Drift Arena

About this game

Drift Arena is a top-down circuit racer about one thing: what a car does when the tyres stop holding on. Grip here is finite and it is a number you can feel. Turn hard enough at speed and the rear steps out — the car keeps carrying its old direction across the corner while the nose points somewhere else, and the wider that gap gets the more speed it scrubs. That is the whole trade. A drift is quicker to look at and slower on the clock, so the fast lap is the tidy one, and the reason to break traction deliberately is to rotate the car into a hairpin that is too slow to take any other way. Braking pitches the weight forward and lets the nose bite, which is what makes a late brake into a corner worth attempting instead of a mistake waiting to happen. The cars are simulated rather than dialled in. A six-speed box works through its ratios and the engine pulls hardest through the middle of each one, so the last few units of top speed have to be earned down a straight. Two wheels on the grass costs grip immediately, a kerb costs a little, and the barrier costs the speed you carried into it — but it does not end your race, and a car that clips a wall slides down it and rejoins. Three circuits, each built around a different kind of corner. Loop is fast and flowing with one genuine slow turn, so a first-time driver can get round it on the throttle and still meet one place worth learning. Figure 8 joins two lobes with a pinch that changes direction at speed. Hairpins is the drift trainer — short straights into corners slow enough that patience on the throttle matters more than bravery on the brakes. Race three laps against three computer rivals that hold a real racing line rather than driving on rails: they apex the corners, they lift for them, and they run on a rubber band that keeps the field within reach instead of letting it disappear up the road. Easy, Normal and Hard change how good that line is, how disciplined the braking is and how wide that band gets. Or switch to two-player and settle it on one keyboard — arrows against WASD, one shared view, no split screen. The camera pulls back as the cars separate and pulls in as they close, so a lead is something you can see opening up rather than a number on a pill. Checkpoints round the lap mean a corner cannot be cut, and lap times are kept per circuit, so a fast lap on Hairpins is a record that belongs to Hairpins.

Controls

Left and Right steer, Up accelerates, Down brakes — WASD works too.

Two players

• Player 1 takes the arrows and Player 2 takes WASD on the same keyboard.

Touch

• Hold the bottom-left or bottom-right of the screen to steer and use the Brake button; the car accelerates for you.

How to play

Complete three laps before the field does.

Cornering

• Brake before the corner rather than in it, and turn in once the car has slowed — turning hard while fast breaks the rear loose and bleeds speed for as long as you hold the slide.
• That slide is the point on the tight corners: brake, flick the car sideways to rotate it, then straighten up and get back on the throttle early.
• Grass and kerbs cost grip, so keep two wheels on the tarmac where you can.
• You have to pass every checkpoint round the lap in order, so cutting a corner banks nothing.

Tracks and players

• Pick Loop to learn the car, Figure 8 for a direction change at speed, and Hairpins to practise the slide.
• Switch to 2 Player to race a friend on one keyboard with a shared camera that keeps both cars on screen.

Read the full Drift Arena rules and strategy →