By Jon Scarr
Drag x Drive is one of those Nintendo games that only really makes sense once you see it in motion. It launched on Nintendo Switch 2 on August 14, 2025, and arrived with a bold idea. You ride a wheelchair style vehicle, slide the Joy-Con 2 controllers like mice, and send the ball into the hoop by flicking your wrists at the right moment.
Since release, the reaction has been mixed. Some enjoy how different it feels. Once you learn the rhythm, the sliding motion can feel satisfying, especially when you steal the ball with a clean tackle or land a dunk at the top of the half pipe. Those moments show why Nintendo decided to build a sport around this control style.
Others have been more cautious. The controls take time to understand, and some people get wrist or hand fatigue after longer sessions. The content has also been part of the discussion. Outside of matches and a few side activities, the game can feel pretty barebones for anyone expecting a deeper sports package. For some, Drag x Drive clicks early, then settles into something that feels closer to a test of new ideas.
Even so, the game has a clear identity. If you enjoy seeing Nintendo try something new or you simply want a different kind of sports experience on Nintendo Switch 2, Drag x Drive offers a style of play you will not find anywhere else.
Nintendo’s latest Ask the Developer feature dives into how all of this came together. The interview covers the early prototypes, the surprising origins of the control scheme, the design of the half pipe court, and the park vibes that shape online play. It gives a clear look at the ideas behind Drag x Drive and how the team built a new sport around Joy-Con 2 motion. There is a lot to unpack, so let’s get started.
From Mario Kart and Splatoon to a brand new sport
The team behind Drag x Drive is stacked with familiar Nintendo names. Konishi previously worked on the Mario Kart series and Wii Fit Plus as a programmer and programming director. Hamaue came from Ring Fit Adventure and Nintendo Switch Sports. Ikejiri handled character design on the Splatoon series and Super Mario Bros. Wonder. Yoshida worked on sound for Splatoon 3’s Side Order DLC and The Legend of Zelda Tears of the Kingdom.
Drag x Drive started inside a prototyping team at Nintendo that was formed to explore new ideas without worrying about genre or hardware. Konishi took on a manager style role, bringing together staff from different backgrounds and giving them room to experiment. That is where Hamaue began testing mouse style controls.
He knew the controller for the Nintendo Switch 2 would support mouse style input, so he asked a simple question. What happens if you treat the Joy-Con 2 controllers more like mice than sticks or buttons? Sliding a phone screen feels satisfying, so he wondered if that same feeling could come from moving your hands back and forth.
Those tests slowly turned into something that felt like pushing a wheelchair. Sliding motions paired with HD rumble 2 feedback made the wheels feel responsive, and moving both hands together created a natural turning sensation. That early discovery ended up shaping the direction of Drag x Drive.
Dialing in the feel of the chair
The early prototype looked promising but was rough to control. Input from each “wheel” mapped directly to movement, so any small difference between your left and right hand caused the chair to drift or spin. You might feel like you are going straight, but the game would read you turning.
Konishi and Hamaue spent weeks just working on straight movement and turning. They added what they call “straightness correction,” which lines up both wheels when the game detects forward motion on each side. The goal was simple. Match what you think your hands are doing with what happens on screen.
From there, tackling and contact started to take over. When the team placed traffic cones on a test course, people had more fun crashing into them than weaving around. That led to experiments with tackles that felt closer to football and even a sumo style ring where the goal was to push opponents out.
Wheelchair basketball does not allow tackling, so this drifted closer to wheelchair rugby. The team decided to keep things simple. You move, you tackle to steal the ball, and you flick your wrist forward to shoot once you are under the basket. No dribbling. No complicated inputs. The focus stays on pushing, turning, and reading the flow of the court.
The team also did their homework. They gathered books, essays, videos, and manga about wheelchairs and wheelchair sports. They bought both an everyday wheelchair and a sports model for the office, and even took part in a wheelchair basketball event in Osaka. Learning how hard it is to shoot from a seated position, and how much timing matters when you push the wheels, helped shape how Drag x Drive handles momentum and movement.
Real wheelchair basketball athletes also tried an early version of the game. They were quick to read the controls, especially when it came to turning and moving backwards. Seeing them accept the differences between real basketball and this new half pipe court, and still enjoy the matches, gave the team a lot of confidence.
Bunny hops, half pipes, and solving three problems at once
Once movement and tackling felt good, the team started looking for ways to give you more options while still keeping that analog feeling. They set two rules for new moves. The actions needed to feel natural in real life, and your Joy-Con 2 movement had to clearly match what you saw on screen.
