izigame.me

Oh boy, a mixed bag if there ever was one.
Let's start with some pros, cons, and neutrals:
Pros:
-Arcadey, fast paced drifting that feels pretty good for the most part
-Neat art style somewhat reminscent of Auto Modellista for the PS2, pretty clearly inspired in fact
-The cars very much have their own specific feel, giving them character beyond aesthetic
-Fun tracks with their own identity given their layout and the type of driving required by each one, with certain tracks emphasizing high speed straights or more technical corners
Neutral:
-Perfectly usable UI, not much to say about it, could be considered positive
-Serviceable soundtrack, matches the aesthetic but really lacks identity of it contemporaries, such as Gran Turismo's Jazz Fusion, Initial D's Eurobeat, and Dirt Rally's co-driver muttering turns at you that you will inevitably mess up.
Cons:
-Sinfully ugly characters. You can have a diverse cast that doesn't look this bad. This is an artstyle problem, not a casting one. They also completely stand out in a terrible way as they are plastered in front of detailed environments and vehicles whilst being extremely flat and rather uninspired looking.
-Painful story. The characters are generally overly friendly, lacking the competitive nature some of its contemporaries like Need for Speed Most Wanted and Initial D. More over, understandably because of its arcadey nature, you don't really get the feel that the characters are really passionate about vehicles, which is a shame since the rest of the game wishes to contradict that. They never really mention their vehicles engines or drive train setups or anything really technical. Furthermore, they don't really emphasize any sort of driving philosophy or theory. Again, I point to Intial D in part because this game is very obviously inspired by it where the title itself is a reference to the "Inertia Drift" scene in the first episode. Nakazato is racer in Initial D who drives an R32 Nissan GT-R, and clearly makes obvious to the viewer and other characters he thinks drifting is inferior in all regards to a grip based racing style, utilizing the cars ATTESA E-TS AWD system. However, the car is very heavy meaning their is great wear on the brakes and the tires, causing the car to be more prone to understeering (aka not wanting to turn), causing his loss. With a smaller roster of very unique cars with very different driving styles, it would have been nice to see the characters discuss the strength of their cars and how it fits into their ideas of driving.
-Underutilized setting. The cars and environments are cohesive, but ironic to it's diverse cast, you don;t really get a sense of place. This could be Oregon, Japan, or Wales and I really couldn't tell you where, which gives a feeling of fakeness and inauthenticity about the environments which you drive in. Not a big deal for an arcade racer, but it would be nice if the story made a point about this
-Some vehicles aren't up for the task. There are certain vehicle you will use in seeking 100% completion that have hyper specific usage or might just be antithetical to the type of the driving the game encourages. I'm specifically thinking of the Coda Gecko RX, a rally-cross version of another car in the game that is slower than any other car in the game but is not slowed down by rough terrain, which can only be found in very specific stages making the car niche if not outright useless in most applications, and the Velox Impuls, which is a car that emphasizes straight line acceleration with no to little drifting, which had a character emphasized that and commented on it, would have helped the game characterize the car more in writing. Also doesn't help this particular vehicle has the most difficult gameplay section with it's Grand Prix mode. Speaking of which...
-Inconsistent difficulty between vehicles. Not talking about how hard the cars to handle, but how hard the in game challenges are set for each car. The Coda Supreno is a cake walk and is placed next to the Velox Impuls in the list, which is infamously the hardest Gran Prix in the game. Why is this car the hardest? No clue as its not even a particularly hard to handle car generally, but suffers from the most strict objectives.
Verdict:
If you can ignore the characters, story, and don't absolutely care about game completion or feel up to task in harder game challenges, then I would recommend this game. It can truly be a good time when you setup the Mt. Kirino course, pick your favorite car, play whatever you'd like to listen to in the background, and just go at it. If you find yourself to be someone who cares about an interesting story, car culture beyond being purely referential, or are just worried about game completions sans the skill to do so, I can't really recommend a game that was already pretty niche to begin with. Understnadably may be scared away given the mighty paragraphs in the con section, but the game is at it's core fun, just mostly lacking polish in areas tangential to its core mechanics. Would really love to see the developer polish some of these things out in a sequel or update. I do appreciate the care the game continues to receive with new vehicle and its is a really really fun game, just has certain elements that are very offputting. If not for the cons, I would whole heartedly recommend this game.