One of the things that has made Nintendo last for so long is that it’s never afraid to do “out there concepts” to try and make fun gameplay happen. You could argue that some of its greatest series were born that way. They’re attempting this once again on the Nintendo Switch 2 via Drag X Drive, a game where players are on wheelchair-like vehicles, and they need to move around a court to score baskets. The game just got its release date a little bit ago, and we know it’ll be released on August 14th. However, when you dive deeper into the Nintendo Store pages for the game, some more details are revealed.
For example, Drag X Drive will only be $20! That makes sense, as it’s a digital-only title. To that end, the game takes less than 2 GB to download and run. That’s much smaller than one likely would expect for the game. But that also raises concerns about how much depth the title may have within it.
Another aspect that many are talking about is the multiplayer. The game itself was revealed to have 3v3 battle modes, which is likely the “main battle mode” of the title. However, on the Japanese store page, it’s revealed that you can have up to 12 players in the online battles. That will likely make things more chaotic and more challenging. There are two catches that can’t be ignored here, though.
The first is that the game won’t support any local multiplayer. That’s a bit odd, considering that multiple titles, including key first-party titles, are all about that, with one even sharing the game from the Switch 2 to the OG Switch! Yet, they won’t be able to do it here. The second twist is that the game cannot be played in Handheld Mode. That does limit things, especially when you consider that one of the main cruxes of the Switch 2 and its predecessor was the “play anywhere” ability, regardless of title.
So, that once again brings us to the question of whether this game will have enough depth to hook players. It’s very possible that it won’t matter. After all, it’s clear from the gameplay setup, via having to control the player by using your Joy-Cons as mice, that only certain kinds of gamers will be up for this kind of challenge. Plus, we still don’t know how well it plays or how fun battles are.
If anything, this could be the latest in a long line of “tech demos” that Nintendo is doing merely to prove a concept instead of trying to create a franchise.
