Developed by Gaming Factory and published by 4Divinity, JDM: Japanese Drift Master is not a particularly brand-new racing game, but it is a fresh release for the PS5. Available previously on PC via Steam and Xbox consoles, the game is finally sliding its way to Sony’s flagship console as well. JDM: Japanese Drift Master arrives at a time when players are looking ahead to a longer delay for the upcoming Forza Horizon 6’s PS5 launch, and it is the perfect title to fill that Japanese racing game void on the platform. This is our review of the PS5 version of JDM: Japanese Drift Master, in which we deliver some sushi in style and drift around tight Japanese streets.
JDM: Japanese Drift Master is set in a gorgeous, fictional Japan with a diverse road system ranging from tight, curvy serpentines through mountains to precise, rural streets in cityscapes. The game features a decent-sized map that you can freely explore and discover tons of content for yourself. You step into this cozy Japan as a foreigner who is out for delivering sushi but manages to find himself in the middle of the underground world of drifting and racing. Your goal is to learn to drift, win events, make money, create a fast car, and dominate the scene.
JDM: Japanese Drift Master features a narrative-driven campaign where you are treated with manga-style cutscenes. Scene-relevant sounds accompany these cutscenes to offer an immersive look into the game’s lore and narrative. These cutscenes are plenty, and you will see them before and after main story events, and they keep you engaged with the story. While the story is fairly basic, it still offers a good progression system that keeps you motivated to keep playing.
The story missions begin with simple tasks like delivering sushi while drifting to simple drift sessions to full-on drift championships and competitions where you take on the best drifters in the scene. If you get bored with the main story missions, you can just start exploring the world of JDM: Japanese Drift Master, and there is a lot to do in the game on the side. There are side missions to complete, challenges to win, and even smaller activities like finding special locations and taking their pictures or running through speed traps, setting high scores. While none of these activities are groundbreaking for the genre, they make the world feel alive and offer something to complete apart from the main story. The progression is also monitored through your personal Driver Level and your Car Level.
These levels give you access to new customization unlocks for your car, as well as access to much faster cars. JDM: Japanese Drift Master features a good mix of licensed and unlicensed vehicles in the game. Licensed vehicles include different brands like Mazda, Mitsubishi, Nissan, and Honda, while some of the unlicensed vehicles are inspired by the likes of Toyota, Ford, and Dodge. The car list is pretty decent, and you have a lot of drift icons in the game, like the Silvia S15, Honda S2000, and even something a little crazy like the 660cc Honda Acty truck. Apart from these vehicles, there are some other cars available in the game through special events like the Hyundai Insteroid elective vehicle. If you are a fan of drifting, you will not be disappointed by the vehicle selection of the game.
Customization plays a key role in JDM: Japanese Drift Master’s world, and after selecting your journey with a rusty Corolla, you work your way to the top, earning money and gaining money to access better parts and ultimately better cars. You have complete control over your car’s customization options, spanning performance, visuals, and paint jobs. You can completely change your car’s appearance by applying custom body kits, paint jobs, rims, bumpers, and spoilers. You can also change interior bits like seats, steering wheels, and gear lever knobs, offering you a fresh look if you prefer playing with a first-person view. Customization is not limited to exterior and interior but also covers the performance of your vehicle. You can enhance your engine’s power with custom parts, lower your ride with performance suspension systems, and also increase your stopping power with improved brakes.
For that extra power from your motor, you can also purchase and install nitrous. Naturally, everything costs money, and for that, you have to grind and gradually build your vehicle. Money is not easy to acquire, but it is not overly grindy. You spend around an hour completing races and challenges, and you will end up with a decent amount of money in your bank. This slow progress with your car builds a bond and also gives you a purpose to drive your vehicle. Switching to another car will reset your car level to 1, and this means that you will need to increase the car’s level to unlock higher visual and performance components for it. This ensures that cars are not treated like tissue paper, where you just keep switching between them, but actually spend time building and racing them.
For most parts of my review playthrough, I spent my time with the car I purchased at the start of the game, and it was not because I couldn’t afford better cars but because I wanted to complete the build and see how it performed to the very end of the game. This level of progression reminded me of Need for Speed Underground 2, where I used to complete nearly the entire game with my starter car despite getting some others along the way. It is much easier to acquire new cars and upgrade them in JDM: Japanese Drift Master, as compared to Need for Speed Underground 2, but the flow of building a car gradually is there.
