Topic: The Online-Only Crazy Taxi Mayhem of Drive Buy Seems Promising

[NWR_Neal]

Four-player online multiplayer with a Crazy Taxi-ish bent might make this crossplay multiplayer game a wild ride.

http://www.nintendoworldreport.com/hands-on-preview/54111/the-online-only-crazy-taxi-mayhem-of-drive-buy-seems-promising

Did you ever want to play an arena-based Crazy Taxi multiplayer game? Me neither, but Drive Buy is that and it seems to be a blast based off the Steam Games Festival demo. Three modes were available: Delivery Battle, Payday, and Piggy Bank. Delivery Battle involved four players driving around a smaller streets-laden arena trying to deliver packages as quickly as possible to different people while also trying to avoid destruction and trying to slow down everyone else. Payday and Piggy Bank are more traditional game modes, with Payday involving players fighting over a stack of coins before a timer runs out and Piggy Bank being a variant on Oddball (that’s the Halo term for it; I honestly don’t know what the generic term is for this multiplayer mode) where players try to hold onto the pig for the longest amount of time.

Drive Buy is built around the online multiplayer experience, complete with goals, levels, and all sorts of other things persistent online games have these days. It will have seasonal content, akin to the likes of Fortnite. Thankfully crossplay between PC and Switch will be available at launch. Digging into the details behind the game does paint a specific picture. Drive Buy is an online experience, first and foremost. You can play offline with bots, though you won’t be able to progress in any meaningful way. Local multiplayer will not be available on Switch either, making this very heavily an Internet-only affair. I’m encouraged by what I played and functionality for private games certainly sweetens the pot, but I’m a little cautious. Drive Buy will need a vibrant, active community to survive. It’s a neat idea, but there’s a lot riding on an online-only experience, especially on Switch.

While I still will seek out my idealized Crazy Taxi revival, this might be an acceptable online multiplayer-focused substitute. If the online experience across Switch and PC is well populated and functional, this could be a really fun game to toy with.