Emulating isometric racers of the early 90s with its camera, aesthetic, and jaunty mix of dance and chiptune music, Day of Drift is a hark back to simpler gaming times. It is you against the track and the clock. Skill matters most, and you’ll be hitting restart to chase the ultimate gold trophy time for each challenge. It is a game that drops you straight into the action and keeps adding more things to consider from the outset.
There are two distinct modes in Day of Drift. The first is a pure time trial challenge. Across 30 tracks, you’ll skid and drift your way around 90-degree bends, U-turns, narrow car parks, and roundabouts. Cones and bollards will narrow your path, and if you hit any of them or the edge of the track, you’ll get a second added onto your time. Each track has a gold, silver, and bronze time, and if you don’t hit bronze, the game stops you on the spot and fails you. Gold is only obtainable on clean runs, which incentivises the just-one-more-go mentality that time trial racers do so well.
The second mode still has a time limit to beat, but your medal rank is tied to your drift score. If you clonk any track edges or cones, you’ll lose 20 drift points. Here, you’ll be balancing how long to drift for versus getting to the finish line on time, and as tracks get longer, this opens up some choices. Some tracks have split routes, or optional roundabouts, and if you’ve made good time, a quick doughnut around them can rack up bonus points. It counts for nothing if you don’t cross the line in time, though, so there’s risk and reward to balance.
A drifting game lives and dies by its physics. Day of Drift is one slippery snake! Your car is forever spinning its tyres, and the handbrake sends you into a long drift similar to a grappling hook in a platformer. You’ll be correcting oversteer often if you floor the gas pedal too much, but the key is that the oversteer, and handling in general, is consistent. Don’t use the handbrake for V-ing turns (not that the game lets you do much of that), but use the handbrake to arc hairpins neatly. A nitro boost also comes into play, but as tracks are so narrow and twisty, you only use it sparingly and when you are pointing in the right direction. Nitro’s snap you out of a drift instantly, so point and squirt to success.
A third mode does exist in Day of Drift, and it is a special mode. It follows the same gameplay as the other modes but takes special events like the Chinese New Year, creates a track for it, and gives it an online leaderboard. These are the only tracks to have online leaderboards, and I hope more are added to the mode over time. Seeing your name online is just the competitive boost this game needs. An innovative approach to a budget drift game is that you can create a custom setup for your car. You can alter the car’s top speed, turning sensitivity, acceleration, and drift arc to match specific tracks. Whilst I only explored this a little, I noticed differences in the extreme settings that could help players reach a much better time or score.
I have very little critique of Day of Drift. For just over three pounds, it provides a satisfying, approachable, consistent, and enjoyable drifting challenge. It has a punky-cute graphical and audio personality that oozes charm, and its scrappy physics backs it up. I’d have loved leaderboards for all the tracks, but the special mode will hopefully grow in time. Don’t sleep on this hidden gem, it’s a cracker.
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