Sonic Drift

About Sonic Drift

Sonic Drift (1994) is Sega's Japan-only Game Gear kart racer, the first Sonic racing game, with Sonic, Tails, Amy and Eggman drifting around 18 tracks based on the original game's zones.

Sonic Drift in Depth

Players race as one of four characters, Sonic, Miles "Tails" Prower, Amy Rose or Doctor Eggman, aiming to cross the finish line first. The 18 tracks are based on zones from the 1991 Sonic the Hedgehog, including Green Hill Zone. It was the first Sonic game with Amy as a playable character. The modes are Chaos GP, a grand prix of three six-track cups, green, yellow and red, scored by points; Free Run for practice; and Versus Mode for head-to-head races.

Inspired by Super Mario Kart but closer in feel to Sega's "Super Scaler" arcade racers such as Out Run and Super Monaco GP, it centres on drifting through corners at speed. Each character has strengths and weaknesses: Sonic accelerates quickly but handles poorly, while Eggman is slow to accelerate but fast. The top half of the screen shows the course map and the bottom the race. Monitors on the track give power-ups such as invincibility, and gold rings power a special move unique to each character, a speed boost for Sonic and a jump for Tails. Sega Pro's reviewers criticised its similar tracks, poor cornering and low difficulty, while Mega Fun found it fun and easy to master, if not as good as Super Mario Kart.

Making Sonic Drift

Sega developed it in-house, programmed by "Wa-Da" and "Shinchan", designed by Takako Kawaguchi, Gen Adachi, Shinichi Higashi and "K Dash", directed by Katsuhiro Hasegawa and produced by Hiroshi Aso, with music by Masayuki Nagao and box art by Yasushi Yamaguchi. Electronic Gaming Monthly's preview found it fast and enjoyable but hampered by flashing, choppy scrolling, and Sega Pro's Mark Hill wrote that "only a complete idiot would purchase a copy". Retrospective feedback has also been negative. It was later included in Sonic Mega Collection Plus in 2004 and Sonic Origins Plus in 2023.