In Power Drift, a single player races against eleven other drivers over any one of five abstract and hugely demanding courses. The game's 25 stages (separated into five different races, only ONE of which can be played per game) are constructed of undulating, tilting, roller coaster-esque tracks; featuring jumps, drops and chicanes. On most of the stages, it's possible to 'fall off' the higher sections of the track, crashing to the ground below and losing valuable seconds.
Power Drift's superb Roller Coaster effect was enhanced further with the introduction of a 'tilting axis'; as the player steers left and right, the screen display mirrors the controller's movements and tilts on its axis, in a similar fashion to another Sega game, "After Burner".
Power Drift was yet another visually superb 3-D "sprite-scaling" racing game from Sega and, having already perfected the racing genre with 1986's "Out Run" and the "Hang-on" series; the company charged Yu Suzuki and his team to take the arcade racer in a wholly new direction.
- TECHNICAL -
[Sit-Down model]
Sega Y-Board hardware
Main CPU : (3x) 68000 (@ 12.5 Mhz)
Sound CPU : Z80 (@ 4 Mhz)
Sound Chips : YM2151 (@ 4 Mhz), Sega (@ 4 Mhz)
Players : 1
Control : paddle
Buttons : 1
- TRIVIA -
Released in August 1988.
Also released as "Power Drift [Deluxe Sit-Down model]".
Pony Canyon/Scitron released a limited-edition soundtrack album for this game (Power Drift & Mega Drive: G.S.M. Sega 2 - D28B0010) on 08/12/1988.
- TIPS AND TRICKS -
* The game's difficulty level is determined by the type of car the player chooses to race with. The RED car (with bigger wheels) sets the difficulty level at 'easy', the BLUE car at 'normal', the ORANGE car at 'hard' and GRAY car at 'hardest'.
* Press the START button while playing for a rear view. One thing to note is that Power Drift's gear change (from low to high, such as at the start of a race or after a crash) should be implemented much quicker than in other arcade racers.
* Extra bonus stages :
Finishing in first place on all tracks of courses B and D will allow players will get to race a special track using the bike from Sega's classic 1985 racer, "Hang-On".
Finish first on all five tracks of any given group (A to E) and players will get to race a special track using the jet from "After Burner".