Sonic Drift

 

Sonic Drift is a 1994 racing video game developed and published by Sega for the Game Gear in Japan. It features Sonic the Hedgehog, Miles "Tails" Prower, Amy Rose, and Doctor Robotnik. In 1995, a sequel named Sonic Drift 2 was released.

Sonic Drift was released in Japan for the Game Gear on March 18, 1994.  A Western release was planned but canceled due to Sega of America CEO Tom Kalinske’s concerns regarding its quality. Drift is the first racing game in the Sonic the Hedgehog franchise, and was created specifically to rival the success of Nintendo's Super Mario Kart (1992). Early versions of the game featured Flicky, a blue bird that has made frequent appearances throughout the series, as a playable character, who was subsequently replaced by Amy Rose in the final version. The music that plays when collecting a blue invincibility power-up is a sped-up version of the opening song You Can Do Anything from Sonic CD. Drift is also the first Sonic game to feature Amy and Dr. Robotnik as playable characters. The soundtrack was composed by Naofumi Hataya.

In 2003, Sonic Drift was ported to the GameCube as an unlockable extra in Sonic Adventure DX: Director's Cut, alongside eleven other Sonic Game Gear games; the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 digital releases of DX omits these. It was compiled into Sonic Mega Collection Plus for the Xbox, PlayStation 2 and PC in 2005, and was digitally re-released for the now-defunct GameTap storefront in 2006. A demo of Drift is also included in Sonic Gems Collection.