OVERALL RATING		3.5
Presentation		3.5
Control		3.5
Gameplay		3.5
Fun factor		3.0
User Rating		4.5

Originally known as Burst Rally: World Championship, GT Drift Untouchable is a rally racing game that features 16 courses through eight countries around the globe.  It includes five different cars to race with and each can be tuned to suit your driving style.

The three modes available are Quick Race, Time Trial and Championship.  Quick Race lets you hone your driving skills and get a feel for the game.  Time Trial checks your competitive edge by adding a countdown clock that gets time added on each time you pass the necessary marker.  Best track records can be challenged here as well.  In Championship mode however is where you build your legacy by taking on all courses and racing against computer opponents for positioning and points.  The more points you gain, the larger your margin of victory and the easier it is to unlock and continue on with new courses.

The tracks are created with many twists and turns that can easily lay you out if not paying attention.  Since acceleration is automatic, you are only required to steer left or right and hit the brakes, but while this can be handled with the D-pad, a better control scheme unfortunately forces you to use both hands, one on the keypad, in order brake efficiently.  This makes it a bit uncomfortable, but at least the controls are still responsive, especially when trying to get around opponents who are fairly aggressive.  They’ll maneuver to block your path or push you into guardrails, but once you’ve overtaken them, they hardly are ever a factor afterwards, leaving you to toil with the roads.

As you progress through the races, you can unlock new cars and tune them accordingly to road conditions, which means you might fail the race until you tune it just right.  One thing to remember though is that you must finish both races completely in each country before quitting or else suffer having to race through them again before the next set is open.  There is no save point.  This isn’t necessarily bad, but I should also point out that the courses are quite lengthy, taking a good 4-6 minutes each.

The game has a good sense of speed and the scenic backdrops have rich color and texture.  The sound is well constructed as it features 10 different music tracks to enjoy the action with, but all it really does is cover up the fact that there are no sounds effects like screeching tires or revving engines.

GT Drift Untouchable does offer a lot of drifting action during the lengthy races, albeit on a rally course, and that’s a good thing but it’s unfortunate that the AI couldn’t be a bit more challenging.  As mentioned, once an opponent is passed, you can pretty much forget about them.  That, and also having to use both hands for driving are a bit of a setback, but the one saving grace is that the game also includes the ability to download new cars and courses to extend the racing action.  That’s certainly a plus for racing enthusiasts.