I played some Sonic Drift and Sonic Drift 2 recently and ho-boy, let me tell you… yeah.
I was kind of told that Sonic Drift was one of the best games for the Game Gear, more specifically Sonic Drift 2 was one of the best games for the Game Gear. What I found was that if Sonic Drift is what some consider good than they really need to change their standards. Sonic Drift and the sequel are racing games for the Sega Game Gear based on the once popular Sonic series as anyone that grew up in the 90s remembers. Now-a-days the series spends most of it’s time trying to imitate popular franchises, which actually is what they were doing with Sonic Drift. It’s a Mario Kart clone, except one of poorer quality and on an inferior system.
A reason why Super Mario Kart worked was that it was an early kart racing game that you would play on the SNES (i.e. on a television). Sonic Drift you play on a handheld system that is either too dark or too bright and weighs six tons. The odd thing about the game is that there would be something redeemable about it if made for a home console. Unfortunately, it isn’t so I have to play the game kind of “squinty.” The blocky pixels make Sonic Drift a horrible sight to behold in teeny-tiny vision and the gameplay is much more generic than it’s Mario predecessor, and the track feels more cramped. I remember sitting in my orthodontist’s office as a kid and playing an extremely similar motorcycle game for the same system.
All that leaves us with a generic, but not unplayable game… until the god awful music, which is both horrible and repetitive, comes stabbing at my ears. That is probably why I hate it. The music is murderous.
But if you are willing to turn off the volume, rediscover the game gear you probably never owned and are willing to prepare yourself for some disappointing nostalgia than I heartily recommend you play either of the Sonic Drift series (which would have been better on a home console). It’s a very early racing game for the handheld consoles, and the genre has really done nothing but improve.
