Drift Girls Review

Developer: NHN Entertainment
Price: FREE
Version Reviewed: 1.0.34
App Reviewed on: iPhone 5

Graphics / Sound Rating:
Gameplay Rating:
Playtime Rating:
Replay Value Rating:

Overall Rating:

A cursory glance at the game’s icon will tell you a lot about Drift Girls. It’s a racing game, but its focus is squarely on the women within more than challenging the likes of Real Racing 3. Is it fun? Eh. A little, but the racing side of things has been done before and done better, and the dating side of things is awkward and nowhere near as sexy as it thinks it is.

Racing wise, Drift Girls is a matter of timing rather than skill. You need to land the perfect start by revving at the ideal moment before launching ahead. Accelerating and steering is conducted automatically, with you simply able to dictate how well drifting goes. This is done through holding a button on the side of the screen at just the right moment. The timing needs to be fairly precise to do this correctly, with Drift Girls being fairly unforgiving for being a millisecond out. Fail the race and you have to use up fuel to try again, neatly tying into an energy meter that soon offers up plenty of microtransaction opportunities. Perform particularly well during a drift and your girl starts making orgasmic noises. Oh yes, I hadn’t mentioned the girls properly yet, had I?

You take girls out on dates, as well as taking them in your car during races. They then make a variety of sounds to indicate how excited they are by your driving performance. I’ve been out in fast cars with attractive men. I don’t recall ever reacting quite like that.

The titillation continues with the actual dating. Innuendo is everywhere and your date rarely wears much clothing. The dating process is pretty streamlined with the occasional moment where you’re asked something to curry favor with your date. Eventually you can spend the night with her, too. Part of the problem here is that it’s all actually fairly dull and a cynical effort in making a fairly mediocre street racing game seem more thrilling. Also, there’s little variety. What if you want to play a woman dating scantily clad men? Or want to play a man dating similarly scantily clad men?

It gets more awkward in places too, such as how you can touch your date on the main screen, even when she starts sounding a little unkeen about the virtual groping. It all feels a little bit inappropriately dirty rather than being sexy fun.

Although, really, the main issue is that Drift Girls isn’t a particularly good game. Both the dating and racing is overly simplified, meaning it’s never going to be more than a passing infatuation. One that you might feel awkward about playing in public.