Project Drift Japan Challenge

Genre: Arcade Racing

Players: 1

Game Company Bad Behavior Profile Page: 404 Games

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Review:

Project Drift Japan Challenge, elsewhere simply known as Project Drift, is an Arcade-style Racing game released on PC in 2023 and ported to Nintendo Switch in 2024. This game has players racing against a single computer-controlled opponent on courses purportedly located in Japan.

Before continuing, I should note that since I got this game to review, it has apparently been removed from the Nintendo Switch eShop, and as of this writing it is currently only obtainable on PC. However, as you’ll soon see, this may have been for the best.

The Nintendo.com page for Project Drift featured some surprisingly appealing images and video for the game showing great lighting, reflections, and detailed environments, but these were all completely false, and I can only guess that they came from the PC version. The Nintendo Switch version, by contrast, looks like a disaster. Absolutely terrible pop-in and texture pop-in has trees appearing mere feet in front of your vehicle looking like ugly green splotches before textures pop in a second later, at times only right as you’re passing by them. This is all on top of really unimpressive 3D vehicles and environments with plenty of aliasing. It’s truly astounding that the developer thought it was acceptable to release the game looking like this, and outright jaw-dropping that they did so while trying to get away with tricking people into thinking this game looked like the PC version.

However, even if this game looked like the PC version, it would still be absolutely miserable to play. The driving here is only passable at best and lacks any sort of nuance, and the drifting is laughably bad, with the game quickly sending your car into a spin when you use the drift button. However, the car you’re racing against is faster than you, which means that you’re forced to use this drift at least sparingly if you want to have any hope of winning. With practice it’s doable, but it is not at all fun.

I suppose I could go on and criticize Project Drift for its lack of features and options or missing multiplayer, or dig into the outrageous fact that it’s $8 on Nintendo Switch but only $2 on PC… but I don’t really see the point. This game’s Nintendo Switch release is a scam, and I don’t know if that’s the reason it was removed from the eShop, but whatever the reason we’re all better off for this game not adding to the pile of junk on that marketplace. I’d tell you not to buy it, but since you can’t, I will simply say good riddance.

tl;dr – Project Drift is an Arcade Racing game that has players in one-on-one races set in Japan, but this game’s visuals are absolutely terrible and its drifting controls are a bad joke. I’d tell you to avoid this game, but since it’s already been removed from the eShop it appears that someone else has taken steps to ensure that you won’t have to.

Grade: D-

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This game has been nominated for one or more of eShopperReviews 2024 Game Awards:

Runner-Up: Worst Monetization / Scam

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