Speed races are straightforward with the focus on accumulating nitro speed boosts and drifting around corners to keep that high adrenaline pace going in an attempt to come out on top. Two power-ups can be stored at one time, so be sure to use them to your advantage as soon as you can. The main two modes are item races which will have power-ups such as banana skins, rockets, speed boosts and other quirky projectiles which can be deployed whenever and however you see fit. There is a tutorial, to begin with, which is short and sweet, it will guide you in the basics of acceleration, drifting and using item boxes along with how to use power-ups. Getting used to the control layout is super simple even for the most casual amongst us and my five-year-old son loves racing against AI bots. There are several race types to divulge in along with some other good stuff and I was impressed with the amount of stuff to do in this first season. As someone who is obsessed with multiplayer titles over campaign-based games, I was immediately all over the PVP element of the game. There is an absolute feast of content in KartRider Drift and the beauty of the game is that you can choose to play against AI or competitively online. The point is though, it encourages you to drive your karting career whether you’re on one console or the other, on the toilet on your phone or at your desk if you’re PC master race. I was able to pick up exactly where I left off from the console version from the comfort of my sofa which is a massive plus if you want to continue progression if your other half is watching her favourite soap or your kid is smearing their grubby mitts across your pride and joy while watching Peppa Pig. I know this works well as I managed a six-hour session in my first sitting and then downloaded and tested the game using my Oppo mobile phone.

Cross-play and cross-progression are featured flawlessly between the Xbox family of consoles, PlayStation 4 and 5 along with Windows PC and mobile device users. KartRider Drift is a kart racer that caters for up to 8 players online or you can go alone against AI opponents. Fear not though, KartRider Drift has landed suddenly on Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S, Playstation 4|5, Windows PC and also iOS/Android. It’s no secret that Mario Kart is the daddy of the catalogue, but is locked to Nintendo. Beyond unlocking everything, they became quite stale very quickly despite being exceptional in their mechanics and gameplay. What I found with those two games though was the competitive edge died off as there wasn’t much in the way of deep stat tracking or ranked modes.

Sure, we have had some decent stuff across the years such as Crash Team Racing and even Team Sonic Racing. The kart racing genre is very hit-and-miss, especially for us Xbox players. Cross-platform, Cross-play, free-to-play, Kartrider Drift, PC, Racing, Review, Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S

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