Sonic Drift

Sega exclusive

Sonic Drift is a racing game whose gameplay style and controls are heavily based on Sega's arcade game Out Run. Here, the players race around a race course against the other three characters for a top position in the race. The game's single player mode is Chaos GP, where the player's goal is to win three different circuits (green, yellow and red). Each circuit is made of six different race courses that the player is taken through in succession.

Released: 18 March 1994
Platforms: Game Gear
Genres: Racing
Developers: —
Publishers: —
Modes: Single-player
Perspective: Third person
Country: Japan

About

Sonic Drift is a 1994 kart racing video game developed and published by Sega for the Game Gear. Players control one of four characters as they race to the finish line, with 18 tracks themed after levels in 1991's Sonic the Hedgehog.

Although it was designed with inspiration from Nintendo's 1992 game Super Mario Kart, Sonic Drift shares gameplay similarities to "Super Scaler" games previously released by Sega. Sonic Drift was released exclusively in Japan; a western release was planned but later canceled due to concerns about its quality. Sonic Drift was later released worldwide as part of Sonic Adventure DX: Director's Cut in 2003 and the compilation game Sonic Mega Collection Plus in 2004. It was released again in 2023 as part of Sonic Origins Plus.

Keywords

go-kart
multiple protagonists
high score
talking animals
spiritual successor
anthropomorphism
hedgehog
spiky-haired protagonist

Media

The articlegameplay, story, development, reception

Gameplay

Sonic Drift is the first racing game in the Sonic the Hedgehog franchise. Players control one of four characters―Sonic the Hedgehog, Miles "Tails" Prower, Amy Rose, and Doctor Eggman―and race around a series of tracks, with the objective being to cross the finish line in first place. 18 tracks are featured, based on the various zones of 1991's Sonic the Hedgehog, including the Green Hill Zone. Drift is the first Sonic game to feature Amy as a playable character.

There are three game modes: Chaos GP, a grand prix mode; Free Run, a practice mode; and Versus Mode, where players can compete with one another. Chaos GP contains three separate cups of six tracks each and a points system where the goal is to earn more points than the competition. Each cup is identified with a color: green, yellow, or red.

Development

Developed in-house at Sega, the game was programmed by "Wa-Da" and "Shinchan", designed by Takako Kawaguchi, Gen Adachi, Shinichi Higashi, and "K Dash", directed by Katsuhiro Hasegawa, and produced by Hiroshi Aso. The music was composed by Masayuki Nagao. The box art and manual illustrations were drawn by Yasushi Yamaguchi. Flicky was initially planned to be the fourth playable character, but was replaced with Amy Rose.

Reception

Sonic Drift received mixed reviews. Electronic Gaming Monthly was positive towards it in a preview, saying that the game was fast-paced and enjoyable but the flashing, choppy scrolling hampered the gameplay somewhat. Three reviewers for Sega Pro gave a negative review of the game, criticizing the track designs as too similar, poor cornering controls, and low difficulty. Reviewer Mark Hill concluded his part of the review with "only a complete idiot would purchase a copy."

The three reviewers were more positive about the game's graphics and sound. According to Ulf Schneider of German magazine Mega Fun, Sonic Drift does not have the same quality of gameplay as Super Mario Kart and he criticized the lack of vision of a corner until being just before one, but he also said the game was fun and easy to master even on Hard difficulty. He also commented that the controls could be figured out within a few laps of gameplay.