With 15 seconds left on the clock, I watched from half court as a teammate snatched a rebound from an opponent’s off-center shot. With the ball in his grasp and the clock still ticking, I slide both my Joy-Cons back, rolling back to our side of the court and positioning myself for a clean shot at the basket. This is it.The ball is passed to a teammate, who already has an opponent guarding him. I wave my hands by the three-point line to signal a pass. The ball is tossed to me, and with just five seconds left, I shoot with a flick of my wrists. The ball bounces off the rim once, then again as the clock hits zero, before finally sinking into the net. The court explodes in confetti as we take the win.These are the highs of Drag x Drive, an ingenious implementation of the Switch 2’s most underutilized feature, and a surprisingly intuitive and entertaining recreation of wheelchair basketball as played by robots. Unfortunately, this rock-solid foundation is underserved by some dull minigames, bland presentation, and a lack of proper single-player modes. While this dearth of content can be excused by the game’s $20 budget price-point, one can’t help but wonder what could have been.A Rolling Good TimeDrag x Drive is fun, and surprisingly strenuous. | NintendoIt’s always fun to see how developers use the novel technology of new consoles, but while the Switch 2’s launch line-up had a few games that incorporate the Joy-Con’s mouse functionality, they’re all used in predictable ways. That’s not a bad thing, but it’s refreshing to see Nintendo take the lead on using the feature so boldly in Drag x Drive.The game’s controls are straightforward. The Joy-Cons, which function as your hands, are laid flat on a surface in mouse mode. To go forward, you slide both Joy-Cons forward, mimicking how a wheelchair user would propel themselves. Going backwards means sliding the controllers backwards. Turning means accelerating the wheel opposite your intended direction more than the other, while pulling the ZL or ZR shoulder buttons will bring the associated wheel to a complete stop. It takes getting used to, and the game’s racing-game-like movement tutorial only goes so far in preparing you to navigate a basketball court during an actual game. But once you get a grasp of the basics, the game opens up quite a bit. It’s possible to turn on a dime, rotate in place, and even bunny-hop, all by applying a bit of logic to the controls.The ability to pull off flashy dunks and trick shots adds some fun depth to matches. | NintendoActual ball handling is just as intuitive. You pass by taping the R and L shoulder buttons together, and shoot by lifting a Joy Con from the table and flicking it forward. When you’re not holding the ball, the Joy Cons can be lifted to emulate your actual hands. You can wave, clap, and make rudimentary gestures, adding a bit of personality and agency to the action. Defense is a game of positioning and properly sticking to an opponent to prevent successful passes, a natural translation of the real sport.On the court, the game makes a few intelligent and fun changes to what’s physically possible. A big quarterpipe lines the court’s baseline, letting agile players attempt dunks and perform spinning tricks on the way up. Fouls are non-existent, as the game encourages contact. Players can attempt steals by rolling into a ball handler head-on, knocking the ball loose and causing a rugby-like scramble. It’s a welcome system that adds frantic party game flair to otherwise straightforward mechanics.This all comes together to create a fun and surprisingly strenuous game. You’ll feel sore after long periods of play, although matches are far too short. At three minutes a pop, I wish there was an option to extend a game’s timer to create higher-scoring and tenser games. The absence of a proper split-screen mode is also a major drawback.Padding Out At The ParkLifting the Joy-Cons will let you freely use your hands. | NintendoAs fun as the core game is, there’s little to keep you engaged with it aside from hopping into online matches or playing offline pick-up games with increasingly difficult bots. These modes are limited to how much entertainment you find in the game’s mechanics rather than being engaging in their own right.There’s no tournament mode or story mode, or even ways to customize the rules. The lack of couch co-op means you can’t even boot Drag x Drive up as a party trick. And without the ability to extend the game clock, experiencing what the game does best feels fleeting. What the game does offer is a handful of minigames that focus on mastering a particular mechanic. In between matches, players are let loose in a park where they can roll up to various icons and initiate a timed minigame. Unfortunately, these minigames are straight-up boring.There’s a Circuit Sprint, where you make a lap around a track surrounding the courts. There are jump rope challenges, which task you with riding through checkpoints and jumping over a swinging rope using the bunny hop. Shooting and trick shot contests test your ability to quickly fire off accurate shots, while pools pulled straight from skating games make you get airborne and hit specific points. Slalom and Cone Zone will try your turning ability, while Rebound Scramble will test your mettle when it comes to chasing a loose ball. Aside from the shooting contests and Rebound Scramble, these minigames aren’t fun. The timing required to beat them requires absolute perfection, and while they do offer a great way to brush up on skills, I felt little drive to complete them for middling cosmetics. Drag x Drive is a ton of fun when all of its mechanics are used to emulate basketball, but these short minigames feel like cumbersome Joy-Con 2 tech demos rather than proper game content meant to keep you coming back. Automated PresentationYou’re stuck in a bland gray gym for all of Drag x Drive’s modes. | Nintendo/Screenshot by Trone DowdThe lack of content carries over into the game’s presentation. The park you’re always playing in is as bland as it gets, with concrete floors and dark steel beams filling the small landscape. Looking through the park’s glass dome, you can make out an elaborate and colorful skyline that teases a strange world of basketball-playing automatons with more to offer, but none of that glitz and glamour is accessible here.The game’s music is also generic, especially when compared to other games published by Nintendo this summer alone. And without the added drama of talking to friends over game chat, there’s little that adds drama to matches. There’s no commentary or voice lines to punctuate impressive shots or game-changing plays. Drag x Drive’s soundscape is just a cacophony of backing tracks and sound effects.It’s a crying shame more wasn’t done here. There’s so much potential left on the table, and Nintendo’s own line of Mario sports games features so much personality. It’s a headscratcher that the developer didn’t want to inject any of that charm into this new IP. ConclusionDrag x Drive feels like its developers managed to create a fun and innovative basketball experience using the Switch 2’s coolest new feature, then stopped short of finishing the game. It can be a blast, but the lack of even the most basic single-player modes is sorely felt.Without those modes, Drag x Drive feels like a glorified tech demo desperately padded out by a handful of mildly engaging minigames. Without a few friends to consistently play with, I don’t see the novelty of a working wheelchair basketball game keeping people around all that long. Even with a $20 price tag, this is as barebones an experience as you’ll get. While that may be the financial sweet spot to make people check it out on a whim, I would have gladly shelled out another $10 if it meant actually getting a proper sports game.6/10Drag x Drive comes out August 14 for the Nintendo Switch 2.INVERSE VIDEO GAME REVIEW ETHOS: Every Inverse video game review answers two questions: Is this game worth your time? Are you getting what you pay for? We have no tolerance for endless fetch quests, clunky mechanics, or bugs that dilute the experience. We care deeply about a game’s design, world-building, character arcs, and storytelling come together. Inverse will never punch down, but we aren’t afraid to punch up. 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