🏎️ Inertial Drift | Review | Nintendo Switch | "A Sleek, Cool and Very Pure Racer" 🏎️ @InertialDrift #GameDev #IndieGames

Game Title: Inertial Drift
Platform Reviewed: Switch
Rating: Ice Cool

Inertial Drift is a stylish racing title that may take a few minutes to click with but boy, when you get the hang of it… you’ll feel like Cole Trickle (but you probably have a name with more gravitas).

There really is a lot to love about Inertial Drift, Level 91 Entertainment’s retro-futuristic racer. The music is vinyl-purchasingly good with its moody, synth beats that bleed neon, the perfect match to the intense, focused racing. 

Inertial Drift feels like a purists arcade racer in that it’s all about learning the many different tracks on offer and shaving off those seconds. Eschewing distractions such as car contact (the cars pass through each other with a really nice visual effect so that the focus is on out-driving your opponent and not just fishtailing them out of the way), boosts, weapons and even a mini-map, the control scheme is the real draw here. 

A really natural dual-thumbstick setup means that whilst the left thumbstick turns your car, the right stick needs to be utilised as well as it controls the drift of your vehicle, meaning that you glide beautifully around the scenic tracks, feeling completely in control.

The story mode puts you in control of a group of friends, working your way through the locations and challenges as you drift your way to victory but the online mode is where the action is and I can imagine that a lot of folks will get a serious thrill when they master the controls and curves as everything comes together perfectly. 

Admittedly this won’t be a game for everyone, the controls need a few laps to click with and the focus on pure racing with no distractions could be a hard sell but for me, this was a literally eye-watering experience as I was so hips deep in concentration at some points that my contact lenses dried up as I had forgotten to blink for so long. 

This is a game that will get tense in local play.

Right, I’m off to drift into the music.

❄️ RATING: ICE COOL ❄️

Ratings Explained

ICE COOL (Great Game Recommended)

MELTING (Recommended with reservations, one to consider if you are a fan of the genre)

MELTED (Not A Recommended Purchase)