Inertial Drift Review | Great driving mechanics.

Inertial Drift has one of the smartest ways to control a car. Of course, it's not like driving a real car and it's accompanied by some of the most outlandish drifting mechanics I've ever seen. But, there's no denying how much fun it is to play. The game is absolutely killing it! Especially with the neon Tokyo vibes all the tracks have.

What else can I ask for? So let's accelerate into Inertial Drift's game modes and why it's such a well crafted and enjoyable racing game. What makes Inertial Drift stand out are the drift controls. Maybe I'm a sucker for twin-stick controls. I thought ape escape really changed the game.

But no, the trend didn't really catch on so I feel justified to say Inertial Drift uses a unique twin-stick design. The left stick is for turning and the right for controlling the drift. But, there's no chance these cars would be street legal in real life, they barely turn.

The game creates some kind of new technology to explain it and you know what? I don't care. The mechanic is easy to understand, has a high skill ceiling, and it's fun. The dual-stick controls give the player an incredible amount of authority over the drift.

And you're going to need it since there's a giant difference between every car in the game. Some of them are crazy drifters making them more challenging to control but can perform better on the track. Keep in mind there are no car collisions in Inertial Drift.

The focus is strictly on completing the fastest lap or couple of laps. I'm surprised by the decision but it's nice. I'll admit I abuse the other cars if it will help me take a turn faster. So focusing on the racing line is welcome. Otherwise, the drifting is too extreme and it would get really messy with far too many crashes to be fun.

Anyway, Inertial Drift is one of the few racing games to pull off a story Actually, it has four stories, one for each of the starting characters. They're not mind-blowing and they all use the same tracks but they're a lot more exciting than racing in a Grand Prix for no reason.

Also, the events are varied between a race, time trials, and drifting for score. The developers tried to deliver something fresh with each story matching the character's car and personality. Each learns a little about themselves and I enjoyed seeing the characters grow into better racers.

The writing is good and the colorful portraits don't hurt. At the end of the day, it's a racing game and these stories are a good delivery system. Now all those mechanics come together in the variety of cars you can drive. They each have a different style of control.

It's kinda tricky to explain but while one car might drift if you let off the gas another might only drift when you use the brakes. However, it's not the only aspect that is different. The amount a car can drift also is unique. Some cars can go into a super-strong drifts but it makes them more difficult to master.

The game does a great job of giving the player plenty of variety to start them off slow and then delivers a challenge with the advanced cars. Also, every car is fun to drive. I had just as much fun wringing the most out of the first car as the last. Mastering all the cars takes precision and practice.

It's a skill I had to work on and it's the reason I like the game so much. Anything which can challenge me and I can feel myself improving every race is exactly what I want. Luckily there are more than the starting four drivers but you must play through story mode to meet them.

Inertial Drift has sixteen drivers in total and they all play differently. After you meet them in the story you can play as them in challenge mode to unlock them in the other modes but first you must win their challenge. Which is great but also doesn't count story mode, kinda sad but I understand it would have been a huge undertaking.

Still, you can play them in arcade and Grand Prix mode which is plenty. Grand Prix takes you through five events specialized for the character and it's not only races. I appreciate the variety. So there's plenty more racing to do as my goal now is to finish a Grand Prix with every car.

Oh side note, there is online and it works well. However, as I've said before it's impossible to count on smaller indie games to have enough population to play online. And it's one of those which matches you up with a random opponent instead of lobbies.

So if you wanted to play with your friends online it's going to be difficult. I do have one silly complaint. The drivers are so damn chatty! Their text bubbles pop up in the middle of story mode to give you a compliment or boast about their skills. It's easy to ignore! But I still felt obligated to read the messages and they're all the way on the left side of the screen so I ended up racing poorly as I'm focusing on reading instead of driving.

They're not meaningful and I can appreciate the developer's attempt to add personality but I really can't divert my attention from the task at hand. Overall, Inertial Drift is a great arcade racer and it's my kind of game. The only way it could be better is if they included more content.