Nintendo's Super Mario Kart (1992). Early versions of the game featured Flicky, a blue bird that has made frequent appearances throughout the series, as a playable character, who was subsequently replaced by Amy Rose in the final version. The music that plays when collecting a blue invincibility power-up is a sped-up version of the opening song You Can Do Anything from Sonic CD. Drift is also the first Sonic game to feature Amy and Dr. Robotnik as playable characters. The soundtrack was composed by Naofumi Hataya. In 2003, Sonic Drift was ported to the GameCube as an unlockable extra in Sonic Adventure DX: Director's Cut, though it was omitted from the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 releases. It was compiled into Sonic Mega Collection Plus for the Xbox, PlayStation 2 and PC in 2005, and was digitally re-released for the now-defunct GameTap storefront in 2006. A demo of Drift is also included in Sonic Gems Collection. Reception Sonic Drift received mainly mixed reviews from the press. Japanese publication Famitsu heavily compared the game to Super Mario Kart, feeling that the game was largely uninspired and generally lacking in content compared to Nintendo's game. They were also critical of the game's short horizon, which they claimed made it hard to see what was ahead of the player. Electronic Gaming Monthly was more positive towards it in a preview, saying that the game was fast-paced and enjoyable but the flashing, choppy scrolling hampered the gameplay somewhat. They enjoyed the game's amount of modes, namely the Vs. Mode. Jeuxvideo.com in 2012 also compared the game to Super Mario Kart, disliking Drift for being too simplistic and for being very easy to finish, alongside the general lack of content and poor presentation. They stated: "Too simple and too fast to finish, Sonic Drift is unfortunately not a title that will fascinate the crowds." Its inclusion in Sonic Mega Collection was negatively received; GameSpy passingly labeled it as "almost unplayable", while Eurogamer mockingly called it "a terrible, terrible racing game whose flickering madness actually made me physically sick." Retrospectively in 2019, Hardcore Gaming 101 said that the gameplay itself was decent and solid, but felt that it was greatly lacking in content and variety. They criticized the track design in particular for being generally boring, lacking in presentation, and for the stage themes being purely cosmetic instead of affecting the track designs themselves. Hardcore Gaming