You ever finished a game that made you go "Man, that was awesome! I am now going to uninstall and never touch this game ever again for trauma reasons!" Absolute Drift is that game for me. I've 100%ed the game while getting at least top 30% on most of the tracks. It's a game I highly recommend getting, especially on a sale. Anyway, here are some more thoughts on the game.
This game has a small selection of vehicles to go to town with, and I appreciate each of them for what they offered. I won't go into details because it's hard to explain the feel of driving these things, but just know that each one varies in their driving style, and none feel like carbon copies of each other. That being said the missile is hands down my favorite of the bunch. It's really fast and yet easy to maneuver with and make those controlled slides. I did try the cars that came after it, but none could hold a candle to how comfy the missile felt.
Absolute Drift's visuals are very simple, but this definitely works in the game's favor. Almost everything is made of simple geometry and bright, flat colors, The limited palette they used throughout also makes the game stand out.
Though nowhere near as expansive as its successor, art of rally, this game's soundtrack is a banger through and through. It, with the help of the map design, puts the game into a dreamy atmosphere, where you can just unwind and vibe out while you make donuts and whatnot.
I really like how they created each world and gave them their unique themes that seem to evolve and get more detailed as you progress. The connective parts between the worlds is actually my favorite little touch. From World 3-5, you don't just cross a bridge to make it to the next zone, you have to do a little touge run up a hill, which gives you that little but more immersion as you can live out the fantasy of driving around the actual hills of Japan. The minigames in each zone are frankly quite simple, drift here, spin there, jump over this, etc., but it's a nice incentive for you to explore this playground you've been given and ogle at the landmarks around you.
As for each of the tracks, they also fit the theme of the zone they're located in. From ports, to train stations, to tight streets surrounded by residential buildings, it gives each track a special feel.
There are 4 gamemodes, but it's basically two: drifting, driftkhana, mountain drift (basically a non-circuit drift) and a midnight version of mountain drift. These all hold a checklist of tasks they want you to do, which you have to complete a certain amount to unlock the midnight drifts of each zone. Overall, these checklists are fun to get along with trying to get the highest score, with the regular drifts having clipping poles and drifting lines that give a boatload of points when you do the perfectly, and driftkhanas adding on some large cylinders to donut around and squares to spin within. I personally am not a fan of how the spinning within the squares don't give you any points, which can make your combos end prematurely, therefore deincentivizing you to play with them when you're not doing them for a side objective, but beyond that (and the one point of contention I have with this game), they're a good bunch of variety that keeps you from feeling too monotonous throughout.
Oh my god these things are soooo janky. Sometimes, they work in your favor, where they'll still register even when you ram into them and bounce off, but most of the time (when it doesn't function normally), they struggle to register if you've drifted near them. From the first them I saw those poles to the final race I had to interact with them with, they were a pain to deal with. However, one track, Okoyama stands above the rest of the most infuriating track in the game. The map's design is already not fun to play with, being a driftkhana with lots of large barriers/donut circles that obstruct your drift, but a mission too that demands TWENTY FIVE POLES. Those were just... not fun.
This is a very small section, but it's worth mentioning. Whenever I did a run multiple times, there's always a chance that the game will yoink my controllers and steer the car straight into the wall, literally giving me controller drift. This doesn't happen in freeroam nor on the first attempt of any track, so I have no idea why this happens. Also, the scoring UI is kinda frustrating; why is the gaming showing me the multiplied score on the thing I scored on when the actually score at the top will only show its non-multiplied form? I know "big number = neuron activation" and all, but the inconsistency just bugs me.



Well, that's all. This game was really fun for the time that I played it in, and though there were a few rough patches and I did begin to feel a bit burnt out near the end (I spent an hour and a half on the final midnight track, that was truly hell), I pushed through and got to bask in the glory of 100% this game. Thanks for reading, sorry if I hurt your brain with my ranting, and I hope you're willing to give this game a shot!

