Smashing Drive is an arcade game that advertises itself like it’s some kind of Crazy Taxi competitor, talking about fares and having you drive a taxi. It’s actually an arcade racing game, one where throughout the course of the game you’ll race on top of burning buildings, jump through a helicopter, smash through offices and drive up the Empire State Building chasing King Kong and knocking him off.

What’s extremely impressive about Smashing Drive is just how boring it manages to make all those moments. Everything feels like it’s “on rails”, like a Star Fox 64-style of game where all you do is drive left and right. Your objective is to make it to the end of the course before the time runs out while also beating your rival racer. Your rival seems to vary in speed based on if you take shortcuts. Stick to the main roads and you’ll probably make it to the end with time to spare, but your rival will beat you. Take shortcuts and it seems to take longer, but with your rival far behind you (so you’ll be more likely to run out of time, even though you’re in front). It just feels artificial.

There’s also no spectacle to the game. The graphics would have been considered poor when the arcade game originally came out in 2000, and the sound effects lack punch. Couple this with a soundtrack of three songs composed of someone singing with zero emphasis, and it makes for an incredibly muted experience. Making things worse is how slow your car is, so there’s no sense of speed. This is also just an arcade port without anything new brought to the table for the home release, so you can see everything in half an hour.

A few years after the GameCube release, it was also ported to the Game Boy Advance. While the graphics were blocker (and pedestrians removed, although they have zero impact on the game and you can’t hit them), it’s the entire arcade game in 3D, even with the terrible songs included as well. It still doesn’t make it a good game, but it’s interesting to see how they put the full experience on the GBA.

Worst

The arcade version was a disgrace, with the only ‘redeeming’ feature being the face that you could sit inside a can and get jolted about as you crashed into stuff. Not a bad experience for 50p (if you don’t mind dislocating your spine and losing a further five quid down the sides of the machine), but if the same experience became available in a home version, would you fork our £40?

Geraint Evans, NGC Magazine #69

Remake or remaster?

It’s something Arcade Archives could have.

Official Ways to get the game

There is no official way to play Smashing Drives.