Smashing Drive is Namco's arcade-to-home translation of a simplistic racing game that casts you as a cabbie trying to score big bucks in bustling New York City. What superficially keeps Smashing Drive from being just another Crazy Taxi clone is your checker cab's ability to pick up a variety of useful yet outrageous power-ups. Actually, Smashing Drive plays more like a standard racing game than like Crazy Taxi. You don't pick up fares, but instead you will be challenged to race through checkpoints in an effort to add seconds to your ticking clock, beat your rival, and top the best overall score. That all sounds fine, but Smashing Drive has virtually no lasting value whatsoever and just isn't much fun to play even as long as it lasts--that is to say, the new Xbox version essentially shares all the failings displayed in the GameCube port released some weeks ago.
There's a lot to look at in Smashing Drive...
Smashing Drive includes three main modes of play: arcade, survival, and two-player. The arcade mode is the standard game in which you race against just one computer-controlled cabbie, in three different levels and their three subroutes, picking up such items as the turbo boost, 4x4 tires, glider wings, and the crash bumper. There are three shifts to play through, corresponding with the easy, medium, and hard difficulties. Playing through each of the shifts and finding all of the shortcuts is relatively simple if you have any experience with racing games, and it is eased greatly by the game's infinite continues. Beating all three of the standard courses can be done in about an hour, which unlocks the final bonus stage, adding up to an extremely short-lived single-player experience.
You can then attempt the survival mode, which is identical to the arcade mode except that the car damage will end your current run instead of simply leaving you as a limping wreck. The head-to-head mode lets you and a friend challenge each other, which can be slightly more entertaining than facing the computer-controlled cabbie if you can find a friend patient enough to play. At any rate, the game doesn't seem very well designed for two players, as there is generally just one best route to take, and the lead player will usually end up nabbing all of the power-ups. All things considered, Smashing Drive offers at the most a single afternoon's worth of entertainment before most players will feel as though it's overstayed its welcome.
Smashing Drive's visuals are jam-packed with movement but otherwise none too impressive. While there's a lot of variety to the brief levels, there's not much here that draws you visually--everything seems flat and hollow, and the cars and pedestrians all look blocky. However, you'll be able to find many hidden risky routes or shortcuts. You can race straight up the side of buildings, peel out across the top of passenger jets on an airstrip, and even fly off ramps over passing ferryboats. While none of these look very good, finding them and watching the mayhem as they unfold can be satisfying the first time through. Smashing Drive's graphics may be substandard, but they do their job and let you properly locate and explore the ins and outs of each of the game's creatively conceived shortcuts.
