I love drifting. It was Horizon 4 that taught me the basics and ever since then I've become a bit obsessed. I play Forza Horizon 4 every day and I've sunk two thousand hours into it. I'm in the world top 200 on its longest and most gruelling drift zone, the Needle Climb, so I'm a handy drifter by now. And most racing/driving games allow you to drift and have specific challenges forI love drifting. It was Horizon 4 that taught me the basics and ever since then I've become a bit obsessed. I play Forza Horizon 4 every day and I've sunk two thousand hours into it. I'm in the world top 200 on its longest and most gruelling drift zone, the Needle Climb, so I'm a handy drifter by now. And most racing/driving games allow you to drift and have specific challenges for drifting.
But only a small handful of games actually get drifting right, and to get it right it has to feel natural. The reason drifting feels natural in FH4(and in Forza Motorsport) is because the reasons you drift in those games are the same reasons you drift in real life. The physics in Forza may be toytown versions of real physics, but they are still accurate. The physics work the same way they do in the real world. By contrast, other racing games, like NFS or Grid, or the execrable Crew 2, simulate drifting in completely unnatural ways. It doesn't feel physical. It feels like the developers just made the back ends of some cars slip out in a way that looks a bit like drifting. Whereas with Forza the reason you drift is because your rear wheels lose traction: simple as that. If they lose a lot of traction you spin out, and if you oversteer too much you spin out. If you don't have enough horsepower your car won't drift very far. And AWD drifting is completely different to RWD drifting. It all feels completely natural. The same goes for Dirt Rally. The best drifting games have drifting that is just a by-product of their physics engines. The drifting is just what happens when you control your oversteer and your rear wheels break traction. It's not added into the game by hand. It feels natural and therefore it feels right. The same goes for Assetto Corsa's formidably realistic drifting.
Which is all a long way round of saying: Absolute drift feels the same way. It's simpler than the drifting in the aforementioned games: I haven't seen much need to clutch-kick or any of the advanced techniques I use, But it feels absolutely, physically, right. The weight transfer of the cars, the oversteer, the arcs of your drifts: it's glorious. Your car is tiny, but you feel that connection with it all the same. And even though the game is short and small it's so moreish to play, and to get better at, that you'll repeat certain levels just for the joy of hooning around them. It's a bit more complex than I expected too: there's a clutch, manual gearing, there's a bunch of assists that I recommend you switch off to get the full experience.
This tiny gem of a game was followed up by Art Of Rally, a more fleshed out rally racing game, with a lot of very slidey, drifty cars. But I think I prefer Absolute Drift at the moment. It's simpler, purer and more addictive. If you life drifting in any way you should get it. Especially on Switch, its natural home.
Oh, and give Funselektor ALL THE MONEY; they/he are/is obviously hugely talented, and understands exactly what feels great about pulling that handbrake, breaking that traction and sweeping around a long, lazy corner sideways, puffing on a cigar and grinning at the locals. I would dearly love to see what Funselektor could do with a AA/AAA budget.… Expand
Absolute Drift: Zen EditionYour Score0 out of 10User Score