You ever finished a game that made you go "Man, that was awesome! [b]I am now going to uninstall and never touch this game ever again for trauma reasons![/b]" Absolute Drift is that game for me. I've 100%ed the game while getting at least top 30% on most of the tracks. It's a game I highly recommend getting, especially on a sale. Anyway, here are some more thoughts on the game. [h2]What I Liked[/h2] [h3]The Cars[/h3] This game has a small selection of vehicles to go to town with, and I appreciate each of them for what they offered. I won't go into details because it's hard to explain the [i]feel[/i] of driving these things, but just know that each one varies in their driving style, and none feel like carbon copies of each other. That being said the [b]missile[/b] is hands down my favorite of the bunch. It's really fast and yet easy to maneuver with and make those controlled slides. I did try the cars that came after it, but none could hold a candle to how comfy the missile felt. [h3]Visuals & Music[/h3] Absolute Drift's visuals are very simple, but this definitely works in the game's favor. Almost everything is made of simple geometry and bright, flat colors, The limited palette they used throughout also makes the game stand out. Though nowhere near as expansive as its successor, art of rally, this game's soundtrack is a banger through and through. It, with the help of the map design, puts the game into a dreamy atmosphere, where you can just unwind and vibe out while you make donuts and whatnot. [h3]Free-roam & Individual Tracks[/h3] I really like how they created each world and gave them their unique themes that seem to evolve and get more detailed as you progress. The connective parts between the worlds is actually my favorite little touch. From World 3-5, you don't just cross a bridge to make it to the next zone, you have to do a little touge run up a hill, which gives you that little but more immersion as you can live out the fantasy of driving around the actual hills of Japan. The minigames in each zone are frankly quite simple, drift here, spin there, jump over this, etc., but it's a nice incentive for you to explore this playground you've been given and ogle at the landmarks around you. As for each of the tracks, they also fit the theme of the zone they're located in. From ports, to train stations, to tight streets surrounded by residential buildings, it gives each track a special feel. [h3]Mission Design[/h3] There are 4 gamemodes, but it's basically two: drifting, driftkhana, mountain drift (basically a non-circuit drift) and a midnight version of mountain drift. These all hold a checklist of tasks they want you to do, which you have to complete a certain amount to unlock the midnight drifts of each zone. Overall, these checklists are fun to get along with trying to get the highest score, with the regular drifts having clipping poles and drifting lines that give a boatload of points when you do the perfectly, and driftkhanas adding on some large cylinders to donut around and squares to spin within. I personally am not a fan of how the spinning within the squares don't give you any points, which can make your combos end prematurely, therefore deincentivizing you to play with them when you're not doing them for a side objective, but beyond that (and the one point of contention I have with this game), they're a good bunch of variety that keeps you from feeling too monotonous throughout. [h2]What I Liked Less (basically just one thing)[/h2] [h3]CLIPPING POLES[/h3] Oh my god these things are soooo janky. Sometimes, they work in your favor, where they'll still register even when you ram into them and bounce off, but most of the time (when it doesn't function normally), they struggle to register if you've drifted near them. From the first them I saw those poles to the final race I had to interact with them with, they were a pain to deal with. However, one track, Okoyama stands above the rest of the most infuriating track in the game. The map's design is already not fun to play with, being a driftkhana with lots of large barriers/donut circles that obstruct your drift, but a mission too that demands TWENTY FIVE POLES. Those were just... not fun. [h3]Smaller UI Gripes & Bugs[/h3] This is a very small section, but it's worth mentioning. Whenever I did a run multiple times, there's always a chance that the game will yoink my controllers and steer the car straight into the wall, literally giving me controller drift. This doesn't happen in freeroam nor on the first attempt of any track, so I have no idea why this happens. Also, the scoring UI is kinda frustrating; why is the gaming showing me the multiplied score on the thing I scored on when the actually score at the top will only show its non-multiplied form? I know "big number = neuron activation" and all, but the inconsistency just bugs me. Well, that's all. This game was really fun for the time that I played it in, and though there were a few rough patches and I did begin to feel a bit burnt out near the end (I spent an hour and a half on the final midnight track, that was truly hell), I pushed through and got to bask in the glory of 100% this game. Thanks for reading, sorry if I hurt your brain with my ranting, and I hope you're willing to give this game a shot!