| JDM: Japanese Drift Master | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Release Date | Gameplay & Story | Pre-Order & DLC | Review |
JDM: Japanese Drift Master is an open-world drift racing game that blends arcade-style handling with a story-driven experience. Read our review to see what it did well, what it didn't do well, and if it's worth buying.
JDM: Japanese Drift Master Review Overview
What is JDM: Japanese Drift Master?
JDM: Japanese Drift Master is a single-player open-world racing game with a strong emphasis on drifting mechanics. Players control a Polish driver who, after a professional fall from grace, arrives in Japan and starts working as a delivery driver. Through these deliveries and various events, the protagonist is drawn into the local drifting scene.
JDM: Japanese Drift Master features:
⚫︎ Dedicated Drift Experience
⚫︎ Manga-Style Storytelling
⚫︎ Open-World
⚫︎ Car Customization & Tuning
⚫︎ Simcade Settings
For more gameplay details, read everything we know about JDM: Japanese Drift Master's gameplay and story.
| Digital Storefronts | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 Steam |
 Epic |
 GoG |
|||
| Price | $34.99 | ||||
JDM: Japanese Drift Master Pros & Cons
| Pros | Cons |
|---|---|
 Satisfying Arcade Drifting Gorgeous Open-World Flexible Car Customization |
Inconsistent Mission Design and Scoring Little Meaningful Interaction Outside Missions No Fast Travel or Quick Garage Access No Multiplayer or Online Leaderboard Support |
JDM: Japanese Drift Master Overall Score - 70/100
JDM: Japanese Drift Master offers a focused drifting experience with a charming open world and solid customization, but falls short in gameplay depth and narrative engagement. While it nails the atmosphere and car culture, the inconsistent mission design and handling quirks hold it back from being a must-have racing title. Fans of drifting will find enjoyment here, but those seeking a broader, polished racing game might feel underwhelmed. Overall, it’s a promising foundation that still needs refinement to reach its full potential.
JDM: Japanese Drift Master Story - 6/10
The story sets up an interesting premise with a defamed Polish racer diving into Japan’s drifting scene, but the narrative lacks emotional depth and memorable character development. The manga-style presentation adds charm but can’t fully mask the flatness of the plot and one-dimensional characters. The pacing is steady but uninspired, with little in the way of surprises or twists that enrich the experience. While the story isn’t a dealbreaker, it feels more like a backdrop than a driving force.
JDM: Japanese Drift Master Gameplay - 7/10
The gameplay loop is clearly defined around drifting missions with occasional grip and drag races, but inconsistent win conditions and an awkward balance between sim and arcade controls cause frustration. Controls improve switching to arcade mode, yet the learning curve remains uneven, and some mission designs feel unfair or artificial. Customization and car mastery add depth, but the lack of meaningful side activities limits replayability. The pure drift focus is its strength, but the execution leaves room for improvement.
JDM: Japanese Drift Master Visuals - 8/10
Visually, the game shines with its detailed open world inspired by Japanese locales and scenic mountain roads that make cruising a pleasure. The manga-style cutscenes bring a unique stylistic flair. Although car models during high speeds sometimes show minor graphical glitches like blurred edges. Interior details of the car add a thoughtful touch rarely seen in racing games. While not perfect technically, the visuals succeed in creating an immersive drifting atmosphere.
JDM: Japanese Drift Master Audio - 7/10
The soundtrack complements the drifting vibe well, from catchy Phonk to East Beats tunes that enhance the open-world cruising experience. Sound effects are serviceable but occasionally feel a bit off, neither elevating nor detracting significantly from immersion. Environmental sounds like tire screeches and engine roars contribute positively to the feel of sliding through corners. Overall, the audio package is solid, though not outstanding.
JDM: Japanese Drift Master Value for Money - 7/10
Priced at $34.99, JDM: Japanese Drift Master offers a modest amount of content focused on its drifting core, but the limited variety of activities and shallow story reduce overall value. Replayability is somewhat constrained due to the linear mission structure and lack of substantial side content or multiplayer modes. While customization and car mastery extend playtime, the game might feel too narrow for players expecting a richer racing experience. For drifting enthusiasts, the price is fair, but casual racers might hesitate.
JDM: Japanese Drift Master Review: Drifting? More Like HydroPLAINing
People love to say that drifting is an art form—some call it ballet on asphalt, others say it’s poetry written in tire smoke. It’s not just about getting from Point A to Point B the fastest, but about how beautifully you can flirt with disaster along the way. There’s something captivating about that idea, that the best performance is the one where you're just barely holding it together, letting go of control just enough to dance on the edge of catastrophe.
