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Night is where all this customizing and cornering dodging will really be put to the test. In the parking lots of these twisting country roads lurk rivals with racing on their minds. You can try to beat their time on a particular stretch, put their cornering artist skills to shame (as long as you do it within the time limit), or come head to head in an SP Battle, where smacking into the guardrails or dropping to far behind will drop you right out of the race. Some are even willing to gamble parts or cars for the privilege. Take care of them all to make yourself the king of that particular stretch of road, and the Slasher will emerge. Defeat him, and a new road will open up for you to conquer.
If all you're looking for is a quick race, TXR: Drift has other game modes to challenge your skills, based mainly off the rival competitions mentioned above, though you can go head to head against a friend in split screen versus mode. Only stock cars are available here, and the selection is limited to what you've unlocked in Conquest.
Loading, loading, loading...keep that game loading...
That's not to say TXR: Drift doesn't have it's share of problems. The most noticeable is how familiar you become to the loading screen, which can pop up three or four times when you're just navigating menus. Want to challenge a rival again that beat you by a tenth of a second? That's three loading screens. Want to change your parts or even your ride when seeing what some rival has under the hood? Four loading screens. It's two loading screens just to go from the new car shop to the used one. While these are all brief, they definitely add up as something I could have done without.
There's also the fact that nearly two hundred rival racers sounds impressive, but with very little personality besides a few short message board posts, and rarely any tangible reward for beating them, makes victory seem a little hollow at times. I'd trade them all for twenty good racers with set personalities and set rewards for taking them on, only for them to come back with another challenge and a sweeter ride later on. It would fit well with the music, which is a great selection of a wide range of styles, but being far too few in number makes them wear out their welcome right down to the rims.
There's a lot of drift-oriented racers out there now, but this is the first one that made me feel as if I was barreling down a mountain road, struggling to keep a head of a persistent rival, while powersliding around corners to come within a hair's breath of defeat...and not always succeeding. It has it's share of flaws, but if you want a true challenge, TXR: Drift's sticker price of $20 is a steal. Go out and get your drifting on.
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