Sonic Drift


 * For the move, see Sonic Drift (move).

Sonic Drift (ソニックドリフト) is a kart racing game in the Sonic the Hedgehog series for the Sega Game Gear, developed and released by Sega. The game was released on 8 March 1994 and remained an exclusive game to Japan until its inclusion years later on several compilation titles. The racing game features Sonic the Hedgehog, Miles "Tails" Prower, Amy Rose and Dr. Eggman in racing vehicles as rally contestants with basic gameplay derives from the standard 1990's racing games. The game got later a sequel, Sonic Drift 2, which received an international release, unlike its prequel.

Gameplay
Sonic Drift is a racing game with the gameplay style and controls heavily based on Sega's arcade game Out Run from 1986. The game's single player mode is Chaos GP, where the player's goal is to win all three Chaos GPs (each one is named after a colored emerald: green, yellow and red) with six different circuits in each.

In each of six race circuits, the player races around a track against opponents for a top position on three laps. The player starts the first race from the fourth, lowest place, but will have from higher place later racing tracks depending the ranking the player has gotten from the previous race. The player has the simple control scheme, as pressing down starts accelerating the racer and pressing left and right on  moves him/her on the race track. On tight drift corners, the player has to press down the to brake. Without braking, the player drifts off the racing track to the regular terrain, where the racer's acceleration decreases noticably. Also, if the player is overdriven braking too long, the playable character starts spinning out of control. Edges of racing track's sidelines have level obstacles, which can hit the racer by heading towards them at high speed. When having enough of collected Rings, the player can press up on to activate the playable character's special move.

After clearing through each race circuit in a Chaos GP, all racers including the player are awarded with an amount of points based on his/hers finishing position in the previous race:


 * 1st Place: 3 points
 * 2nd Place: 2 points
 * 3rd Place: 1 points
 * 4th Place: 0 points

After the six races in the chosen circuit has been completed, the racer who has amassed the most points wins the Chaos GP. If there is a tie for total points, the racer with the most first place finishes wins. When winning the Chaos GP, the player is awarded with a Chaos Emerald. The player can then choose the next Chaos GP. If the player does not receive the first place on one of Chaos GPs after completing all six race circuits, he/she has to try again. By completing red Chaos GPs in first place rewards the player with the small ending cutscene related to one of four playable characters and the game ends with the credits roll.

Items
In Sonic Drift, there are few different items found on racing tracks, which the player can obtained or simply use. These items respawn in every time when the player has passed through a lap on each race circuit.

Characters
Sonic Drift features four playable characters. Each character plays similar to others and his/her own strengths and weaknesses. Each of four playable characters also has special power that can be utilized during the race by increasing the speed, flying or aiming exclusive obstacles to interfere other racers without getting hit by himself. After choosing the playable character, rest of the four become the player's racing opponents for the Chaos GP.

Circuits
The each six race circuits in Sonic Drift take place to many Zones from Sonic the Hedgehog (1991). Each Zone has three different versions, one each for the three different Chaos GPs. Each race circuit has certain amount of items and obstacles related to the Zone's theme.

Free Run
Free Run is the basic Time Attack mode of Sonic Drift, that allows you to race against the clock to obtain the fastest time in any Chaos GP's Zone. On the menu screen, the player can choose the circuit by going to the "Courses", the playable character by entering the "Drivers" and then starts the mode by choosing the "Run" option. By choosing the separated "Results" option shows the three best circuit times and the single best lap time, which are recorded to the game. During the game, if the player wants to exit from the mode, he/she has to pause the game by pressing the START and then press and  simultaneously.

Versus
Versus mode is the multiplayer mode of Sonic Drift for two players. The game requires to have Gear-to-Gear Cable (called VS Cable in Japan), a spare Game Gear handheld units and an two copies of the game. The Versus mode consists similar gamplay like the Chaos GP mode with the same items and all Zones available.

Option
Option menu consists Sound Test to listen music tracks from the game or change the difficulty setting to Normal or Hard (Hard mode increases opponent racers' acceleration).

Reception
The game received poor reception. Many fans despise the controls and courses, while others complain about the small cast available.

Re-releases
In Japan, Sonic Drift was sold along with with the Game Gear on the same package. For many years, the game remained Japanese exclusive until it has been featured as unlockable game in Sonic Adventure DX: Director's Cut for the Gamecube and PC, making the first international release for the game. For obtaining the game, the player must have collected 40 emblems or completed 40 missions. It was later ported for few compilations such as Sonic Mega Collection Plus for the Gamecube, PlayStation 2, Xbox and PC. Sonic Drift was also one of Sonic the Hedgehog games to be available in the online video game service "GameTap" up to 2009, as the service has been discontinued since.

Staff

 * Main programmer: Wa-Da
 * Programmer: Shinchan
 * Designer: Takako Kawaguchi ("Choko"), Gen Adachi ("Gen"), East
 * Sound creator: Masayuki Nagao ("N.Gee")
 * Planner: K'
 * Director: Katsuhiro Hasegawa ("Hase")
 * Producer: Hiroshi Aso ("Asohy")
 * Special thanks to..: Wahaha, T.D.H
 * Presented by: Sega

Trivia

 * Sonic Drift is the first 8-bit Sonic game to be released exclusively for Sega Game Gear without separate port for the Sega Master System. It is also the first Sonic the Hedgehog console/handheld game release to remain originally as exclusive in Japan, although the very first Sonic-themed software product to remain Japanese exclusive is the arcade children ride Waku Waku Sonic Patrol Car from 1991.
 * It is the first game title to feature Dr. Eggman and Amy as playable characters.
 * Since it was never released outside Japan, the digital instruction manual in Sonic Mega Collection Plus was in Japanese in all versions of the compilation release.
 * In Amy's official artwork, the words "Sonic Drift" is written on her umbrella.
 * All of the racing vehicle names in Sonic Drift are related to wind.

Videos
Japanese commercial #1= Japanese commercial #2=