Whenever I play a racing game, my biggest point of critique is always its handling, and this time, because handling can make or break a racing game. This was the case with a lot of racing games in the past, and one that comes to mind is the 2019’s Xenon Racer, which was a classic game of a racing game with potential, ruined by terrible handling, as detailed in our review. For JDM: Japanese Drift Master, I tried its Prologue and then couldn’t jump into the PC or Xbox release after it, but this time around, I did manage to get my hands on the PS5 version ahead of its release, and I am happy to report that JDM: Japanese Drift Master does not disappoint when it comes to car handling.
While it might feel a little stiff, it is only because you are supposed to drift around every corner, and drifting is not difficult at all, even if you turn off all assists. For me, JDM: Japanese Drift Master is the most approachable drift racing game that I have played in a long time. The cars handle very well; they slide around when you want them to, and once you get your hands accustomed to the drift mechanics, it becomes a breeze to slide around tight streets. Even in Grip events, the car handling delivers a good driving experience without feeling overly stiff or drifty. It is the perfect balance, which can further be adjusted based on your personal preferences.
The game map is yet another great thing to talk about in JDM: Japanese Drift Master. While the whole map is inspired by Japanese culture and its history, it is easily one of the best maps currently available in any racing game. The game features a changing weather system where rain affects the gameplay, and you will also see a day and night cycle in full effect. Even if you are simply cruising around the map, you can enjoy the subtle details of the world with points of interest, small cityscapes, and parked cars around them. At one point, you may be driving along a winding road through mountains, and the next instant, you may find yourself speeding along a highway that leads to one of the city areas of the game. You will also find some notable traffic vehicles while driving around these roads, such as the Suzuki Jimny, Toyota Crown, and others.
The game also shines when it comes to its audio design. Throughout your time in the game, you are listening to a genre-themed soundtrack that includes Eurobeat and J-Music. The car engine sounds are excellent and offer a unique mix of high and low-end notes for different engines. I particularly enjoyed the deep, throaty noises of the American additions in the game, but the Japanese cars offer excellent engine sounds too. The gear shifting, high-RPM strain of the engine, and sliding around on drift tires, every sound in the game feels solid and to the point.
JDM: Japanese Drift Masters emphasizes some small details that really stand out. These little bits here and there are excellent at immersing you further into the game. For example, the cutscene Manga are read from right to left, rather than the typical left to right, like in other video games that opt for an anime-style cutscene. The countdown is also in Japanese, and the cars make a small gear-level sound when you are switching gears. Another cool detail is the transmission whine when pushing the accelerator under high RPMs at high speeds, just like in real cars, where the RPM needle bounces when you accelerate and then drops back when you lift, giving a unique engine note. The side missions also offer a good change of pace because of their diverse nature.
There are a couple of hiccups in the mix that are coming in the way of JDM: Japanese Drift Master getting a perfect score. The most prominent one is perhaps a frame-rate issue. We completed the game on the PS5 Pro, and even on the more powerful console, we noticed some major framerate issues across the board. While this should be patched with future updates, the current version suffers from an irregular framerate. An important note here is that this was during the Performance Mode, which locks at 1080p 60 FPS as compared to 4K 30 FPS for Quality mode. The AI also needs some work as it performs a little unpredictably. It will stop randomly and struggle to find a way around our car if we stop on the road. These are small issues that can be easily fixed, but when compared to the overall title, they are just annoying when the game itself is great.
Final Verdict:
JDM: Japanese Drift Master is an excellent addition to the PS5 lineup and easily ranks among the platform’s best racing games. It makes smart use of the DualSense’s adaptive triggers to deliver a satisfying simcade experience set across a visually striking world. The drift mechanics are intuitive yet rewarding, allowing newcomers to get up to speed quickly while still offering depth for experienced players. Strong world design, a well-presented narrative, and robust customization options further elevate the experience. Combined with a solid mix of licensed and unlicensed vehicles, JDM: Japanese Drift Master offers hours of engaging racing action and is a must-play for fans of drifting and high-speed competition.
Final Score: 9.0/10
Disclaimer: A PS5 code for JDM: Japanese Drift Master was provided by Gaming Factory for this review. Read our Review Policy.
