Drag x Drive - Switch 2 Review

A surprise addition to the Switch 2’s early first-party lineup, Drag X Drive is Nintendo’s latest foray into online sports games (this time without Mario). Drag X Drive is an online, 3 vs 3, arcade-style, wheelchair basketball game. And as is so often the case, Nintendo is doing things a little differently, majoring on the console’s new mouse control setup.

The Good

Upon opening Drag X Drive, you join a lobby with 11 other friends or strangers (or sometimes bots) and are quickly into a 3-minute match of fast-paced, back-and-forth action. Players scoot around the arena, bumping one another, passing, shooting, and—eventually—ramping and dunking. Stylish scores get more points, which adds an extra element to gameplay, and the matches are good fun for a quick pick-up-and-play.

The most interesting feature of Drag X Drive is its controls—you control your player using the mouse mode of your Joy-Cons, with each Joy-Con corresponding to a wheel. Drag the controllers like you were rolling a wheel, and your character will move forward. Move one more than the other, and you’ll turn. To shoot, raise a controller and act like you’re shooting a basketball. It is a wholly novel control method that feels like an evolution of the Wii Sports era and is similarly intuitive. Waving your arms around to defend and high-fiving your teammates all come very easily, but more complicated manoeuvres certainly take some getting used to, and it might be a while before you feel like you’ve gotten the hang of the game.

Fortunately, any issues with controls can mostly be solved with some practice and time with the game—it's a fantastic demo for the Switch 2 Joy-Con's Mouse Mode. Personally, I had very few problems using them on my sofa, with a mouse control on either side of me, but they work just as well on a floor, table or even your own legs, as long as those surfaces aren’t covered in a fabric that scrunches up easily. You also shouldn’t find any issues with the responsiveness of the game online—maybe this should be a given in the year 2025, but as someone familiar with previous Nintendo online offerings, I found it noteworthy.

TL;DR

• Unique control system that generally works well
• The 3v3 gameplay is fun (especially with friends)
• Stable online experience

The Bad

The biggest issue with Drag X Drive is that outside of the 3-minute games, there isn’t an awful lot there. There are small mini-games to play around the arena between matches, but they won’t divert you for long. The games are fun, but there isn’t necessarily much depth to the match strategy (particularly if playing with strangers). You can pick between 3 types of character—prioritising speed, power or balance—and add some colours or hats to stand out, but it’s very surface-level. It should be noted that Drag x Drive is not priced as a full game ($20 / $30 AUD), but it is crying out for more feature-rich progression systems.

Given the limited amount of progression in the game, you would hope that the game did as much as possible to enhance the moment-to-moment experience and maybe encourage you to keep playing with your friends. While the online is stable to play, the matchmaking leaves something to be desired: there is no reliable way to team up with your friends to play against strangers. Joining the same lobby isn’t a problem, but within the 12-person lobby teams are random—you’re just as likely to be against your friends or in a different match entirely. You’ll need to fill your private room with 12 people to have more control over the matches.

TL;DR

• Lack of progression or things to do!
• Frustrating online matchmaking with friends
• Not everyone will gel with the controls

Final Score: 6/10

Drag X Drive is fun enough to play for a 30-minute burst but ultimately lacks depth in its gameplay and content. It’s an excellent advert for the Switch 2’s Joy-Cons and also for game chat if you can round up the friends, but it is unlikely to become the go-to online multiplayer experience. While it should be applauded for trying something different, this feels destined to be remembered as ‘one of those Nintendo things’ when we look back at the Switch 2.

Thank you for checking out our Drag x Drive Switch review, thank you to Nintendo AU/NZ for providing the review code and thank you to our Patreon Backers for their ongoing support:

• Andrew Caluzzi (Inca Studios / Camped Out)
• Bel Cubitt
• Bobby Jack
• Jack Caven
• Nintendo Maniacs
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