Drone Fight Review

It just keeps droning on.

Drone Fight. When you read the title you would be forgiven for thinking there’s some kind of battling element in this game. But no – it’s essentially a racing game but with multiplayer, engaging tracks, replayability and online play stripped away.

The object of the game is to fly through coloured rings with your drone to gain the lead – there are three laps around each track and if you miss a ring you have to fly back to get it. Otherwise you risk falling behind to last place, which is a really hard task anyway given the game’s minimal difficulty level. There are three difficulty modes which I found altered absolutely nothing; easy, normal and hard. The AI controlled drones are painfully slow and don’t offer any sort of challenge and given there is no local multiplayer here, it’s really the only challenge you’re going to get.

You can select from four different drones which differ in look and play style, some are faster than others whilst others favour a knack for getting around tight corners with ease. There are two game modes; CPU Battle or Time Attack. The first option lets you play in a Grand Prix style mode or select single tracks to race against the computer and the second will record your fastest times around each of the tracks on offer. There are nine Grand Prix cups and each one has four tracks in each. On the surface that doesn’t sound too bad but there is a huge ‘but’. You get thirty six tracks of which there are basically just two because it’s the same four tracks in each one they just either play in the day or night or are reversed. Those two tracks are based around a forest or the desert. Yep, that’s your lot.

The fact that the same variation of tracks is repeated isn’t the worst part; the game genuinely looks like it was created on an old PC from the 90’s. I’m not one for graphics and 4K high definition however I would much rather have mediocre looks with amazing gameplay. But when both fall short, it’s a huge disappointment. When you’re “racing” around the tracks, sometimes you’ll bump into a tree, or a wall even though you were about an inch away from it which then has you repeatedly hitting that same spot until the game decides it wants to let you continue, this just adds to the frustration of playing around a track from Windows 95.

There is next to no replay value after finishing all 9 Grand Prix modes, you receive medals based on if you place first, second or third but with no achievements or unlockable tracks/drones you’ll find little reason to revisit. I do feel bad because I want to add something positive about the game, but I’m really struggling to find anything there.

Right from the opening title, Drone Fight just disappoints. The music is lackluster and the addition of hearing a loud buzzing noise (I presume to replicate that of an actual drone) really is something they could have dulled down or left out entirely for the duration of the races. I couldn’t say this any more clearly, avoid Drone Fight at all costs unless you’re after an evening of punishment, as unfortunately it’s one of the worst Switch games I’ve played yet!