Game Review: Sling Drift (Mobile – Free to Play)

Sling Drift is a free to play game developed by tastypill and is super simple to play, difficult to master and far more addictive then it has any right to be! Unfortunately it’s marred by basic problems and the usual free to play ‘remove ads’ in-app purchase that costs a silly amount (£2.99). This review is for version 1.4.

You control the drift of a car on an endless track. Tap the screen when the drift markers light up to slingshot around the the corner. Rinse and repeat until you eventuslly crash out by hitting a wall. It’s all about timing. Getting your initial slingshot right and ensuring you release in time to stay on the track.

Make it as far as you possibly can and set a high score. There isn’t much else to gameplay but challenges and different collectable cars give it replay value. Not much…but it’s there.

As you slingshot around you can pick up orange gems which are also rewards for completing challenges. These can then be spent on unlocking new cars, although they are cosmetic only. A new car cost 1250 gems or you can spend 1000 to unlock a random one.

There are 15 to buy, 1 to earn by following the developer on Instagram, 7 to get by watching a certain number of videos in game and 2 that are gifted through daily rewards. After about 45 minutes of play that includes completing 6 challenges I had earned just enough to unlock a random one. It’s going to take a very long time to unlock them all but at least they’re not in-app purchases.

The biggest problem with Sling Drift though is that it often freezes and lags even on top-end devices. These can cause unnecessary deaths leading to much frustration. Is it worth sitting through the many ads for it? Not really as there just isn’t enough substance to the gameplay even if it is a bit addictive.