As someone who grew up in a house where Gran Turismo reigned supreme, and family debates broke out over horsepower-to-weight ratios more often than dinner plans, I’ve always had a soft spot for racing games. But drifting? That’s a different thing. I thrive on clean racing lines, the kind of perfection that comes from late braking and perfect apexes. Drifting always felt like chaos to me—stylish, cinematic chaos, sure, but still chaos. And yet, I get it. There’s a raw magnetism to it. It’s loud, it's flashy, it's technical in ways that don’t show up in traditional lap times. Drifting is the show-off cousin of racing—and people love a show.
So 2025 has been a bit of a treat for racing fans. Forza Horizon 5 finally cruised onto PlayStation, Tokyo Xtreme Racer got a nostalgic revival, Assetto Corsa EVO launched into early access this January, and F1 25 is peeking just around the corner. It’s a buffet out there. But if you’re expecting JDM: Japanese Drift Master to join that feast as another high-speed entrée, you might want to reset your expectations. This isn’t a game about overtaking on the final corner or shaving milliseconds off your lap time.
What JDM offers is something else entirely—a focused, sometimes finicky, but undeniably stylish dive into the world of drifting. It’s not trying to compete with genre giants. Instead, it’s chasing its own line. And whether or not you’ll want to follow it depends on how much you love the sound of tires screaming for mercy.
Cue the Teriyaki Boyz, crank the East Beats playlist, and let’s skid headfirst into the world of Japanese Drift Master. Because if drifting is art, this is its scrappy street gallery—unpolished, unpredictable and yet always one corner away from something picturesque.
Welcome to Guntama
You arrive in Guntama not as a prodigy or legend-in-the-making, but as a has-been. Touma, a Polish racer with a reputation in shambles after getting his racing license revoked, is now moonlighting as a delivery driver just to make ends meet. You’re not chasing trophies. You’re just trying to find traction again—literally and metaphorically.
The game’s story unfolds through manga-style cutscenes, and at first, I loved this. The thick linework, the dramatic panels, the over-the-top poses—it all gives JDM a ton of personality. It’s a smart nod to the Japanese street racing anime legacy, and for a while, it works. It sets a tone. It tells you what kind of game this is. But once you get past the stylistic charm, the actual writing starts to show its wear. Characters are paper-thin, both figuratively and literally, and their dialogue is never deeper. They’re not here to surprise you or evolve. They’re just pit stops between the drifting.
Guntama—the fictional Japanese prefecture you’ll be weaving your tires through—is beautiful, in a quiet way. You’ve got long stretches of winding mountain roads, sleepy towns lit by neon signs, and distant skylines that beg to be chased at golden hour. Sometimes, I’d boot up the game not to tackle a mission, but just to coast through the mountains at dusk with the East Beats radio station playing something mellow. It was serene. Meditative, even.
But that feeling doesn’t last forever. As pretty as Guntama is, it’s also… hollow. Technically, it’s an open world—you can drive wherever you like, there are roadways to explore, and scattered areas that look like they might host secrets or collectibles someday—but right now, it all feels a bit decorative. There’s no real reason to explore. No meaningful side activities. No emergent encounters. Just scenic routes without destinations. It’s like someone handed you a beautiful postcard and told you it was a map.
That’s not to say it looks bad, though. Visually, JDM pulls off quite a bit. The scenery is authentically inspired by rural and urban Japanese settings, and there’s a warmth to how the world is lit—those early morning and late-night drives can look stunning. There’s even a decent amount of interior detail, your character’s hands move as you steer, adding a nice touch of immersion that many racing games forget. It’s the kind of thing you might not notice immediately, but you’d definitely miss if it wasn’t there.
Still, the polish isn’t always consistent. Car models sometimes blur weirdly at the edges, especially during sharp turns or high-speed moments, and textures can pop in like they’re late to work. It’s not game-breaking, but it does pull you out of the flow, especially during moments when the game is otherwise firing on all stylistic cylinders.
Guntama is a great-looking ghost town—a scenic backdrop waiting for something more substantial to arrive. The bones are there: the aesthetic, the mood, the palette. But bones alone don’t make a world feel alive.
Map Mishaps & Menus
For a game that celebrates speed, control, and precision, JDM: Japanese Drift Master occasionally throws a wrench in the works—not with its driving, but with how it navigates off the track.
Take the minimap, for example. It’s displayed through your in-game smartphone, which is a neat little flavor touch, but functionally? It’s often more confusing than helpful. There were plenty of times when the minimap insisted I was going the wrong direction—even when I was literally driving straight toward my objective. Other times, it charted out wildly inefficient routes, sending me on a scenic detour when a clean shortcut was obvious. This isn’t a sprawling city with traffic or blockades—it’s Guntama. The roads are yours. There’s no reason for the GPS to be this clumsy.
