Day 6As the video game industry faces financial pressure, progress on accessibility is being rolled back
A new video game from Nintendo grabbed attention earlier this year when it promised something new: a team sports game featuring wheelchair basketball players.
But some accessibility advocates said the game itself isn’t actually very accessible to disabled players, thanks to its unique control scheme.
“This is insulting in that a portion of players who are in wheelchairs can’t even play a game where you are in a wheelchair,” Canadian accessibility in gaming advocate and consultant Steve Saylor said on social media.
Drag X Drive, released earlier this month, is a three-on-three competitive game that resembles wheelchair basketball. Players must use the Switch 2’s Joy-Con controllers like computer mice, mimicking using a wheelchair with their hands.
Players control sci-fi-styled wheelchairs as they race up and down a basketball court, scoring points by throwing the ball into the net. Players can also perform tricks by racing up the sloped walls of the court.
In a press release, Nintendo says the game is “inspired by a mix of wheelchair basketball, wheelchair rugby, wheelchair motocross, and skateboarding.”
Saylor, who played the game at a preview event, was frustrated that the game doesn’t offer alternate control options, such as using the traditional buttons and joysticks on the Joy-Cons, or attaching a special accessibility-focused device.
Experts say Nintendo failed the disabled gamer community — but noted that the game may have come under increased scrutiny because of the long-running scarcity of representation for disabled people in games in general.
Reviews for Drag x Drive have been mixed, with some critics praising the mouse-based wheelchair controls and others calling it a mix of “fun and frustrating“, or in one case “more drag than drive.”
Nintendo ‘dropped the ball,’ says gamer
Grant Stoner, a games journalist who covers accessibility issues based in Pittsburgh, said he tried to play Drag x Drive but could not engage with the dual-mouse movement because of limited use of his hands.
“Because the game requires you to essentially drag the JoyCons back and forth on a flat surface using a mouse movement, I’m physically unable to play,” he said.
“I’m obviously frustrated and I’m disappointed both in the fact that I can’t play it, but also the fact that Nintendo refuses to acknowledge the issue.”
At an April preview event in London, gaming consultant Laura Kate Dale said that on-site staff were instructed to say that players were using “vehicles,” not “wheelchairs” — and to correct attendees if they said the latter.
In a statement, Nintendo of Canada told CBC that “it has always been the case that the vehicles were inspired by wheelchairs,” and that this messaging was “miscommunicated at some events.” It did not comment on wider concerns about Drag X Drive’s lack of accessibility options.
WATCH | Drag X Drive overview trailerÂ
Ellie Furtney Stuber, a tabletop and video gaming streamer based in Toronto who uses a wheelchair, says Nintendo missed the mark by not considering disabled players of Drag X Drive.
Stuber says when gaming, she often uses Microsoft’s Xbox Elite controller, which has programmable buttons on the rear handles. They make it easier for her to play when she suffers from limited hand movements — but she notes that many people in wheelchairs have a wide range of mobility, including those who have full use of their hands and those who have none.
“Everyone in a wheelchair is not the same,” she said. “It feels like it completely dropped the ball, pun intended.”
Games industry’s accessibility rollback
Accessibility features exploded in big budget games around the early years of the COVID-19 pandemic, according to Dale. High-contrast visual options and audio cues for blind players became more common, for example.
But when lockdowns lifted and people started going outside again, the games industry began to contract, leading to tens of thousands of layoffs that hasn’t yet fully abated.
“Unfortunately, one of the things that seems to have been first on the chopping block at a lot of big studios is accessibility efforts, be it scaling back on consulting or getting rid of dedicated in-house positions,” Dale told CBC Radio’s Day 6 earlier this summer.
That dynamic is probably not the case with Nintendo, though, Stoner suggested. He suspects gamers in the disabled community may have set too high hopes for Drag X Drive when its dynamic wheelchair basketball action was first shown off in trailers.
Nintendo, he said, has typically lagged behind other game companies like Sony and Microsoft when it comes to accessibility options and on-screen representation.
But he wasn’t surprised by the excitement.Â
“Representation is so important for the disabled community, because we don’t really have representation in gaming,” he said, noting he can only think of a handful of prominent disabled characters in the medium.
Representation, or a ‘gimmick game’?
Stoner believes Nintendo was likely surprised that disabled representation became a discussion point at all, pointing to the fact that nearly all of Drag X Drive’s marketing was focused on using the Joy-Cons’ mouse-like motion controls — a new feature to the Switch 2 that wasn’t available in the previous Switch console.
“This was very clearly meant to be what I like to call gimmick games,” Stoner said, comparing it to 2006’s Wii Sports, which showcased the Wii’s motion controls.
It wouldn’t be the first time in recent years Nintendo’s gameplay-first design philosophy became a talking point.
Players use the Switch 2’s Joy-Con controllers similar to computer mice in Drag X Drive, mimicking the motion of using a wheelchair. (Nintendo)
Players finally got the chance to play as Princess Zelda in a leading role in last year’s Echoes of Wisdom game. But producer Eiji Aonmua said the idea came from the core mechanic of creating “echoes” of items and enemies, rather than swapping the princess and swordsman Link’s roles.Â
Stuber, however, says that track record shouldn’t keep Nintendo buffered from criticism.
“I do think it’s time to start holding them accountable,” she said. “If we’re really pushing for a world where video games are for everyone, that means that everyone needs to be considered when you’re building a video game.”