A racer that seems to be in the wrong lane going the wrong direction
Sonic Drift 2 is a Mario Kart-type racing game released for the Game Gear in 1995. Obviously, it was developed and published by the fine folks at Sega. The Game Gear was Sega's portable system, being the answer to Nintendo's Game Boy. While more powerful and impressive than the Game Boy (it has color!), it ultimately failed due to its price and short battery life. SD2 is obviously the sequel to the first game in the series, also released for the Game Gear.
SD2 has four modes: Chaos GP, Free Run, Versus, and Option. Chaos GP has three cups: Purple, White, and Blue, each one containing six courses each. Free Run lets you race the clock on any of the 18 courses. Versus is the two player mode. Options gives you these exciting options for the game: you can set the difficulty and turn the enemy on or off. Wowee! There are seven characters in the game: Sonic, Tails, Amy, Eggman, Metal Sonic, Fang, and Knuckles. Everyone races in some kind of race car except for Eggman, who races in his egg-shaped hover pod (he really does look like an egg in that thing!). Although there are seven characters, you will only race against three others, chosen randomly. This is no doubt due to the limitations of the Game Gear.
Now let's get into the actual racing aspect. Brace yourself! The top half of the screen shows a map of the course while the bottom half shows the actual racing. Have we seen this in another kart racer? Oh yeah, in that Super Mario Kart game. Well, the map is useful only because the horizon is so short that it's difficult to know when to turn; the map helps you to see where the next turn is. However, curves in the road approach so quickly that you won't be ready for them until it's too late. Making sharp turns is nigh impossible! You see, the controls are really stiff; you can't just nudge your car left or right, no, the whole vehicle will turn.
The courses in which you can fall off the road will make you curse like never before
Most of the course are boring, with a static background, nothing interesting happening in them, filled with a bunch of turns which make you sick. Those turns! You better have a barf bag on hand because the constant turns and swerves will make you dizzy. The speed in this game is fast, but that's a bad thing. It's like they said, "This is a Sonic game, so it has to be fast." Great. And it's so fast that making turns is impossible and I feel like puking almost every race. This game is not fun.
One neat thing is that some courses will loop while others have a definite starting and ending point. It's just a shame the courses are such a dizzifying mess. Watch out for obstacles while you're racing. Hitting anything will make you spin out of control and stop completely (another annoyance to add to the long list).
In each course you can collect rings (just like you collect coins in Super Mario Kart). But be careful, if you get hit, you'll lose those rings, just like in the Sonic games. Some courses have tiny jumps or springs, but they really don't add much to the experience. There are items scattered around on the courses, but they randomly appear and I usually missed them; sometimes I drove right through them! The items aren't special at all; just boosts and stuff like that. Honestly, I couldn't even figure out how to use them, but their vagueness and sparcity make them seem meaningless.
Apparently each character has a special ability, but how to use it was a mystery to me. Besides that, who you pick makes no difference. They all handle the same, being awful! By the end of the races, you'll feel like a drunk driver. Swerve! Watch out! Spin out of control! Sharp turn approaching! Swerve! Too late, you lose. This is how I felt atleast. Thankfully, Sonic's more recent racing games are much better than his first ones.
Final Verdict--2 Stars: Not Worth It
I would stay away from this racing game. Stick with Mario Kart, which you can always count on to be great. Granted, Sonic and his games were still young in 1995; I guess he was still feeling his way around, trying to poke into some different genres. But Sonic has always done best in the platformer games. He's proved recently that he can be in good racing games. But back in 1995, the guy should never have stepped off the fast track to get in the race track. Sonic drifted all right; he drifted into the wrong lane, and that's quite embarrassing.
Join me every Saturday as we take a look back at all kinds of retro games, good and bad.
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