JDM: Japanese Drift Master races to Xbox this November

Can’t wait for Forza Horizon 6? Maybe this indie racing game focused on drifting in open world Japan, will sweeten up your patience!

JDM: Japanese Drift Master is an homage to Japan, Japanese street racing culture and drift. Set in a fictional prefecture of Guntama, the open world of JDM is a perfect blend of Tōge (mountainous) serpentines, narrow rural roads and vast highways leading to a modern cityscape. A drifting paradise come true!  In game you will be able to tune your cars visually and mechanically to create your dream ride. Master hundreds of kilometres of roads in an open world free roam or challenge your skills in a story-driven campaign. You will experience drift battles, race track grip challenges and even drag racing – all in a single indie game.

That’s the marketing paragraph, but let’s talk for a second about what that truly means for me as a player. When I came to the company I was instantaneously enamoured by the approach to detail – the realistic, tight roads of Japan, which stood in contrast to the extremely wide roads you see in other racing games; the rural Japanese scenery and not only a recreation of a mega city like Tokyo; finally, a full story campaign and not another car festival. This was equally fresh and sentimental at the same time – the good old arcade racing games I remembered from my gaming youth were brought to a modern audience. I was immediately hooked.

I did not really know what it meant until I went deep into the project, but the drifting scene is so much more than fast cars. It’s about belonging, it’s about the chill vibes and going sideways on roads sparkled with the rays of the sun setting behind the horizon, it’s about love and passion for every piece of added fiberglass to your car; it’s about style. With JDM we wanted to emulate this feeling so we’ve put hundreds of hours into our tuning system, which allows for very extensive modifications of your cars. From mechanical performance parts to a wide selection of cosmetics, ranging from different hoods and rims, through lights and side mirrors to full body kit swaps. You can even go deeper, setting your suspension height, wheel camber alignment, wheel and rim sizes, up to manually tuning your gear ratios. If that immediately scares you away, don’t worry, the game has automatic fine tune setting options for grip and drift races for anyone who is not (yet!) versed in car technicalities. We want you to experiment with your rides, learn as you test them out to finally achieve perfection – your very own JDM car – an ultimate goal in the street racing scene.

See, I’m already writing too many words for a blog post and I haven’t even touched on the cars themselves, that’s how enticing this whole culture is! In Japanese Drift Master you will find legendary licensed cars from Nissan, Honda, Subaru and Mazda that will become the canvas for your next tuned beauty!

OK, we’ve got our ride, it’s time to take it for a spin.

Drift is technical, it requires a fair amount of driving skill to tame the power of tuned cars and remain in control of them at all times.  We were aware that racing fans might not necessarily be drifting champions as well, so we’ve prepared two different physics models to adapt for both seasoned drifters and the people for whom it may be the first step into this thrilling motorsport.

First and foremost there is the Arcade model, complete with various assists to ease going into and maintaining drift. It’s perfect for players who are primarily accustomed to grip racing on tracks. The other model – Simcade, is designed for drift enthusiasts who already know a thing or two about taking corners sideways. In Simcade you will have full control over your car but managing it will be that more challenging.

I would strongly advise to start your JDM adventure in the Arcade model and build your racing confidence before switching to Simcade. It’s a great way to understand how drifting works and what is really important to do it skilfully. At least, that’s how my story with the game went. I started playing JDM with mostly arcade background in racing games with no real idea how you should drift. Some hours into the game I was already switching my transmission to manual, the model to Simcade and doing another tōge run, to further my skills. Once you get a hang of it, the passion for drifting never goes away. 

Modern, open-world racing games feel a little bit detached for me, with no real story to follow or characters to like. We didn’t want that in JDM, which is why we’ve written a whole story campaign that puts you in the shoes of Touma, a foreigner trying to make his name in Japan. It’s a light story about second chances with colourful characters and fierce rivalry, full of drama happening inside the cars and outside of them. The story was also another layer of homage that we wanted to pay to Japanese culture, which is why we’ve put it into a comic book, manga, format. Before and after each campaign race the player will see a page or two that pushes the story forward. Everything was hand drawn by a dedicated team.

It’s time to wrap things up. JDM: Japanese Drift Master is a game made out of passion for cars, motorsport, Japan’s modern cultural heritage. It’s a love letter to drifting and the community that builds it in real life. It’s a dream come true for us as developers of this game and for me, who got a chance to work on it, soaking in the culture I was not previously fully aware of. Very soon, you will be able to become a part of the game as well, as players, so join us on November 21 as we celebrate the launch of the game on Xbox Series X|S!