365//365: Day 324 – Sonic Drift (GG) [PP]

"Driving down the lane of lethargy."

Before Sonic & Sega All-Star Racing, and even before the unflushed residue that was Sonic R, Japan released a Sonic based racing title on the Game Gear. Sonic Drift lets you race as one of a meager four racers through three laps around tracks the size of a thimble. The narrow roads and constant hard turns you need to maneuver through butcher the controls, which consists of acceleration and braking. Notice something missing? Indeed, there is no button to use an item. Not just because the Sega Game Gear is a two button handheld, but because there’s only two actual beneficial pick ups. One is a speed boost that doesn’t work, and the other of which is invincibility, which comes in handy for plowing through off-road obstructions that will normally stop you cold. Everything else screams hack job. It’s a visual travesty, not pushing any boundaries, but floundering in its own mediocrity. The audio sounds worse than some Coleco Vision titles, with painfully drab music, and ear bleeding effects that will have you reaching for the volume slider on the Game Gear. There’s absolutely not variety, originality, rhyme or reason with anything Sonic Drift offers. Its Chaos GP mode barely offers a half dozen tracks, none of which are engaging, but rather infuriatingly laid out, with an AI routine that races down the middle and does nothing else. Definitely the worst kart racing game ever.

Sonic Drift is spectacularly unspectacular, in every which way.

Rating: 0.7