Drifting Kings has the potential for a truly special game, no doubt online personalities like Goosiest will soon showcase this game on their channel once it gets shared around and becomes more well-known.
Only having 30 minutes in Drifting Kings so far, this won't be an in-depth review of the experience, but it was so enjoyable that I needed to share my joy of it. Keep in mind also that I've only played the Touge mode of the game, but there is so much content in it that it could be a game all by itself.
There is a staggering number of tracks and cars to choose from, there's something for everyone in Drifting Kings.
Visuals: The style is reminiscent of games like Capcom's 2002 "Auto Modellista" with a strong Japanese influence. Sakura leaves will float through the air, the mountain scenery is just like the Japanese locations, and there are nice little touches of things like other drivers and fans excitedly cheering the racers on, life continuing on far in the background, these things help immersion and make you feel like you're in a real race with your own aspirations and goals. Featured also is visuals like brake lights having a red trail to them, huge puffs of smoke from the tyres, it feels like playing an anime.
There're some aspects of it that are rough around the edges, literally and figuratively, but these things will likely be improved as from the looks of things, the developer is passionate about this new experience and will want to spruce everything up overtime.
Gameplay: The drifting feels excellent, once you get the hang of it's really satisfying, the car will feel like it's moving in and out of traction unlike some other games with drifting in them, where it feels like you 'glide' through corners. The physics at times remind me of the "Initial D Arcade Stage" games, it's a serviceable combination of arcade and realism. There's both a manual and automatic transmission mode. There's also controller and wheel support, but I haven't tested the wheel support, so I can't speak on it yet. The vibration on the controller feels awesome and helps feed the players imagination.
There are some issues though, there's a lack of speed, you are going very fast at most points yet you still feel slow for some reason, a screen effect of wind flurrying past the player attempts to help this feel of speed but it still doesn't quite hit the mark. The cars feel really light, it's easy to flip your car or turn it on its side, maybe this is intended, but it didn't feel right to me.
AI: The AI is both exciting to race against and troubling to fight. Something that's greatly appreciated is that the AI can make mistakes, and often drive like a real human, which again helps the feeling of immersion and world-structure.
The troubling parts come in with their aggression, a little bump here and there is OK and even could happen in real life, but it is not just slight scrapes. Because of the 'floaty' weight of the cars, it's quite easy to get a car to propel into the air if you hit them from behind. At the start of a race, one of the cars will almost always get hit from behind and get thrown into the air, it breaks immersion and also makes the race frustrating at times, especially considering that there is no physical car damage, so the AI that does this doesn't get any consequences at all.
Performance: It's... not good, at least in my experience so far, and maybe it's just my computer? So don't get put off from what I say, try it for yourself. I have above the recommended specs for Drifting Kings, yet on anything but low and very low quality mode, the games suffers from constant FPS drop, hovering around 15-25. The pop-in of trees is something that isn't nice to see, so I wish ultra and high quality mode could be played without the FPS drops.
UI: The UI isn't good yet, not bad though. The controller doesn't work for most menu features (but does work perfectly in-game, don't worry), and there's nothing truly eye-catching about the in-game UI, it's lacking in a flair that the rest of the game has.
Multiplayer: The game is still new, so there isn't many people that are aware of it yet. Finding this game was even accidental on my part, I've never seen any videos or promotional material for it before purchasing the game (I feel lucky to have stumbled across it though, this game is an experience worth more than the asking price). I couldn't find any servers, and considering I'm in Oceanic, it's unlikely I will until this game gathers more popularity. It isn't a problem though, the single-player and career mode is packed to the brim with content.
Overall:
Drifting Kings is a spectacular demonstration of an artists passion for this lifestyle and sport. It bleeds personality, and is an excellent pick up and play sort of game. The physics aren't frustrating aside from a hiccup here and there, but I'm certain these will be ironed out, the developer seems to be really focused on crafting this experience to its fullest potential.
Remember, drive safe, drive fast, drive hard.
