Original Release: Sega, 1994, Game Gear
Sega’s crack at knocking off Mario Kart didn’t work out all that well.
Sonic Drift (Game Gear, Sega, 1994)
Where to Buy: Amazon
How to Emulate: coming soon!
Review by: C. M0use
This is one of the better-looking titles on the Game Gear roster, but oof is the gameplay awful.
Sega tried to adapt their arcade Super Scaler tech for the humble handheld for this one, and it really did not work out. Everything looks good until you get to your first corner, and then it just whips up on you too fast to be manageable. Even if you’re managing to eyeball the little route map and predict where they are to position yourself, it’s still next to impossible to take half of them without skidding off the track.
Also, Sonic is the only character that kinda-drifts (which just happens automatically by turning). You’re basically forced to pick him to have any chance at all of winning a race, since he handles corners a little better than the other racers. He still sucks too much, though.
Don’t expect even a SNES Super Mario Kart level of handling from this game, it’s like some primitive 8-bit nonsense (appropriate I guess since the Game Gear is basically just the Sega Master System). Sega didn’t bother releasing this one in America, and it won’t take much playtime to see why.
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