Beyond that, though, the UI is clean and straightforward. Your phone acts as a central hub, letting you check messages, track your story progress, review completed missions, and monitor your career status with just a few taps. It’s intuitive, well-organized, and easy to get used to, even if you’re not the type to obsessively dig through menus in racing games. You won’t find yourself fumbling around or second-guessing what anything means here—it’s all laid out in a way that makes sense.
If you want to make changes to your car or view detailed stats, you’ll still need to head back to your garage—but that feels more like a design choice than a flaw. There’s something nice about having a "home base" where all your car customization lives, even if it means a little extra driving between events. In a game that’s all about the journey, the detour doesn't feel entirely out of place.
Slippery Mechanics
The game labels itself as a simcade, straddling the line between realism and arcade, but that balance isn’t always smooth. Initially, I thought the frustration was my fault. Years of traditional racing had hardwired my instincts for grip, not slip. I kept taking inside lines, braking like I was entering Eau Rouge instead of a mountain touge, and initiating drifts too early or too cleanly. But once I started adapting—once I got the hang of weight transfer, throttle balance, and letting go a bit—the control issues still didn’t quite disappear.
Drifting in sim mode is doable, but it never feels quite… natural. The weight of the cars is there, but they either snap too quickly or delay too long, like a metronome that’s just slightly off-beat. Inputs sometimes feel floaty when they should feel tight, and it makes it difficult to feel fully connected to your car. Eventually, I threw in the towel and switched to arcade controls—and to the game’s credit, that made things much more manageable. Drifts were more responsive, easier to chain together, and less punishing.
But, it still doesn’t help, because the game’s drift scoring system is a little all over the place. Missions often require you to outscore an opponent and finish under a time limit, which sounds fair in theory—until you realize the math doesn’t always add up. In early challenges, I’d carefully rack up scores, stringing together long drifts, only to find my opponent always beating me by the same margin, no matter how well I performed. If I hit 2,000 points, they get 2,800. If I hit 3,000, they bumped it to 3,800. The only way I won? By passing them and finishing first.
It started to feel like the rules were being rewritten behind the curtain. And then, just as suddenly, the next mission would flip the conditions entirely. It would be impossible to overtake; this time it’s all about points. And guess what? Now your opponent clings to corners like they’re driving a car built on rails, using physics that feel suspiciously unavailable to you. It’s the kind of artificial difficulty that doesn’t teach you how to improve—it just teaches you how to retry.
I wouldn’t have minded the challenge if the game offered some flexibility. If there were ways to earn extra cash between missions, take on delivery jobs, or tackle side challenges that let me tweak my build and come back stronger, I’d be singing a different tune. But JDM doesn’t give you those options—not yet, at least. You’re pushed through a mostly linear set of events, expected to master a steep curve with minimal tools at your disposal. There’s a thrill in that purity, sure—but it’s not always a fun kind of struggle.
This isn’t to say the driving is bad—far from it. There are flashes of brilliance, moments where the car just clicks and you chain a drift down a winding hill while the music hits just right. But too often, the game seems to fight against those moments, like it hasn’t quite figured out whether it wants to challenge you or just trip you up.
The Cars & Customization
Look, I’m not hard to please when it comes to car rosters. Show me a Miata and a Fairlady Z, give me the freedom to mess with every screw and sticker, and I’m sold. I’ll forgive your weird scoring system. I’ll squint past your inconsistent difficulty. I will drift through rain and fire if I know my little roadster is waiting for me in the garage.
So when JDM: Japanese Drift Master handed me the keys to a car I could grow with, tinker with, and slowly master, I melted a bit. Sure, the early-game grind is tough—money is frustratingly scarce, and unlocking new vehicles takes commitment—but the game wisely ties progress to the bond you build with your ride. The more you use a car, the more "mastery" you gain over it. That translates into performance bonuses and deeper tuning options, subtly encouraging you to stick with a build rather than just leapfrog to the next shiny import the moment you’ve got the cash.
That said, good luck getting the cash.
Upgrades aren’t cheap, and with no real way to earn income outside the main challenges (yet), you’re either forced to grind missions or hold off on deeper customization until much later. It's a bit of a shame, because the customization systems here are genuinely fun to play with. There's the usual fare—gear ratios, rev limiters, engine swaps—but also drift-specific touches that show love for the sport. You can tweak your camber into an aggressively negative stance, turning your wheels inward to hug those corners just a bit tighter. You can stiffen your suspension, alter your weight distribution, and adjust your handbrake sensitivity like you're prepping for a D1 Grand Prix.
