game is as grey as the Xbox 360 era was brown.
There’s also a lack of unlockables and cosmetics. Almost everything is available from the off, outside of some helmet designs that are unlocked with challenges. There’s just no personality when everyone is a blank helmeted figure, and that’s a massive gulf between Drag x Drive and the colourful, vibrancy of an ARMS or Splatoon, let alone all of the cosmetics and customisation of Rocket League.
The other aspect is the instant gratification gaming that Drag x Drive can’t quite match. Where ARMS was all about using motion controls for punching, it had the button controls as a fallback, but you don’t have that option with Drag x Drive, so you can’t curl up on the sofa or lie in bed and play. More than that, when wheelchair athletes are at the centre of this game, having motion controls as the only option means that this isn’t really accessible for gamers with certain kinds of limited mobility. That’s disappointing.
