Sonic Drift

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Fast Facts on Sonic Drift

Publisher: Sega
Developer: Sega
System(s): Sega Game Gear
Genre: Racing

Release	Date	RRP	Code
JP	1994-03-18	¥4,800	G-3415

ESRB

PEGI

USK

OFLC

CERO

GRB

Sonic Drift (ソニックドリフト) is a kart racing game initially released only in Japan. It features Sonic, Tails, Amy, and Robotnik, and is a typical racing game of the early 1990s. The games racetracks and order they are played in are the same as the original Sonic The Hedgehog. It also had a sequel, Sonic Drift 2.

Gameplay

The objective of the game is to win the three different Chaos GPs (green, yellow and red emerald). Each Chaos GP has six different tracks based on the original Sonic game levels' design. The players will race around a track against the other three characters for a top position, using to accelerate, to brake and the latter combined with a direction allows to drift corners, though abusing it will send the character into spinning out of control. Going out of the asphalt track drops the speed immediately and in the sidelines there are several obstacles that will stop the character altogether if they are hit. The direction on the directional pad can use rings collected on the track as a special move, unique to each character.

Each track is composed of a circuit which needs to be completed thrice. At the end of the track, points are awarded based on the finishing positions: 1st place - 3 points, 2nd place - 2 points, 3rd place - 1 point and 4th place - 0 points. At the end of each tournament, the character with most points naturally wins. Additionally, there are other two modes to play: a training mode called Free Run, which allows viewing results for each course as well, and Versus, which is a standard 2 player. There are also two difficulties the game can be played, normal or hard, which can be chosen via the options menu.

Characters

	Vehicle	Special Move	Gameplay
Sonic	Cyclone	Speed dash (same as red monitor power-up)	Good speed and acceleration, poor handling.
Tails	MTP-01 Whirlwind	Jump over (same as spring power-up)	Good handling, poor speed.
Eggman	Egg Typhoon	Drop mine (same as collision)	Good speed, poor acceleration.
Amy	Breeze	Toss heart (reduces others' speed)	Good acceleration, poor speed

Power-ups

There are several power-ups scattered through the course. The power-ups can be accumulated and they respawn in each lap.

Sprite	Power-up	Description
	Rings	Collect two rings allows the player to perform the character's Special Move. Rings can be lost due to using them, abusing the drift or obstacle collision.
	Red Monitor (speed)	Makes the player dash down the track with a momentary burst of speed.
	Blue Monitor (invincibility)	Makes the player invincible for a short period of time. The BGM during invincibility is based on "Sonic - You Can Do Anything" from Sonic the Hedgehog CD.
	Springs	These all launch the player up into the air, increasing the speed.

Production Credits

Main Programmer: Wa-Da
Programmer: Shinchan
Designer: Choko, Gen, East
Sound Creator: N.Gee
Planner: K'
Director: Hase
Producer: Asohy
Special Thanks to..: Wahaha, T.D.H
Presented by: Sega

Manual

Sonic Drift (Game Gear) JP Manual

Also Released On

Sonic Adventure DX: Director's Cut for the GameCube (2003)
Sonic Mega Collection Plus for the PlayStation 2, Xbox, and PC (2004)
Sonic Mega Collection Plus & Super Monkey Ball Deluxe for the Xbox (2005)
Sega Fun Pack: Sonic Mega Collection Plus & Shadow the Hedgehog for the PlayStation 2 (2009)
Sonic PC Collection for the PC (2009)

Resources

Physical Scans

30

Sonic Retro Average

Based on 1 review

Publication	Score	Source
Sega Pro	30	№39, p72

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Game Gear, JP
Cover
Cart

Artwork

Sonic's car could be modeled after a Ferrari F40, Tails after a Lotus Seven (most likely) and Amy after a Rover Cabrio.