Bears Can’t Drift!?

What is Bears Can't Drift!?
Bears Can't Drift is a kart racer that is set in a stylised world and is heavily inspired from Diddy Kong Racing. Players take control of bears and race across a variety of tracks and game modes with up to four players in a split-screen game. Four game modes are available to be played. These include time trial, single race, and checkpoint. As a result of these modes being used in countless other racing games, they are self-explanatory.
The fourth game mode, I'm not certain what they've called it, or really what the objective has you eat power-ups to fill up a power-up bar. I have yet to try this in the multiplayer mode. However, in the single-player mode, I filled up my bar and attacked the opposition. It isn't entirely clear what is supposed to happen or what you are supposed to do. An attempt to attack a single enemy mercilessly never eliminated them. Allowing the AI to attack me and empty my own bar never 'killed' me. Racing around the track six consecutive times didn't bring a possible 'race' to a close. Consequently, some clarification on this mode is necessary.
A key feature of the game is a hub world. Players must navigate this hub world to get to the next event. This is one of the features that frustrates me most of all.
The Disappointing Hub World
Unfortunately, I am disappointed in the hub world. It has copied the idea from Diddy Kong Racing and I wish that they hadn't. The gimmick may have worked almost two decades ago in an almost flawlessly designed racing game but it doesn't satisfy the needs of players today. Therefore, I argue that it is outdated. Many gamers desire a streamlined experience that they can get into and out of as quickly as possible. Because of this, we appreciate having menu systems that enable us to do this. As a result, the hub world is mentioned in many negative reviews as well as positive ones.
I can appreciate that some people may enjoy the hub world. It would seem like a possible solution would be to incorporate a menu system as well as having the hub world. This would satiate the desires of both sets of players - those who enjoy the hub world and those who don't. A menu system would enable players to get into the actual events faster while those who enjoy the menu system
Single Player? Forget About It!
If you are a single player and do not have friends or family to play with then I strongly advise that you do not purchase this game. I have two very strong reasons for this.
Firstly, in the non-race modes, there are no other race cars on the track. As a result, the race tracks feel like big empty space and consequently it feels very lonely. Further, there was no sense of competition whatsoever. If the intention of the developers was to have the single-player on a track by themselves attempting to get the fastest possible time then Steam leaderboards needed to be incorporated. That they are not is almost unforgivable.
Secondly, when it comes to the competitive modes the AI is relatively useless. I am accustomed to having to duel it out with the computer AI. Other race games are able to have competitive AI even if it means the dreaded utilization of rubberbanding code. When you breeze by your opponents on the first or second corner of the race and are never headed again it gives your game a bad look. Even worse than this is when you overlap them on the second lap and they are either running into corners, performing donuts or occasionally not even driving in the right direction.
Ultimately, if you are looking for a strong single-player racing game there are better alternatives on the market.
Local Multiplayer? Right On!
Although I am disappointed in the single-player mode the opposite holds true if you do have friends. This is where the game was intended to deliver and it does a pretty solid job. Playing with only Ainslie still made the game feel a little empty. However, playing with a group of 4 competitive gamers brought the game to life. This made the game feel a lot like Mario Kart and the like. As a result, it is genuinely a game where the more players you have (it supports up to 4) the better your experience.
We were able to laugh and talk trash as we all attempted to outdo one another. The game, as cute as it is, does become very competitive in a group setting. When you have two or three players who are on your level - or better - you strive to keep getting better. The worst of our group claimed at the end of gameplay that they didn't feel left out and that they improved more than they had in other games because they were truly enjoying themselves. In our last race, they were able to come second instead of lagging miles behind.
Is it Steamified?
There are no Steam Trading Cards as of yet. There is, however, a set of 21 Steam achievements.
If I were to improve the game for Steam I would definitely add Steam leaderboard to the game especially if there are no plans to include online multiplayer.
Verdict
Bears Can't Drift!? is a game that I cannot recommend for single-players looking for a competitive racing game. However, if you have multiple friends or family members who can and will play the game with you then it is recommended. Ultimately, there better games out there but for a local multiplayer game, this does represent reasonable value for money.
For similar reviews and your chance to win great giveaways, including PC hardware, please visit Steamified

Introduction
Bears Can't Drift!? is developed by Arran Langmead and published by Strangely Named Studio. It could’ve been a promising kart racer if it wasn’t bogged down by the troublesome control scheme and lack of a proper options menu.

Gameplay
I really wanted to give this game a fair shot. I have relatively few racing titles in my Steam library, compared to other genres. Even less so, related to cuddly animal-driven karts. It is cute indeed but I cannot judge a game based solely on its looks. As soon as I started the game, I was baffled to find next to no way of actually seeing what graphical changes can be done or even an in-game glossary of the key bindings. All it showed were the symbols off console controllers and as soon as I pressed the ESC key, the game simply closed down and I was back to my desktop. Bears may drift, but we got off on the wrong foot right over there, buddy. I decided to let that one slide since I really did enjoy the near-minimal looking art style, the diversified scenery and even the number of bears/racers you can choose from. But I was taken aback soon enough when I tried playing on Bears Can't Drift!? Hard Mode.
You see, once you start up the game, instead of going to the Hub (as the developer calls it) and selecting a bear and game world, you have to choose the difficulty by actually reaching a hub with your red kart (too bad you can’t change its color too). The Easy and Normal stages are a breeze, but lemme tell you of the Hard one. I tried for at least 20 times to jump off a cliff and reach the other side, only to crash less than a meter away from my target. That’s all it took. If only that cliff was taller. Still, I play on Normal on almost all my games so I had to settle for it. I made the right call, since the driver AI was very responsive and quite feisty. Absolutely nothing wrong in it. I throughly enjoy good AI in my racing games. Speaking of the Game Worlds I mentioned earlier, you can choose between Woodland, Asian and Arctic settings. Each filled with racing opportunities, time trials or a sort of picnic collection type of game which I presume would be enjoyable, if you play with 3 of your friends (we all know how well Mario Kart treated friendships, right?). Truly, the racing part of the game feels great if you overlook the inability to set your own controls. It even features power-ups to help you speed up or hinder your rivals during the race. It is only a decent title and that is what bothers me most. It could have been much better with what I perceive as, minor adjustments.

