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Drift Girls sets the plight of women back decades, also features drifting

The App Army Assembles

Drift Girls sets the plight of women back decades, also features drifting
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| Drift Girls

Each week, we ask members of our App Army and ask for their feedback on the latest and greatest releases on mobile. One top pick this week was NHN Entertainment's Drift Girls, a full-on dating sim / drift racing genre-bending combo.

Let's see what our App Army had to say...


Just from looking at the game's icon I can immediately tell that this is a racing game. I mean, you can sort of see a headlight there on the left along with a bit of a race track in the background.

The thing that really gave it away though was the little flash of "chequered flag" above the drift girl's skirt. Someone should really tell her that outfit is not regulation. She should be wearing full body flame retardant coveralls and a helmet!


Too sexist. Just put a half naked lady as an icon and money starts raining? I'm not gonna take part in this one.


Okay... how do I start the game? All I have is a scrollable list of young ladies in different outfits and a slider on the right that changes the view to a scrollable list of cars.

Oh, so there are also two speed dials in the middle slowly increasing in percentage. It's downloading data. Would be nice if the game made that clear!


I've been playing this game for a while and it's more simple than I thought it would be. Yes, you can throw around sexist remarks, but if you give it a chance you might just enjoy it for what it is - a simple drift-based racing game.


It's kind of hard to know where to start with this game. I played a few races, picked up a girl, then played another few races listening to a drift girl get rather excited at every corner.

This game feels wrong on so many levels, but it's weirdly enjoyable. The highlight so far was having to pick which girl to invite along as a passenger.

They each had stats... including bra size! Why? Who knows.

Here is a little taster of the depths this game sinks to. After a long day racing it's great to take a young lady out on a date but she won't go unless I buy her a present!

Yup. Race, win, date, shop... then race some more. Just like my real life to be honest.

I'll be honest - if the devs ditched the whole dating sim aspect of this and left the game as a drift racer with unlockable tracks and locations it could be great.


I think you're right there. Would you really play it as much though? We're calling it a racing game but it's not really a racer at all.


Yeah, it's more of a tap-when-the-rear-wheels-are-on-the-line-er.


Exactly. So the real question is... would that hold your interest for a long while?


Not long term, definitely not. But as a little 5-10 minute time waster now and then? Yeah, I could go with that.


If I enjoy this game does it make me a sexist?


No?


I feel dirty all the same. The drifting gameplay mechanic is actually quite fun, but I've not really explored the 'dating' aspect yet.

As far as I understand it, the whole dating sim aspect of games is a lot more "normal" in Japan and South Korea. I think this might be a little too full-on for western markets.


Drift Girls is crashing fairly frequently on my iPad. I don't understand why it took all of ten minutes for the game to download either.

The sex appeal aspect seems a bit too much for my liking from what I could play of it though.


Hey Danny, is this what you'd call a social JRPG? It seems like there's actually a fair bit of depth to Drift Girls despite its shallow appearance. Can you recommend any games like this that are a bit less... er... sexual?


A lot of the Natsume catalogue covers what you're after. Harvest Moon, Rune Factory, Hometown Story, and Avalon Code all have social goals you can achieve with characters.

Our Peter's likened some of the elements here to Hakuoki, but that's a reverse-harem otome game (intended for the ladies).


Thanks - I'll have to check those out!


My girlfriend sees Drift Girls as stupid and overly sexualised.

To me, Drift Girls feels like the lovechild of Guitar Hero and Need for Speed. Then that lovechild became a teenager and said 'I need something... more,' deciding to go on dates with many, many ladies.

That's this game. You "race" cars, impress girls, go on dates... and have fun doing those things. The controls are easy and intuitive to boot. It's addictive and you can lose hours playing it.

It just makes me feel icky when I play it. Especially the noises the girls make when they ride in the car with you. Those noises don't seem to fit with what's going on in the game. Drift Girls is a weird game.


I am not a very big fan of this mainly because I am not a big fan of the racing genre (my only exception being the Asphalt series).

I feel that the dating aspect of this game takes away from the main aspect which is the racing itself.

The controls are decent, and the graphics look like any other racing game, although I have experienced some frame rate issues.

It's a generic racing game with a dating element. Drift Girls is not for me.


This is not a game anyone with an ounce of self respect would play.

'But it's just harmless fun' you might say. I don't think so. Besides, all the dating element only takes away from the main aspect of the game, the racing.

If we look past that, the gameplay isn't even that fun. It's distinctly average.

It feels like the developer is only throwing in sexual elements to get an audience, which this game would'nt have had otherwise, because it's simply not good enough.


For the 10 minutes I could bear to play this game before having to stop out of disgust, I found the gameplay largely repetitive and dull.

The gameplay is massively overshadowed by a series of scantily clad female characters practically throwing themselves at the player.

The clothing choices and the dialogue given to these women give the impression of a developer that is feverishly trying to turn their monotonous game into the next App Store hit through objectification of women.

If you're looking for a racing game, Asphalt 8 is much better, and if you just want to ogle cartoon breasts... get yourself some self respect.


The title says it all. This game is about girls and drifting, both of which I kinda like. However... this game isn't really my thing.

The racing gameplay is just about tapping at the right moment, so it's not partiularly challenging. The girls are just about wearing clothes, if you think a bikini is enough to call proper clothing.

The game feels quite sexist, from the sounds the women make after you win a race to the offensively airheaded things they say.

When I first heard about Drift Racers I thought it would be pretty enjoyable, but it really hasn't lived up to my expectations.


I agree with Newmanator. It feels a bit like Guitar Hero in the race sections... but I do feel really icky playing it!


It seems as if the devs are specifically targeting a male audience with Drift Girls. Why can't we choose our gender at the start and choose take hot men on "dates" too?

Also, the women are all the exact same body type, only with different outfits or hair colour. Where's the variation? I'm kinda hating the ample bosoms on every model too!


I really tried to give this game the benefit of the doubt. I wasn't going to be swayed by what I've read or the well-endowed ladies plastered across every screenshot.

Pros:
  • The game looks fantastic
  • The actual racing is pretty good if you're into the whole drifting aspect since you don't really control that car at all
  • The music is banging and even the voices sound pretty good
Cons:
  • The ridiculous loading times you have to deal with every time you start the game
  • Requiring an Internet connection to play the game is a bummer
  • The dialogue is atrocious! The stuff the girls say at times set women back decades

Your end goal is to become the best driver, earning money so you can score with the hot girls, and that's really all there is to it

There's no way around it, Drift Girls is targets young males, and in doing so it alienates not only young girls and women, but all who love racing games thanks to its blatant sexism.

The App Army have spoken! If you'd like to sign up, please have a gander at our App Army application article. Did you pick up Drift Girls? What do you think of it? Let us know in the comments below!
Danny Russell
Danny Russell
After spending years in Japan collecting game developers' business cards, Danny has returned to the UK to breed Pokemon. He spends his time championing elusive region-exclusive games while shaking his fist at the whole region-locking thing.