I’m gonna talk about both Drift 1 and Drift 2 since I don’t feel like writing two reviews and they are so similar it doesn’t really feel worth it.
For what Sonic Drift wants to achieve it’s not bad at all. Problem is it’s not achieving much pfftt. I don’t think an 8-bit kart racer released in 1994 was ever going to knock anyone’s socks off, but for little Jimmy in the back of the car on the trip to grandma’s I imagine this to be a very serviceable way to pass the time. It’s a good, engaging challenge to look at the map and signs, and make your turns at the right time! The minimum for a racing game!
Unfortunately that minimum is about all it has going for it, so anyone who isn’t little Jimmy is unlikely to willingly spend more than an hour with this game. The general Sonic theming is as good as it could be with tracks based on Sonic 1 zones, and characters with varying stats (not told in the game? Maybe in a manual?) reflecting their personalities(?), but it’s very hard to appreciate that when the actual game is just so barebones. The “items” don’t add too much either. The little animations and pictures of the characters that change depending on whether they’re winning or losing do a put a smile on my face though, they’re just so silly (and some very derpy :P ).
Sonic Drift 2 devs read my last paragraph, said “get a load of this guy!” and proceeded to shove a bunch of new stuff into the game that kinda feels like if it got a modern day dlc:
- More characters! Fang, “Knucles”, and Metal Sonic are here, cool.
- More creative zones! Some Sonic 2 based ones and a quite a few original ones
- More ambitious stages: more obstacles in the road, tunnels, half-pipe turns, bottomless cliffs,seizure inducing lightning effects, etc.
- More opportunities to use items, and character abilities
There is probably a bunch of stuff I’m missing as well because I admit I didn’t exactly play this one thoroughly; I was definitely getting bored. Theoretically these features should make the game much more interesting. For me though, I’m still playing Sonic Drift, and no amount of cool additional sparklies or shinies is really elevating my experience very much. If all of the concepts in this were moved to a mega drive version (with easy built in multiplayer??) then I think I could appreciate them much more, instead of just occasionally feeling like I did something cool that I previously couldn’t do.
Apparently there is 2-player versus available. I'm just learning right now, you gotta use the “Gear-to-Gear” cable pfftt. That would totally be the most fun way to experience the Drifts. But as they stand, racing against the CPUs just wasn’t too thrilling after the first couple GPs.
Drift 1, Drift 2, it’s all the same really.
For what Sonic Drift wants to achieve it’s not bad at all. Problem is it’s not achieving much pfftt. I don’t think an 8-bit kart racer released in 1994 was ever going to knock anyone’s socks off, but for little Jimmy in the back of the car on the trip to grandma’s I imagine this to be a very serviceable way to pass the time. It’s a good, engaging challenge to look at the map and signs, and make your turns at the right time! The minimum for a racing game!
Unfortunately that minimum is about all it has going for it, so anyone who isn’t little Jimmy is unlikely to willingly spend more than an hour with this game. The general Sonic theming is as good as it could be with tracks based on Sonic 1 zones, and characters with varying stats (not told in the game? Maybe in a manual?) reflecting their personalities(?), but it’s very hard to appreciate that when the actual game is just so barebones. The “items” don’t add too much either. The little animations and pictures of the characters that change depending on whether they’re winning or losing do a put a smile on my face though, they’re just so silly (and some very derpy :P ).
Sonic Drift 2 devs read my last paragraph, said “get a load of this guy!” and proceeded to shove a bunch of new stuff into the game that kinda feels like if it got a modern day dlc:
- More characters! Fang, “Knucles”, and Metal Sonic are here, cool.
- More creative zones! Some Sonic 2 based ones and a quite a few original ones
- More ambitious stages: more obstacles in the road, tunnels, half-pipe turns, bottomless cliffs,
- More opportunities to use items, and character abilities
There is probably a bunch of stuff I’m missing as well because I admit I didn’t exactly play this one thoroughly; I was definitely getting bored. Theoretically these features should make the game much more interesting. For me though, I’m still playing Sonic Drift, and no amount of cool additional sparklies or shinies is really elevating my experience very much. If all of the concepts in this were moved to a mega drive version (with easy built in multiplayer??) then I think I could appreciate them much more, instead of just occasionally feeling like I did something cool that I previously couldn’t do.
Apparently there is 2-player versus available. I'm just learning right now, you gotta use the “Gear-to-Gear” cable pfftt. That would totally be the most fun way to experience the Drifts. But as they stand, racing against the CPUs just wasn’t too thrilling after the first couple GPs.
Drift 1, Drift 2, it’s all the same really.