They looked at wheelchair techniques like tilting, wheelies, and 180 degree turns. Some of those conflicted with other inputs or did not fit the analog goal. A BMX move called a bunny hop ended up being more useful. In BMX, you lift the front wheel and then the rear to hop. Konishi wondered if a wheelchair could do a similar move if you tilted left and right in quick succession.
Reference material was hard to find, so he tried it himself in a wheelchair. He only managed a tiny hop, but it was enough to help Hamaue visualize how to map the motion to the controls. Once they implemented a bunny hop, Drag x Drive gained vertical movement and new strategy options, like fighting for rebounds above the rim.
The half pipe that changed everything
The biggest turning point came from the half pipe under the basket. Early in development, the court had more traditional edges. Walls caused everyone to crowd around the sides. Out of bounds penalties turned pushing others off the court into the main tactic. Gravel around the outside slowed people down, but it trapped beginners who rolled out after a shot and could not get back into the action fast enough.
Konishi eventually dropped a half pipe directly under the goal, even though the original plan was to keep flat play inside and more extreme, three dimensional action outside. It was extra work for the programmers and designers, who now had to support airborne tricks, mid air catches, and backflip shots.
That change solved three problems. Slam dunks no longer felt like a sudden jump, since you now ride the half pipe up and time your Joy-Con 2 swing near the rim. It became easier to roll back into the centre of the court after a shot, since the slope naturally carries you back down. And the game’s look shifted toward a more armoured, acrobatic sport where helmets and pads made sense for the characters.
Character roles also took shape around this time. The team had the NES and Famicom Disk System version of Ice Hockey in mind, where players choose different physiques for their team. Drag x Drive settled on three types. Guard is small and turns quickly. Forward is well balanced. Center is larger and uses weight and height to fight for the ball. All three share the same top speed, but acceleration and turning differ, and each wheelchair frame pulls from real sport designs like rugby, basketball, and wheelchair motocross.
Yoshida’s audio work supports those roles too. Landing from the half pipe sounds different depending on your character’s weight, and hearing that impact helps sell the moment.
Gestures, GameChat, and a different kind of online communication
One of the more interesting decisions in Drag x Drive is how it handles communication. There is no standard voice or text chat built into matches. Instead, the team put a motion sync system in place that maps gestures made with the Joy-Con 2 controllers to on screen actions.
Raise your arms, and your avatar can wave, clap, or go for a high five. It is a simple idea, but it fits the focus on physical movement. The team wanted you to feel like you were expressing yourself through motion rather than relying on words.
That does not rule out more direct coordination. Nintendo Switch 2 supports GameChat for people who want to talk and use a compatible USB camera, and Drag x Drive ties into that. Ikejiri mentions that it is fun seeing how much someone moves in real life while controlling their character, and Konishi points out that you can call out things like “I am going for a three pointer” or “mark that person” while you play.
The park also includes side activities like jump rope and a sumo game. If you need a quick break from full matches, you can hang out and try something lighter in the same space.
A Game Built for More Than One Type of Gamer
The closing comments from each developer make one thing clear. Drag x Drive is not only aimed at people who already play a lot of sports or action games. Yoshida admits he is bad at sports and not great at ball games in general, even in video game form. Over time, he found roles that fit his comfort level, like grabbing the ball after the other side scores and feeding a teammate further up the court. The sound work is there to sell those small successes, from clean passes to tricky techniques.
Ikejiri is proud of the motion sync system and the feeling of interaction it creates. The idea is that your gestures and play style become the “personality” of your character, instead of prewritten quirks. Hamaue focused on making the controls respond closely to how you move. He likes that you can sometimes tell who is controlling a character just by how they turn or move across the court, even without seeing a name.
Konishi shares a story from an April 2025 hands on event for Nintendo Switch 2. Two visitors played Drag x Drive together. One said they were good at action games. The other said they were bad at them. Both played well. When Konishi asked the second person how they were doing so well, they answered, “Maybe because I use a mouse every day at work.” That answer stuck with him, since Drag x Drive’s controls build on that same sliding motion.
The team says they want people who enjoy action games, people who like being active, and people who do not think of themselves as sporty to all feel welcome. With everyone starting fresh on a brand new control scheme, there is room for surprises. Maybe your day job with a mouse or trackpad really does carry over.
After playing Drag x Drive, I found that a lot of what the team described made sense once the controls were in my hands. Sliding the Joy-Con 2 controllers like wheels clicks in a way that is hard to understand until you try it. It also ended up being one of those games that made my son and I laugh more than we expected as we rolled and flicked through our first matches. Hearing the developers talk about wanting a sport that welcomes different skill levels feels even more true after spending time with it.