Drive!Drive!Drive! isn’t really a racing game. It’s not really for racing enthusiasts, either. Yes it has cars, yes it’s on a track, and yes there are finish lines and placings. Yes we accelerate our vehicle, pass other vehicles, and even crash into each other. Even though those descriptors tick all the checkboxes of what a typical racing game is, D!x3 somehow manages to be very (wildly?) different. In fact, it’s probably more of a hyperdimensional racing management game than an actual racing one.
Drive!Drive!Drive! is simple at its core: we move a car around a track, using basic video game vehicular controls and environment physics. It’s on par with Cruisin’ USA in how it handles, and Mario Kart in what we face on the tracks. Controls aren’t overly touchy across the game’s ten unlockable vehicles, and even though they have unique statistics they aren’t very different from each other. I guess if you like a car that looks like a Lambo as opposed to a rocket ship, that may be the extent of any real differentiation. It’s old school.
But hey, this is the point where things get crazy. Layered on top of that traditional mechanism is that the game is actually three races at once. As a “driver” we need to not only push our car through the current track that we’re on, but the livelihood of two other cars above or below us on their own courses. With the touch of a button, we can switch tracks to take control of whatever situation we’re currently in. The game uses some form of AI to pretend we’re on the other two tracks as we plow through, either getting us ahead or falling behind. It’s usually the latter. Spending too much time to get to first place on one track means that we fall behind in the others, and so bouncing back and forth takes place often as we inch up the leaderboard.
We need to watch the UI — a set of tracks on the left side of the screen — that shows us what we’re doing on which floor, often blinking uncontrollably when we get in trouble. That’s why this isn’t a (traditional) racing game. It’s chaotic, but enjoyably so. We spend more time coordinating than actually racing, making sure that our cars are in specific positions before we jump back. (Hint: get close to a straightway and then drop to another level.) It can get maddening, but it’s never stressful.
Laid out across “worlds,’ there’s enough variety in the track types and missions that each race can be unique. In some we’re asked to just get within a specific placing (1st? 2nd?) while in others we need to beat a specific time in trials. Further tracks have us collect giant gems or rack up a score based on crashes, drifts and jumps. Some of these are much easier to accomplish than others, especially when it comes down to the game’s “you have one lap to do it” concept on many of them. And, once the campaign is finished a new, harder campaign opens up. On top of all that there’s a track creator and online modes, so it’s easy to get lost in the surprising depth of the downloadable game.
Drive!Drive!Drive! isn’t going to shatter the world of racing. But, it’s a fresh idea with a track-shifting gimmick that works pretty well, and for a downloadable title it’s quirky enough of an idea that it’s worth going for a virtual spin or two.
This review is based on a retail PSN code sent to SideQuesting by the publisher.
Dali is a lover and long-time player of arcade racers, especially Mario Kart’s bonkers track designs.
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