I was always left wondering why Sega never copied Nintendo’s Mario Kart formula with their popular Sonic the Hedgehog franchise. It turns out they did but it was never released outside of Japan so most people never had a chance to play it. It’s also a Sega Game Gear exclusive as well which limits the userbase even further. Today we’re going to take a look at this import exclusive kart racer. Here’s our review of Sonic Drift for the Game Gear!
This is a kart racer, and a handheld game at that. There’s really not much of a storyline to speak of. Dr. Eggman (Robotnik to you and I) has stolen the chaos emeralds and it’s up to Sonic and crew to beat him in a number of different races to win them back. There are four playable characters from which you can choose here; Sonic, Tails, Amy and Eggman. The exclusion of Knuckles is a real headscratcher (especially when Eggman himself made the cut) but I’m willing to look past it. Regardless, the roster is very small and one of the most restricted I’ve seen in a mascot based kart racing game. It could easily have been double the size, and should at least have included two more characters.
Sonic Drift is a pretty blatant rip-off of Mario Kart. Everything from the behind the character 3D perspective to the on-screen map and power-ups is clearly borrowed. That in and of itself is not a bad thing at all because the formula is fantastic. Your basic mode of play is a grand prix against the three other other characters. You drive three laps around the track to complete each race, and have five or so rounds per prix. You earn points based on your placement (first gets 3, second 2, third 1, and fourth 0) and at the end of all the tournament the racer with the highest score wins overall.
Aside from the grand prix mode you also have multiplayer (you’ll need a second game gear, copy of the game, and link cable) as well as a time attack mode. I haven’t messed around much with these other settings (trying to find someone else who has a Game Gear isn’t going to be easy) but it’s nice they made the cut. This is pretty basic stuff, but at least Sonic Drift checks all the boxes for the content you would expect in a game like this.
This is where things fall off a little bit. Initially I was most worried about the gameplay engine. The Sega Genesis struggled to run games emulating this style of 3D so I figured there was no hope for the Game Gear. Somehow Sega pulled together with some pretty competent programming. The scaling on the track and terrain is decent. The other racers are rendered with very choppy animation but at least the developers got the engine right for the most part. The problem is that turns just suddenly appear with almost no visual warning. I found myself all over the road because I was caught off guard every time. You have to acclimate yourself to using the map so that you can be prepared because otherwise you’re going to be swerving everywhere and lose each race.
The next issue I have is that the courses just aren’t that interesting. Thematically they’re all based off of the levels in the original Sonic the Hedgehog. Aside from the backdrops and the map you’d be hard pressed to notice. Otherwise you’re just driving on different colored road and ground. What Sonic Drift needed was some well placed environmental hazards (besides the signs on the side of the road that is). Sonic the Hedgehog is full of them. Instead we get flat ground with no character. I realize that this game is pushing the Game Gear pretty hard but they should have put in something. Anything. The themes also repeat themselves throughout the three cups. I had to replay several times to make sure they weren’t the same exact courses to be honest.
Finally, we get to the lack of special items. They’re in here no doubt, but their effects are pretty lacking. You only have three to choose from, and you cannot stockpile one for use when you need it. Instead the effect is activated the moment you touch the icon. The first of these is a small speed boost you’ll barely notice. Really, the effect is so subtle it’s barely worth swerving to hit it. Then there’s a spring pad that causes you to fly temporarily through the air. For some odd reason you have better traction in the air so I found this super helpful right before a big turn. The last one is the most useful by far. You can gain temporary invincibility complete with music change and everything. Kart racers live and die by their items, and there just isn’t enough here.
Sonic Drift is one of the prettier games for the Sega Game Gear. The environment scrolling is surprisingly smooth (but not perfect) and the only thing that’s particularly choppy are the enemy racers. The characters are distinguishable as the mascots they’re supposed to represent which is nice, and the backgrounds are painted quite nicely. The big problem is that there isn’t much in the way of terrain and the tracks kind of fall flat. Also, things look a bit washed out overall but that’s a common issue with games for the platform. With the soundtrack the composer had one job; downgrade classic Sonic music and jam it into this game. Unfortunately they failed. Everything is original, and largely forgettable. The invincibility music is literally the only piece of music I liked.