I’m going to be a little technical now. My apologies if I will bore you with some details. The game has an atrocious options “panel” with overly simplistic settings which you cannot actually tweak. You might think I’m exaggerating but I had to inspect the screenshots I took for this title, in order to know what resolution it runs. 2194x1234. Ironically, this weirdly out of standardized proportions resolution is seen as 1920x1080 in-game and even then it does not allow me to change it in any manner, lowering or increasing. I’m not going to beat my chest over absolutely having to play the game at 4K (though I did attempt several ways, even by Set Launch Options and /width=3840 /height=2160), but it did have the option for 2K natively (2560x1440). Totally useless though since it never actually changed it in-game. Great job dev team!

Pros
+ Beautiful graphics
+ Decent racer AI
+ Steam Achievements
Cons
- In-game settings and the control scheme are a bad joke
- MP limited to LAN/splitscreen
- No Steam Trading Cards
Result / Final thoughts
Bears Can't Drift!? feels like it never left Early Access. Not having rebindable keys and with a barebones settings menu, can be considered almost sins as far as PC video gaming is concerned. It’s also known as a “bad console port” but the funny thing is, the PS4 version for this game has been even more critically panned. If the racer AI wouldn’t have been decent and if the game didn’t use the Unreal Engine 4, I might have rated the game below 60 and thus stop recommending altogether. In truth, even if I read on its store page that it had its final update on June the 1st 2016, nothing is really “final” in gaming. Not when you have to make things right. So, never say “never”.
Rating 60/100

This review was submitted for Imperial Reviews, through the generous contribution of RedHill.

Bears Can't Drift!? bears a decent resemblance to N64 classic Diddy Kong Racing but this is definetly not a negative.
The game has an over world which connects different tracks and currently there are 3 different game modes. Single Race which, as you would expect, pits you against up to 7 other racers, time trial which does as it says on the tin and a picnic basket mode where you must be the first to collect picnic baskets that keep spawning around the track.
Graphically the game looks lovely running on the Unreal 4 engine and so far the developer has put in some different looking tracks. A little bit more “stuff” on each track would be nice but I am sure this will come as the game continues through early access.
That’s not to say each track does not have shortcuts as there are some great ones on show here both of the official through a hollow log type and unofficial take a sharp turn over the edge and few a through trees type.
Currently going offtrack does not seem to slow you down and I actually really like this mechanic as it makes the traces a lot more fun and frantic. Powerups in the game are the usual variety of missiles, speed boosts and traps but all function well and seem to have a decent impact on the races. Where the game really excels is in the powerup fusion mechanic. Picking up 2 powerups allows you to combine them to create a second tier power up. I love this mechanic and think this could definetly be a selling point moving forward.
In terms of controls the game as you would expect plays best with a controller and handles well. The drifting took a little bit of getting used to but after a few races I quickly adapted as the “feel” is very different to Mario Kart.
Local multiplayer works really well and definitely is enjoyable and I really hope somewhere down the line online multiplayer is a possibility.
While there is clearly a fair bit of development to do “Bear’s can’t Drift” is being developed by a sole person in Arran Langmead and when talking to the man in question you can tell how much of a passion project this game is. While it obviously has a long way to go I reckon this could become one of the best kart racing games out there when it is finally finishd.
To watch our video review please click on the link here: Video Review

Really fun game to play with a friend, especially if you enjoyed some of the karting games of the 90's (or later). Have switched to playing this for a bit of karting fun instead of playing Mario Kart 64. Takes a while to get used to the lack of any real text, still not sure if I like that part, but that's one mans opinon. Online multiplayer would be nice, but I'm lucky enough to have a partner for local co-op games, and lets face it, this type of game is infinately more fun to play with friends =]

A very promising game! Firstly, it looks beautiful. The world and characters have a very charming aesthetic.
Even in early access, the game is very fun to play. There are 4 powerups to use against your opponent. You may also combine different powerups together in different ways to create new weapons.
If you'd like to see some 2 player gameplay and a more in-depth look at the game, check out this video:
There is currently 1 hub world with which you can select different fun game types. The dev plans to add more.
The game is most fun played with friends locally, and with controllers.
Overall, it's a super fun game!

I was hesitant paying 13 $ for this game and held of buying until yesterday. I thought to give it a shot and I must admit this game is pretty relaxing. The music, the scenery and the driving all fit very well together. Granted, they don't have an online multiplayer, but they have done a good job on what they have implemented.

I love this game it is super fun to play!!! and also i dont know how to play multiplayer :T