Drive!Drive!Drive!

We've seen a lot of different types of racing games over the last thirty years. From the ultra-realistic simulators to the cartoony kart racers to the arcade-style smash-em-ups, there's something for pretty much everybody. I've raced in 2D, in 3D, as a cel-shaded car, an airplane, a boat, hedgehog and even a burrito. Sometimes it feels like the only thing I haven't done is attempt to play multiple racing games at the exact same time.

Well, now I can scratch that off the list, because that's exactly what you do in Drive!Drive!Drive!, the appropriately named racer from developer Different Cloth. While other games having you steering one car at a time, this brand new PlayStation 4 and PC release sees you trying to win three different races at once. I know this sounds like one of those YouTube challenges somebody might do for views, but it really is the central conceit in Drive!Drive!Drive!

In some ways this is like any other racing game you've ever played. The goal is to complete a single lap in the shortest time possible, all while pushing the competition out of the way. But instead of doing this on just one track, you're forced to switch between several different concurrent races in a madcap attempt to finish first in all of them. It's a high-speed juggling act where your attention is constantly being split between several events and you can only rest when the race is over.

The good news is that you're only responsible for one car at a time. You can quickly and easily switch between vehicles by flicking up and down on the D-pad, leaving the computer in control over the other cars. The struggle is that there's a very real chance your computer-controlled cars are going to slow down, make a bad turn or get passed by the fierce competition, so you need to keep switching back and forth to catch up and make sure everybody is in a respectable place.

The game is nice about easing you into juggling these multiple races, giving you a lot of leeway early on to make mistakes and get used to switching between cars on the fly. But don't get too comfortable, because the tracks become increasingly challenging as you unlock all ten planets, each with five bite-sized courses to tackle. You'll take part in events with up to four races happening at the exact same time, speed through tracks picking up floating dots and earn points for knocking the other cars off the course. There are dizzying loop-de-loops, massive jumps, cardboard boxes stacked on the course and all kinds of gravity-defying moments.

Click For the Full Picture Archive

This is the kind of game where there's a beauty to the chaos. In fact, a lot of the charm comes from the presentation, which has a purposely low polygon count that resembles virtual reality in the 1990s. The action is exaggerated in all the right ways, and the urgency is heightened thanks to a killer synth-based soundtrack from Zombi. I'm sure the style won't appeal to everybody, but I'm a big fan of this neo-retro look.

The problem is that the gimmick in Drive!Drive!Drive! ends up taking over all aspects of the game, making a lot of the events feel a bit samey. Because you're spending so much time focused on jumping between vehicles, you never really have a chance to take in the intricacies of each track. Even after playing through the entire single-player campaign, I found that there weren't that many events that stood out in any meaningful way. They're fun to play and the jumping back and forth is certainly exciting, but the novel concept overshadows everything else.

It's also frustrating when your computer-controlled cars don't want to cooperate. I don't mind them going into something resembling cruise control, but it's annoying when you jump back to a car only to find it flipped completely around or driving off the track. It can sometimes feel like there are too many things outside of your control.

Click For the Full Picture Archive

To the game's credit, Drive!Drive!Drive! comes with a track editor that is almost daring you to come up with something memorable and share it with the community. The tools are easy to use and the editor takes you through the steps one by one, leading to a fairly painless experience with a lot of possibilities. The downside is that this track editor is noticeably limited when compared to other racing games, but there's enough here to keep you creating and sharing long after you've completed the pre-made courses.

Drive!Drive!Drive! has a concept that sounds absurd the first time you hear it, and yet it all comes together in a truly exciting way. Between a couple different modes, a track editor and multiplayer support, there's a lot to like in this quirky racing game. My only real complaint is that that some of the tracks begin to blur together after a while and the cool concept tends to overshadow the rest of the experience, but Drive!Drive!Drive! is an addictive variation on the typical racing game.