Challenging Drifts With A Story: JDM: Rise Of The Scorpion First Impressions

The prologue of a brand-new drifting game set in a fictionalised Japan, featuring drifting and a bunch of tuner cars, is hot off the presses - and it is even free. Let’s check out JDM: Rise of the Scorpion!

Japanese Drift Master: Rise Of The Scorpion is launching on Steam, GOG and the Epic Games Store on August 8, 2024 - and it is free. Built on Unreal Engine, it is an introduction to the future release of the full game which is set to be called simply JDM. Rise Of The Scorpion is a prologue - but how it ties into the main game, we will have to see.

The standalone section is centred around a character Hatori. who’s in highschool and gets into hijinks mostly involving drifting. The full game is suppsosed to launch later in 2024, but no release date has been set yet. What will the full game be? Eventually, we will have access to the full map, with lots more cars, customisation and challenges to beat.

The Setting​

Now let’s get into it. JDM: Rise Of The Scorpion is created by Polish developer Gaming Factory, and it is a narrative game set in Guntama prefecture of Japan, a combo of both Gunma and Saitama. It also has a lake and a mountainside, obviously extremely inspired by Initial D and Mount Akina, which is based off Mount and Lake Haruna.

I am lucky enough to have lived in Nagano prefecture which is just next door to Gunma, and I can say it mostly fits the vibe of the area. The trees look nice, the markings on the road seem to match up, there are vending machines everywhere, as well as those little signs outside buildings.

It feels like Japan - but in a way, it feels like the Disneyland version of Japan. The setting is almost too beautiful and scenic - kind of authentic, but it does not feel 100% real and it didn’t trigger a feeling of "wow, I’m in Japan!". But I am sure for a lot of people it will be more than enough.



You will spend a lot of time in the game driving from challenge to challenge. So far, these have been drift races against other people, where the aim is to rack up as many points as possible. There is also a car dealership and a customisation garage as well, which we will get into later.

The map is open world as well, so you will be cruising around with AI traffic. They do not seem very smart, as they just pile into you without braking if you crash, but I can forgive that.

Graphics wise, the world looks rather beautiful with a full day night cycle included. There is a sort of shadowy delay behind the cars, however.

JDM: Rise Of The Scorpion Handling​

A number of wheels are support in JDM: Rise Of The Scorpion, as well as keyboard and controllers. My Logitech G Pro wheel worked out of the gate once I assigned the buttons, which is what I drove in my time in the game.

Additionally, I am playing Rise Of The Scorpion on a super-ultrawide monitor, which is supported fairly nicely. I could not change the FOV though, which is a little annoying.

On to the road, however. The game feels nice to drive! It is very smooth, and you do not feel the road bumps and small details as much as in something like iRacing or Assetto Corsa, though.

That said, the drifting is quite unforgiving. It is not like Need For Speed or Forza Motorsport/Horizon where you can just tip it in and mash the throttle and the car just kind of sits sideways - it takes a little bit of effort to get the car sliding, and holding it there is quite difficult.

There are driving aids to help out as well if you are struggling. But if you are looking for a game where you can just chill with the car sideways, this might not be it. I found it nice to drift, and like most drift games found this car easier to drift and get sideways as you upgrade it and give it more straightline talent.

Customisation & Tuning​

There is a fair bit of customisation and tuning in JDM: Rise of the Scorpion. You start with a Nissan 370z (albeit unlicensed) and you can upgrade it both cosmetically and with internal parts. It will sound and handle differently as you customise it.

In fact, the sounds as you customise your car change nicely, and I think the cars sound nice in general, too. The effects on the smoke also look nice.

There are a bunch of cars you get to drive in Rise Of The Scorpion. The green 370z seems like the hero car for our main character, and it is from a fictional manufacturer as Nissan is not licensed in the game - unlike Subaru and Mazda, which are both present. Cars like the Mazda MX5 and both the new and the new-ish Subaru BRZ available to drive from these two manufacturers.

Story​

The story is told through manga. It feels a little dorky, and is slightly hard to follow what’s happening. But the art style is fun and honestly, I don't hate this.



On the contrary. I love the idea of making a narrative racing game, there are not enough these days - Need For Speed Unbound is pretty much the only recent one I can think of. And I do not think there has ever been a non-cringe racing game story - this one follows that trajectory. But I love that it is there, and I am giving Rise Of The Scorpion a thumbs up just for having a story.

Bugs​

With the game having been freshly released, there are a bunch of bugs I have encountered playing the preview version. Some of these may be patched by day 1, so if they are not there anymore, great! The main one I found is that the game crashes to desktop whenever you exit the map, which is quite annoying, so I am avoiding the map where possible for now.

I have also found that the wheel forcefully re-centers after a loading screen. This is quite scary for Direct Drive wheels, as you will often finish a drift session with a huge amount of lock on, and the wheel will sit there on the loading screen. Then when the game loads it goes back to the center suddenly at full strength. It nearly ripped my wrist off twice, so be aware of that!

Verdict - Is JDM: Rise Of The Scorpion worth playing?​

So, should you give JDM: Rise Of The Scorpion a try? Well, it is free, so it is certainly worth looking into. But it needs polishing. It has got some really nice things going under the hood, and I know there will be a huge amount of people that will just enjoy the vibes of cruising around a Japanese mountainside area at their own pace in the open world.

But at the moment I think it needs a bit of work. I am glad they are showing it to us, and I am glad it is free. However, I would like to see Gaming Factory continue working on it before the main release.

Have you tried JDM: Rise Of The Scorpion already? Let us know your first impressions on Twitter @OverTake_gg or in the comments below!