Mesa Drift

Mesa Drift is a free one-button driving game you can play in your browser with no download. A little car rolls along a road that floats high above a desert of red sandstone mesas, and the road zigzags: every few seconds it turns hard to the right or hard to the left. The car drives itself and picks up speed over the first stretch of each run. Your only job is the steering. Hold the screen, the mouse button or Space and the car swings to the right; let go and it swings back to the left.

The car does not turn on the spot. The body swings round quickly, but the car keeps sliding in its old direction for a moment before the tyres grip, so every corner is a short drift. Turn too early and you cut across the inside of the bend and drop off the edge. Turn too late and you slide wide off the outside. The sweet spot is the moment the car reaches the corner, and finding that rhythm is the whole game. Fall off and the run is over, with your distance on the card.

Your score is the distance you drive without falling, in metres. Your first three minutes behind the wheel are practice: a fall during that time just puts the car back on the road, and the distance counter starts again from zero; each stretch counts as its own score and your best one is saved. After that, a fall ends the run unless you have a spare tire left. Once per run you can also watch a short ad to carry on from where you fell, and your distance keeps counting.

Coins float along the road. Take a corner right through the middle of the road and it counts as PERFECT. Three PERFECT corners in a row double every coin you pick up, and a longer streak raises it to three, four and at most five times. One untidy corner resets the streak, so the multiplier rewards clean driving rather than survival alone.

The road is built from patterns with a rhythm: a long straight to breathe, then a staircase of three to five quick bends, then another straight. The staircases come first, then smooth bumps that throw the car into a short hop with coins in the air. Later a bump sits right before a bend, and the trick is to turn while the car is still in the air so it lands facing the new way. After that come broken staircases that mix short and long steps, so you have to read the road instead of tapping a beat, and hops that land you straight into a staircase. Over the first 800 metres the car picks up speed, the road narrows and the staircases come more often; after that the pace holds steady, like a long run in Drift Boss, and only the mix of patterns keeps changing.

Every 180 metres the road enters a new zone: a checkered line crosses the road and the surface changes pattern and colour, from plain road to stripes, checkers, diamonds, dots and big tiles in sage, sky blue, rose, lilac and gold. Zones differ in width too: some keep the usual road, some open it up wide, and in others the staircases are wide while the straights stay narrow. Each new zone you reach for the first time gets a banner. On a long drive the sky also turns to sunset and then to night, and the car switches on its headlights.

Between runs there is always something to work towards. Two run goals sit on the end card, such as taking a number of PERFECT corners or driving a set distance without falling. Finish one and it pays bonus coins, and a new goal takes its place. New goals grow with each one you finish but never ask for much more than your good runs of late, so there is always one within reach. Coins buy new cars in the Garage, and three more cars unlock when your best distance reaches 1,000, 2,000 and 3,000 metres. The Garage also sells two upgrades with three levels each. The Magnet pulls coins near the car into it, from a wider reach at every level. Spare tires catch the car after a fall and put it back on the road without ending the run, and your distance keeps counting: one, two or three catches per run. A daily reward adds coins every day you come back, and your best distance goes on the weekly board.