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Ben Brosofsky has been writing for Screen Rant since 2022 and editing since 2024. He graduated from Vanderbilt University with a Bachelor's in Cinema & Media Arts. Writing serves as a much-needed distraction from tackling a backlog of Steam games that will never be surmounted.
Being free is the best way for a game to get some attention, and yet another Steam release is taking advantage of this promotional strategy. This time, it's Initial Drift Online, a game that will be of particular interest to fans of Initial D or Japanese drift racing in general.
Initial Drift Online is free on Steam until January 18 at 1 PM ET, and claiming the title will make it free to keep together. After the promotional period, the game will revert to its typical price of $4.99. Initial Drift Online focuses on racing through Japanese mountains and making deliveries to earn cash. Surprisingly, it bills itself as an MMO, offering server-based multiplayer races and a global ranking system.
Initial Drift Online Is Free For 24 More Hours
'Cause I Need No Money
Another ambitious claim on the Steam page is that Initial Drift Online offers a "semi-open world," setting it apart from the typical in-and-out race structure of Initial D arcade games and similarly straightforward racers. The map features the road to Irohazaka (where the game's dealership is located), Mt. Haruna, and Mt. Akagi.
All three locations should be familiar to Initial D fans, although Mt. Haruna goes under the fictionalized name of Mt. Akina in the manga and associated media. They're also iconic in real life, so the inclusions aren't just riffing on Initial D, but Initial Drift Online clearly isn't afraid to lean on the unofficial Initial D association in general. A Eurobeat playlist option evokes the soundtrack of the show, while an alternate phonk playlist embraces another world of Russian drift music association.
Grab It While You Can
Time Is Running Out
Initial Drift Online might not be all that it's cracked up to be, at least at the moment. Recent Steam reviews complain of frequent server issues, which might be the result of an influx of free players. Underneath the bugs and connection problems, however, it's hard to deny how well it scratches the Japanese drift racing itch. Developer and publisher RewindApp has plenty of experience in the genre, with previous games Drift of the Hill and Drift 86 tackling the same topic.
Even if it's not a masterpiece, free games are free games, so there's no harm in trying out Initial Drift Online while there's no cost of entry. If you fall in love with it, the various bits of DLC are also all 30% off, although that's an undeniably less attractive deal than 100% off. RewindApp also has another drift racer called Akina on the horizon for a Steam release this year.
English (US) ·