Review: Drift Mania Championship - Universal App - Prepare To Burn Rubber

Overview

Drift Mania Championship is a race car driving sim solely focused on drifting rather than racing. You try to drift for as long as possible with combos to earn the most points possible as gold through bronze are based on point thresholds. Each track is timed, and there are multiple laps so you can go for the most points on track or look for a little time bonus.

Features

There are three tracks and five cars with all of them unlockable after the opening track and car. You control the car by placing your finger on the acceleration meter, tilting to steer, and tapping the hand brake. There are online high score tables for each track, and there are camera reel highlights after each race.

The Good

The game offers the best drifting mechanic on the iPhone which you would hope for in a game focusing on drifting. It takes a little bit to get used to, but once you do you'll be having fun whipping around bends with your back wheels spinning out. It becomes second nature to begin a drift, and it's really the only iPhone game that has that. Drifting is definitely fun, especially when you can pull it off as easily as you can in this game. The ability to string together drifts coupled with multiple style and speed combos that keeps the action going. The score can really rack up quickly especially when you have multiple laps of one course, and can understand it better on the later laps. Drift Mania is nicely designed with everything highly polished from the tracks to the cars. There are nice animations of the cars drifting around bends though it would be nice to see a little smoke. There are multiple songs in the included soundtrack that is mixed with the squealing tires around every curve.

The Bad

As soon as you get into the game it comes to an abrupt end. With only three tracks you will be through them in a breeze especially since you will get gold the first run through. You're drifting along have a good time, and then all of a sudden you reach the end with no incentive to replay the game. There are online high scores, but they never do offer much incentive as it's only a top 15 leaderboard with scores you won't come close to. There are multiple levels of difficulty, but it's still the same gameplay mechanic over the same courses. Even when racing on the three courses there doesn't seem to be much variability as they're all shaped to highlight the curves.

The Verdict

Drift Mania Championship offers the best drifting experience in the App Store, but it's short lived. The game lacks content and replay leaving it a rather simple game with only a drifting based game mechanic. The game is nicely designed, and is universal though it plays the same on both devices. For $0.99 Drift Mania Championship is worth considering depending on if you like drifting over other car type events.

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