Cool cars, a rad ’90s racer aesthetic, and a free price point — what could go wrong with Mega Drift (Free)? Despite the on-paper looks, it’s the pacing that wounds the beast. As you can probably guess, you’ll be drifting a lot with Chillingo’s latest foray into the iOS marketplace.
A simple tap anywhere at the screen controls your slide, which is ideally enacted right before you hit a corner — there’s even a flame animation to cue you in on it. Releasing it just after hitting the straightaway will net you a boost, which you’ll need to get through all those pesky timed checkpoints.
Beyond the ability to tilt to shift left or right and collect coins along the way, drifting truly is your primary job, and you’ll turn into a regular Han Seoul-Oh in no time. It’s such a simple conceit that it works far better than you’d expect it to, and outside of the occasional crash the animations are extremely smooth. On top of the vibrant color scheme, it’s very easy on the eyes.
The way the game is inherently designed is incremental progression. You’ve seen it before, a scheme that gives you just enough of a fix to keep you going, even if said fix is relatively low in its dosage. You’ll start off with a bad car, reach a checkpoint, fail, get an upgrade, reach the next checkpoint, upgrade, get a new car, and then reach a new level. Perfect runs can net you more coins for quicker unlocks, but for the most part the pacing is sluggish. It’s not inherently gated with hard checks that force you to shell out cash, it’s just slow.
It’s a sticky wicket, because it will probably drive you towards the IAP currency or out of the game entirely. I kind of fell in the middle myself, partially completing the game out of obligation with the frequent spurt of excitement. The developer could stand to be a little less stingy with its currency, but ultimately the levels and mechanics are fun enough. Thank goodness there’s no energy mechanic so you can play as often as you want — that’s the saving grace that helps alleviate some of the pacing pratfalls. It’s funny though, as Mega Drift includes the option to gain a few more seconds after a failed run if you watch an ad. Even if you pay to remove said ads this “feature" still appears, curiously enough.
Mega Drift falls into a lot of the same trappings as other free-to-play arcade games, but it’s worth a shot if you’re into smoothly animated racers. It’s not going to blow you away with the ability to drift like a madman, though it’s a nice reminder of a neon-filled subgenre of the past, and ’90s kids will get a kick out of it.
