Absolute Drift: Zen Edition

Absolute Drift is the kind of game that can quite easily provide a good hour or so worth of entertainment on a rainy day. Our fear with this one, however, is that the learning curve is so brutally steep, it may put you off before you even properly get into it. If you do manage to power through, though, it’s a genuinely relaxing, satisfying experience. It’s just a shame the game is hampered by poor design choices and crippling technical issues.

Absolute Drift: Zen Edition is a peaceful driving game crafted to focus on control, precision and challenging yourself.

It's really sad that the learning curve is so massive that it acts like a wall that keeps most players from enjoying this. It's sad, because those who'll persevere, and manage to reach that 'Zen' level of razor-sharp precision, are the only ones who can really understand how exciting Absolute Drift can be. That being said, when a game is all about drifting, the fun factor won't last for long.

Absolute Drift is relaxing yet challenging.

It’s like this — Absolute Drift: Zen Edition is undeniably a good game, but I can’t say it’s for everyone. It’s a bit like baseball vs. golf — one is all about hitting that ball as hard as you can and running like the devil’s after you, whereas the other is all about keeping track of things like terrain, wind speed, and 42 different clubs while you plan your varying strategies. Sure Absolute Drift: Zen Edition is a driving game, but it’s the golf of driving games; if you’re more of a batting cages kinda player like I am, this one might be more of a swing and a miss, no matter how pretty it is (and it is pretty). However, if you’re more of a golfer, this is absolutely a hole in one — it just depends on which stick you like to use to whack a few balls, really (that’s a sentence I wrote and I’m sticking to it).

While we've slowly accumulated racing titles on the Switch over the years diversity has continued to be an area of struggle...

A minimal-looking aesthetic that fits the Switch perfectly, Absolute Drift is a delight to get absorbed into. You won’t master it straight away, but when you get the hang of it you’ll be hooning about in no time.

Absolute Drift: Zen Edition is a cozy, tranquil game with a single mission: to provide the perfect experience to facilitate the player's growth in skill. It succeeds flawlessly in this mission but could still use a bit more content for those who don't want to dedicate themselves to becoming drift masters on the same few tracks.

Absolute Drift: Zen Edition is not the most welcoming game at first, since its drifting mechanics require some practice, but once you get a hold of them, you’ll be greeted to a very unique mix between a car simulator, a collectathon, and an old-school extreme sports arcade title.

If you want to get your drift on, this is the game to do it with.