JDM: Japanese Drift Master - Surprisingly solid open-world racing game

• DEVELOPER: Gaming Factory
• PUBLISHER: Gaming Factory
• PLATFORMS: PC
• GENRE: Racing / Open-world
• RELEASE DATE: May 21, 2025
• STARTING PRICE: 34,99€
• REVIEWED VERSION: PC

I’ll be upfront. I don’t usually play racing games. The last ones I really dove into were probably Forza Horizon 5 and Burnout 3 Takedown. So, when I first jumped into JDM: Japanese Drift Master, I was and still am a complete beginner to the genre. But surprisingly, that worked out pretty well. I found it quite easy to get around and understand the mechanics. While this might not be the review you’re looking for – coming from someone who doesn’t typically play racing games – I can’t lie: I genuinely enjoyed my time with JDM.

The game drops you into the fictional Guntama Prefecture, a place clearly inspired by Japan’s real-life Honshu region. You play as Touma, a Polish drifter who’s on a mission to conquer Japan’s underground drift scene. JDM blends the manga-style storytelling of Initial D with what they call “simcade” physics. Plus, there’s extensive car customization.

It’s truly a celebration of Japanese car culture, featuring over 250 km of roads, officially licensed vehicles from big names like Mazda, Nissan, Subaru, and Honda. You’ll find yourself in a open world packed with over 40 story-driven events and all sorts of sidequests, including drift battles, grip races, drag races, and even delivery runs.

Drifting Modes and Controls

The main thing you’ll be doing in JDM is drifting. You’ve got two main modes: Simcade mode offers a balance of realism with some helpful assists, while Arcade mode really dials up the drift and brake assists for a more casual experience. The game supports gamepads, keyboards, and even racing wheels, so you can play however you like. The drifting itself feels “spot on”. The controls are responsive, letting you easily start a slide, maintain your angle, and chain together combos since you have green, white and red lines that indicates all of these things. JDM also rewards you for high drift scores with multipliers and secondary objectives.

You can cruise freely around the world, hit up speed traps, or just drift for fun, and the radio stations definitely add to the vibe. However, despite being an open world, the exploration actually feels linear. You’ll run into indestructible fences, invisible walls, and very few off-road options. This makes the map feel more like a scenic backdrop rather than a truly living, explorable world. Side activities are pretty sparse too, so it lacks the collectibles or fun distractions you’d find in a game like Forza Horizon.

Additionally, you can always take your time in the driving school to go through various training sessions and really practice your drifting and driving skills. But honestly, after you put in a few hours of gameplay, you’ll start to notice how repetitive the objectives feel. It’s a lot of the same kind of drifting challenges and endless delivery runs. On top of that, the AI rivals can be a bit wild. They’ll crash unexpectedly or block your path in ways that feel completely unpredictable.

The virtual smartphone you use for settings, objectives, and navigation is a great idea for immersion, but it can be really clunky to use. While the traffic AI was generally decent, there were moments where other cars seemed completely “locked” into their paths. And the GPS? It could be pretty unreliable at times, occasionally failing to guide me properly to objectives.

“The main thing you’ll be doing in JDM is drifting.”

Customization Shines, but Flaws Persist

Earning cash in this game actually becomes pretty trivial by mid-game. I was able to afford the most expensive car way too early. In theory, the underground races should give you quick money, but they weren’t available, along with a few other modes marked as “Coming Soon” on the map. For making money, replaying certain missions is your best bet, as some can be finished in under a minute for decent payouts.

Customization is definitely a highlight in JDM: Japanese Drift Master. You can really tweak almost everything: engine performance, suspension, turbo, brakes, steering angle, and the aesthetics. This includes cool body kits, exhausts, decals, and even two-tone paint jobs. The interior details are a nice touch too, with things like MONO steering wheels or Racero bucket seats adding to the immersion – your character’s hands even move on the wheel. Plus, while tuning your car definitely impacts its handling, the game doesn’t do a great job of explaining what all those effects actually mean.

I tried playing the game using both an Xbox controller and a keyboard, and it’s fair to say that it’s much easier to control with a controller. However, I was actually pretty surprised by how well the keybinds worked for the keyboard, so both options are perfectly viable. Since I don’t own a steering wheel, I can’t really compare it to that, but if you’re wondering, the first two options are relatively safe and work perfectly fine.

The camera options in JDM are actually pretty solid, offering more choices than you’d typically expect. The interior view is quite neat with ability to see the mirrors. Visually, the game looks decent overall, but it struggles with general pixelation and flickering, which might be due to lighting, anti-aliasing, or dynamic resolution problems.

“Customization is definitely a highlight in JDM: Japanese Drift Master.”

It’s definitely a bit rough around the edges

I generally didn’t have any major problems with the game’s graphics. Sure, it could get a bit blurry at times, and there were some overall rendering issues, but my PC didn’t suffer, and I didn’t experience any frustrating FPS drops or similar performance problems. This does mean that if you’re playing, you might notice more issues or bigger problems than I did, depending on your setup.

Guntama Prefecture’s 250 km of roads feature picturesque mountain passes, cities, and the serene towns around Haikama Lake, all rendered with vibrant colors and dynamic weather. The day-night cycle and rain effects definitely add to the immersion, although it’s a bit odd that wet roads don’t show any water on your car’s windscreen.

The manga-style cutscenes, while charming, are pretty static and not used very often – it’s just a few pages here and there, and that’s it. Environmental details like road signs, bicycles, and storefronts absolutely nail Japan’s aesthetic. However, the world still feels “hollow” because there’s limited interaction with it. And it really breaks immersion that there’s no car damage, not even cosmetic.

To wrap things up, JDM: Japanese Drift Master was a really surprising experience for me. While it’s definitely a bit rough around the edges, I genuinely enjoyed the drifting, the car physics, and the open world. Even if it felt a little hollow, it was still fun to drive through. I also liked the interesting way the story is told through manga-style cutscenes.

I think it’s quite surprising that there’s already a roadmap for future content; it almost feels like the game could have been in Early Access. It is an indie game after all, but it’s definitely an ambitious one. For now, it has some really solid foundations that can be built upon, and I can’t wait to see what else the developers will bring us in the future.

“This game’s appeal is highly subjective, shaped by your experience with the genre.”

Review copy provided by the publisher

3.8