Andi Hamilton's Videogame Newsletter - Issue #54 [Best Drifts]

Author

Andi Hamilton
February 17, 2023

One of the things you will always hear me banging on about is when a game gives you something that feels satisfying. It’s such an important part of the whole experience for me. It’s a thing that no comic, movie, book or TV series can provide - an interactive element that stands alongside any thrilling plot point or big cliffhanger as something that keeps you engaged. A well-timed bit of slo-mo, a particularly crunchy headshot, ‘kill chirps’ in Call of Duty and Killzone, the sense of weight and momentum in Super Mario 64… all things worthy of some kind of newsletter all on their own and all just top tier examples of sound, visuals and input coming together to make something that never ceases to satisfy.

Catch My Drift?

The weirdest thing about drifting is that even though it is a completely real life thing, whenever I have played something with ‘realistic’ drift mechanics I’ve found it to be extremely lacking in what I want. Gran Turismo 7, an all-round exceptional racing game has drift specific events and they feel so flat compared to the tense, thrilling racing. Sure, there’s satisfaction to be found in delicately controlling the throttle to keep the slide going but for me, a good powerslide is something that is extremely arcade. A means of taking a corner almost completely sideways and only losing minimum speed as you do so, carefully manipulating the angle and ensuring that you pull the car back into a straight line on the exit from the corner. Crucially, a good drift is something that is best controlled through an inexplicable ‘feel’ rather than very clinical inputs, practised until it is something that becomes second nature and even though the actual act of starting a drift is simple, the ability to control the vehicle during it is something that can never truly be mastered, only forever refined. Despite essentially being the same thing, many games take a different approach to drifting and how it works - here are some of my absolute favourites.

Super Mario Kart (SNES)

A tap of the right shoulder button combined with a turn and your kart performs a tiny hop, which tightens the corner and puts the kart into a slide. That’s it. In recent games, powersliding has become a much more intricate part of the Mario Kart balance tapestry, as you can coax boosts out of them and, in Mario Kart DS, at an extremely high level, you can completely ruin the game by chaining them together to create a near endless, constantly boosting technique called ‘snaking’. There’s even weight and vehicle differences that change the type of slide in the more recent titles, so you can actually gear things towards your particular tastes. It’s cool, and it does feel great in every single game in the series but the one thing they have in common with the very first Mario Kart is that little hop and, for my money, that’s where the great feel comes from.

It’s a split second where you’re neither turning nor sliding - a moment of adjustment before your wheels touch down and the slide begins - combined with some perfect, iconic sound effects. You can hop back and forth between slides and being able to judge when the slide starts is part of the beauty of it.

Ridge Racer Series (Playstation)

For the sake of simplicity, we’ll stick to the four Ridge Racer games on the PS1 here, although for the most part this stuff is relevant to most of the games in the series. Ridge Racer is a series I have played so much and am so attuned to the feel of a slide that I can no longer play the game from a chase cam. A tap of the brake and then back on the accelerator and your basic turn will turn into a slide, accompanied by a wild screeching of the tyres on the tarmac. A Ridge Racer slide feels completely out of control and can only be stopped by fixing into a position to start moving forward again and it sort-of kicks out of the slide and back into normal motion. While sliding, you follow the track as if you were driving around it normally. It’s almost impossible to describe.

I can only play in first person because I’m so used to the feel of where the back end needs to be in order to end a powerslide in Ridge Racer. Actually seeing the car makes everything seem so different, so alien. The best part of the Ridge Racer slide is the way it ‘clicks’ back to normal racing when you finish a drift, but also the ease in which you can change direction to take on multiple corners after each other.

Colin McRae Rally Series (Playstation)

A game where you’re only ever sliding. There’s no such thing as a normal corner in the Colin McRae games - even the slighest tap left or right has the back end of your motor sliding about like fucking Bambi on the ice. It feels like the Ridge Racer slide only ALL THE TIME. So, here it isn’t a case of learning how to slide and mastering that technique, you’re just always holding on for dear life. You never feel like your stuck to the track but instead gliding just above the surface. Subtle taps of the brake and accelerator work in harmony with how easy it is to take a turn sideways - you’re GOING to slide regardless, so it becomes a case of managing them. Obviously, this is based on a motorsport known for having wild drifts so Codemasters made it an essential part of the game and ensured that it always feels great. Proper easy to do, impossible to master stuff.

And look, it was a very close thing between this and Sega Rally but Big Colin just about edged it. So for the half of you who agree, shout out to my Colin McRae Rally brothers and sisters. For the half who disagree with that, feel free to aim all of your abuse towards my Twitter account.

World Rally (Arcade)

…Or one of a few similar titles. World Rally is an arcade game that has a really simplistic but extremely fun drift mechanic. As you punt around at nothing less than top speed, corner warnings will appear on screen and you react to them appropriately, with a simple turn of the wheel throwing you into a slide. You always maintain speed - this isn’t a racing game, but one that is about controlling your drift around the turns the course throws at you. The car turns as if it was rotating around a pole shoved through the middle of it. Once you’ve got the feel for the car and the way it moves, you know exactly what you have to do with the controls to get around the corner based entirely on that little arrow prompt.

These games are all a bit like classic NES boxing game Punch Out!, only instead of reacting to opponent’s strikes you’re reacting to the corners and instead of throwing your own, you’re hitting powerslides. My personal favourite of this type is 1000 Miglia: Great 1000 Miles Rally, where you take part in the legendary race across Italy in a bunch of classic motors.

OutRun 2 (Arcade)

This, for my money, has the best drifts of any racing game, ever. What’s really weird is that Out Run was never really known for having a focus on powerslides but in OutRun 2, they turned it into the key feature of the game. The slides in OutRun 2 feel so natural, so utterly satisfying to perform and allow for levels of mastery that give the game that compulsive “I can get better at this” vibe. A quick tap of brake then accelerate - same as Ridge Racer - and you’re sliding. The beauty of OutRun 2 is how long and wide the corners are, so you have to caress the stick or wheel to keep the angle of the slide just right so sail around the course. It’s perfect.

My favourite thing about this slide is the alternate way of initiating it. By quickly dropping a gear and going back up again you begin the slide without losing as much speed as you do by jabbing the brake pedal to start one. Of course, this requires you to play with manual transmission but is an extra reward for those who are willing to truly master OutRun 2.

SO - tell me of your favourite, most satisfying drifts?

THANKS FOR READING.

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