Review: Driving School Original (Nintendo Switch)
Driving School Original features some amazing environments like cities, country roads, highways, deserts, mountains, etc. You can drive a manual transmission with clutch and stick shift or keep to the classic automatic gearbox. Use a virtual steering wheel or any other control options that suit your needs.
Pros:
- Nice graphics.
- 1.2gb download size.
- Driving simulator gameplay.
- Touchscreen support.
- Online Leaderboards,
- Own achievements system.
- Settings-metric, gearbox, arcade mode, and stability.
- Two modes-free rides and career.
- 19 maps ranging from San Francisco, Ireland to Tokyo and Liverpool.
- 4 driving views- lose, far, interior and bumper.
- Career-each map has a handful of levels (objectives) you earn bronze, silver and gold medals based off performance.
- Multiplayer Modes: Racing, Free Ride & Catch the Flag.
- damage system.
- Exp is earned and lost for following the rules of the road. Signaling, stopping, etc will give or take exp. Exp is also the currency.
- Dozen or so cars to drive. No official names but you can make out which car is which and each has its own stats.
- Garage-view cars and spend exp on new customization options for your car like paint jobs, wheels, and tinted windows.
- Different weather types like rain and sun, night and day.
- Freeride- pick a city and drive.
- Actions-wipers, indicators, horn, lights, gears, cruise control, and ignition.
- Freeride doesn’t have exp penalties.
- Decent loading times.
- Easy to learn.
Cons:
- No tutorial on either the controls or the rules of the road.
- Can be hard to get your car to a complete stop and moves in cutscenes.
- Hard to keep the speed steady without using cruise control constantly.
- In the bumper view, you cannot look around.
- Out of car views are still too close and obstructive.
- No hand brake.
- Free ride-can’t earn exp.
- Bad hit detection and crashing will then have cars behind driving straight into you over and over.
- More arcade than a simulator.
- No stats or a sense of progress.
- Graphics - 8/108/10
- Sound - 8/108/10
- Accessibility - 7/107/10
- Length - 7/107/10
- Fun Factor - 8/108/10
Summary
With a driving test on the horizon, I was eager to see how this game would help or hinder any extra preparation? The stupid idea really as it’s not ever gonna simulate real life but hey. Right OK so initially it’s a nice looking game and boasts an impressive 19 locations from many surprising places of the globe. Right so the actual driving is fine, the career is bare bones but does serve a purpose. The issue for all driving is actually the views, too close and you can’t look around and too far away you can’t see in front, it’s just annoying and turns simple movements into a clickathon mini-game as you constantly change views. The free ride is for those moments you just cannot be arsed and want to cruise around, it is fine. OK, so I respect what the game is going for and in a weird sort of way I enjoy the challenge and find it all very relaxing. Exp is earned and lost by obeying the rules of the road which is absolutely fine and makes sense, but only if you already know the rules! For the game does not explain anything like that and instead will just praise or personalize you based on your actions. You won’t gain an edge over anyone by playing this game but to be honest, it’s just a nice Sunday afternoon drive kind of game and is rough in places but is still nice to play.