The visual customization is decent, too. Nothing revolutionary, but you can add enough flair to make your car feel like yours. But again, everything ties back to the central limitation: cash is tight, and time is tighter.
Is JDM: Japanese Drift Master Worth It?
Needs More Under the Hood
JDM: Japanese Drift Master has the bones of something special. The culture’s there—the reverence for the craft of drifting, the careful attention to car feel, the manga-infused storytelling, the neon-drenched roads winding through mountain passes like veins pulsing with tire smoke. But for all its potential, it still feels… undercooked. Like you’ve just finished your first lap and realized the rest of the track hasn’t been built yet.
Despite its sim-styled presentation and some impressively detailed car customization, this isn’t really a drift sim. At least, not yet. The handling often leans more arcade than authentic, the missions lack polish and variety, and the world—beautiful as it is—feels more like a photo backdrop than a space worth inhabiting. There’s a hollowness under the hood, a sense that this car could really fly if someone just tuned it up, filled out the systems, and gave us more to actually do.
And maybe that’s what’s most frustrating, I want to like this game more. I want to recommend it to fellow car enthusiasts with a knowing smile, to tell them it's not just a game, it's a vibe. But right now, it feels more like a first draft. A solid foundation for a drift-centric dream that hasn’t quite figured out its final form. A beautiful machine that's stalled just before the apex.
So, is JDM: Japanese Drift Master worth your time and money? If you’re a hardcore drift fanatic or someone who just wants to cruise the mountain roads of a beautiful Japanese-inspired open world while practicing your powerslides, there’s some enjoyment to be had here. The customization alone can keep you tinkering for a while, and there’s a certain meditative calm in the drive itself.
But if you’re after a rich racing experience with tight, satisfying controls, a compelling story, and a world buzzing with meaningful activities—then no, this game isn’t quite there yet. If you’re not willing to look past its rough edges, it's probably better to wait for a more polished and fully fleshed-out experience.
| Digital Storefronts | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Steam |
Epic |
GoG |
|||
| Price | $34.99 | ||||
JDM: Japanese Drift Master FAQ
What Are The Cars Available In JDM: Japanese Drift Master?
⚫︎ Honda
┗ Honda Beat
┗ Honda Civic IV DX
┗ Honda NSX NC1
┗ Honda S2000
⚫︎ Mazda
┗ Mazda MX-5 NB
┗ Mazda RX-7 FC
┗ Mazda RX-7 FD
┗ Mazda RX-8
⚫︎ Nissan
┗ Nissan Fairlady Z RZ34
┗ Nissan Fairlady Z S30
┗ Nissan Fairlady Z Z33
┗ Nissan Fairlady Z Z34
┗ Nissan S14 KS Aero SE
┗ Nissan Silvia S13 QS
┗ Nissan Silvia S15
┗ Nissan Skyline 2000 GT-R
┗ Nissan Skyline R34 V-Spec II
⚫︎ Subaru
┗ Subaru BRZ
┗ Subaru BRZ II
┗ Subaru Impreza GR STI
┗ Subaru Impreza WRX STI
⚫︎ Unlicensed
┗ Alpha Moriyamo
┗ Yotsuhoshi Revolution
┗ Yotsuhoshi Shadow
What Are JDM: Japanese Drift Master’s System Requirements?
| System | Minimum | Recommended |
|---|---|---|
| OS | 64-bit Windows 10/11 | 64-bit Windows 10/11 |
| Processor | Intel i5-9400F or Ryzen 5 2600 | Intel i7 11700k or Ryzen 5 7600 |
| Memory | 16 GB RAM | 32 GB RAM |
| Graphics | Intel Arc A580 / GeForce GTX1660 / Radeon RX590 8Gb | Intel Arc B580 / GeForce RTX3060Ti / AMD Radeon RX6700 |
| Storage | 18 GB available space | 18 GB available space |
Game8 Reviews
You may also like...
 |
Forza Motorsport Review Racing |
 |
F1 24 Review Sim Racing |
 |
Assetto Corsa EVO Review Racing, Sports, Simulation |
 |
Tokyo Xtreme Racer Racing, Fighting |
 |
JDM: Japanese Drift Master News |
JDM: Japanese Drift Master Product Information
|
|
| Title | JDM: JAPANESE DRIFT MASTER |
|---|---|
| Release Date | May 21, 2025 |
| Developer | Gaming Factory |
| Publisher | Gaming Factory, 4Divinity |
| Supported Platforms | PC (Steam, Epic, GOG) |
| Genre | Racing, Simulation, Adventure |
| Number of Players | 1 |
| ESRB Rating | E |
| Official Website | JDM: Japanese Drift Master Website |
I hate that I like that title