Absolute Drift is a simple driving game focusing on drifting. I have no idea what the “Zen edition” refers to because it can be quite stressful if you don’t drift successfully.
The graphics are bold in a “Prototype” style; simple primitives of mainly white/grey. Your car leaves trailing skid marks which is a great visual effect.
Free roam mode has objectives around the areas. “Doughnut object x”, “spin here”, “drift between object x and object y”, collect icons, make jumps. You need to complete all these to move to the next area. It’s mainly busy-work rather than taking skill to accomplish.
There are also a few events in each area. These take you to a course where you do laps while drifting around the corners; or an arena where you gain points for doughnuts, spin, and drifting in the appropriate areas. You can also select these events via a menu rather than having to drive.
It has one of those scoring systems where you will gain exponential points when you are doing well. So if you perform successful drifts, then your combo multiplier will increase and your score sky-rockets.
If you crash, then on the next corner, you will find that you might not have enough speed or don’t have the appropriate racing line to perform a good drift - therefore poor performance leads to more poor performance.
I felt there were some inconsistencies of what is recognised as a successful drift. Sometimes I performed a decent drift but it didn’t register, but I considered that maybe I was driving “too slow”. But then there will be occasions where I drift slower and it does register. It’s as if it seems more lenient if you already have a combo going.
In the free roam sections, sometimes I noticed I had to drive away from the doughnut areas then return because the percentage completion had stopped increasing.
The drifting mechanics do feel good, and it is quite challenging to do correctly without your car spinning out. I imagine there are pros out there that can navigate these tracks without crashing, or losing their combo.
It’s a simple game that will give you around 3 hours of entertainment. It’s fine, but nothing special.