Smashing Drive is a racing video game developed and published by Gaelco and distributed by Namco. The game was first released in arcades in 2000 and was ported to the Nintendo GameCube and Xbox in 2002 by Point of View and Namco. Subsequently, it has been released for the Game Boy Advance in 2004 by DSI Games and Namco. A PlayStation 2 version was planned, but was canceled.
Description[ | ]
The player races against time and another psychotic cab driver through New York City to get the cash. The game is divided into 4 difficulties, each of which contains 3 different levels (with the exception of "Dusk and Wired," which only contains one). If the player manages to beat the rival cab in all 3 levels of a difficulty, he would be taken to a bonus stage with the only available route being all of the Risky Routes. At the end of a stage, the players score would be based on the amount of time it took to reach the destination, the cab's condition, the rival being beaten, the number of Turbo powerups obtained, and the number of Risky Routes traversed. Unlike many racing games, the horn actually has a functional use of making (most) mobile vehicles move aside.
Difficulties ("shifts") and levels[ | ]
- Early Bird Shift (Easy)
- Brooklyn
- Wall Street
- Little Italy
- Rush Hour Shift (Normal)
- Brooklyn Navy Yard
- Music City Hall
- West Central Park
- Night Owl Shift (Hard)
- Sea and Air Museum
- 5th Ave. to 34th St.
- Times Square
- Dusk & Wired Shift (Reward)
- Statue of Liberty
Power-Ups[ | ]
- Cutter - Cuts through long vehicles such as limos and other tough stuff.
- Big-Foot/4x4 - Gives the cab big wheels that can allow the player to drive over other vehicles(excluding the rival cab).
- Turbo - Gives the cab some speed and can be useful to help the player beat the rival.
- Bonus - Gives the player extra money after beating the rival.
- Time - Gives the player extra time.
- Glider - Gives the player some wings to fly for a short amount of time depending on how big the jump is.
- Repair - Fixes the cab.
- Sonic - A super horn that literally blows the cars away.
- Crash - A very useful power-up that gives the car a shield that protects the player's cab as it crashes through other vehicles without damaging the cab.
- ? - A wild card power-up that gives a random power-up.
Differences between arcade and console versions[ | ]
- The cutscenes at the beginning and end of the stages that show fares getting into/leaving the cab have been removed in the console versions.
- The powerup "Big-Foot" has been renamed to "4x4".
- New "Survival Mode" allows the cab to actually be destroyed with too much damage, ending the level.