Drive Buy | Nintendo Switch Review.

Publisher: Glitchers
Developer: Glitchers
Switch Review

*Disclaimer: I was sent the code for this game in return for a review, all opinions are mine and mine alone.

When anyone tries to get me to play a racing game I become a mess, I can't for the life of me control cars in games, but then came along Drive Buy a game that focuses on more than just driving and shows me just how bad others can be at driving making me feel better about crashing constantly, it helped me improve on my driving too, who knew? Drive Buy reminds me a little of a battle royale game but I wouldn't shove it into that category if i'm honest, it's actually a cross play combat driving game, it's one of them games that you can pop on to release some steam with some much needed laughs and an enjoyable chilled back soundtrack.

When you boot up the game you will be greeted by a photosensitive screen to let players know there are flashing lights, straight away I knew that developers cared for their players by adding this, it's a feature a lot of developers tend to ignore. You will need to make a Drive Buy account to play which doesn't take very long, if there are any questions about signing up you can head over to the FAQ page on Glitchers website and they're more than happy to help HERE. Drive Buy is a 4 player multiplayer arcade co-op game, you can either play online or create your own room to play with who you choose thanks to a room code or join someones custom game with a code, there is the ability to cross play with PC and Switch players so there is the option to buy the game on either, for me Switch was the obvious one I played on just because I don't own a PC just a Mac.

Players will be able to unlock 8 characters along with their vehicles that have unlockable skins, trails and wheels and unlock badges/ frames to customise your profile, for me it's important to be able to customise in a game, it doesn't feel like my own unique experience otherwise. There is only one main purpose, to rank up the most amount of coins in order to win but there is a twist, you and the other players will get a few seconds to vote for what you want to play and if your choice isn't picked that's too bad! Usually when this happens I use it as a chance to better myself at the other modes, I tend to go for Piggy Bank mode because I love the challenge of trying to grab the piggy bank off of players and try to hold on to it the longest so I win.

The other two game modes are Delivery Battle - you have to collect packages from the center of the map and deliver them, the more you deliver the more points you get, whilst doing so other players will do their best to steal any coins you have accumulated with power ups which lowers your score and stops you from taking the lead. The last mode is Pay Day - you have to use power ups in order to steal coins from other players to win, I'm not a fan of this mode just because I'm so bad at it, i've only won a couple of times but it makes me rage the most.

I found the instructions on screen are easy to read and the button layout fairly simple, there is no need to look up instructions on how to power up or gamemodes they're all in the menu for you to look back at. Practice mode is great for getting hang of things and I advise anyone who first plays to try it out, you can also level up in this mode so it has more than one purpose for players. Talking of levelling up it can take a while but will happen faster once you start winning more matches. There were so many times I thought I was close to winning but another player managed to take the lead or hit me with a rocket where they collected any coins I left behind pushing them further up the leaderboard. Completing challenges is another great way to level up, I would go into a game and try to complete them instead of concentrating on winning the match some of the time, I made the most of the Power ups I could collect whilst driving around and used them to my advantage at any given chance.

My main tactic was to go as fast as I could and grab the power ups whenever I saw them, this wasn't the easiest of tasks due to my constant crashing and sometimes the trigger to move forward wouldn't be recognised which is still happening due to an issue with my joy-con. I categorically loved the words of encouragement given to us whenever we would lose or get hit with a power up by another player, when it comes to playing games online things can often become very toxic so to have that kind of positive reinforcement shows that developers want their players to feel part of their game and want to play more.

I won't lie the game pulled me in and left me determined to get a win which I felt gave it so much more playability than at first thought, the only real issues I have were a small selection of maps, more will be added eventually though, the upside to the same maps is getting to know the environment better but this still doesn't help the frustration when waiting for boost to be available after 5 seconds, it doesn't sound long yet whilst playing I would be sat there thinking "hurry up and recharge before I get caught!!!" 

My friend Krista from LeeksPlays and I decided to choose a custom game and soon realised we needed more players which led Krista opening up the room making it available to online players to join us. I'm one of those players that needs a few rounds in a game to warm up and get my bearings in order to get any better at the task at hand, going against a friend was a lot more fun than playing with strangers online. I was ecstatic to battle against her, it felt nice to know who I was playing with because it made it all the more hilarious when one of us attacked the other with a power up. In between matches we would message each other to encourage one another and just laugh about how bad we were doing, the fact the game brought us together like that gave me more enjoyment from playing. 

What I would like to see implemented next is the vehicles having unique speeds and abilities, more maps, longer voting times for the next game mode as the countdown goes too quickly and I often missed it. Other than that I hads a pleasant time playing Drive Buy, each battle lasted the perfect amount of time and gave players time to catch up when they fell behind. I wanted to mention accessibility for this game because I found their response interesting it's something I don't usually read from other developers, right now the only accessibility options they have is to toggle controller feedback which is only a small thing to change but they've stated they will be adding more accessibility options one of which is screenshake options and Glitchers are happy to hear any suggestions their players have on this topic! What we also need to remember is the Switch isn't really an accessible console but the PC can be made a lot more accessible for players. Obviously right now this is season 1 of Drive Buy and there will be more seasons to come, it will be interesting to see what else will be added to the game over time!