DUBAI For once you will be forgiven for hitting the tarmac of a nighttime Shaikh Zayed Road at speeds of over 250 km/h. What’s more, you won’t be fined or even hauled up for whizzing through the Dubai dry docks at such insane speeds. In fact, you could also choose to do the same along the stretch leading to Atlantis the Palm on a bright sunny morning or in the snows of Ski Dubai. You could go off road into the desert as well, but whatever stunning Dubai location you choose to go for a spin in your shiny bright machine, you will only be encouraged to break all speed barriers. At Dubai Drift - the UAE’s first indigenous mobile app game to hit the top of charts - only speed thrills.
Favourite game
“It’s a proud product of the UAE where the entire work has been done in-house, in this country and most importantly, it’s the world’s first and only online drifting game where the cars don’t quite race but slide along,” explains the game’s lead developer, Faraz Mobin, 32. Dubai Drift has been downloaded more than eight million times and has been rated the favourite game in several GCC countries besides the UAE, the US and Russia.
“It’s simple and user friendly. You don’t need to be an ardent gamer really to experience the thrill of a joyride in some of the most stunning locales of this country,” says Mobin, a Vancouver-trained game designer from Delhi, India, who works for Zero Four LLC, the Dubai-based company that created the game that was also declared App of the year in App Store 2014 lists.
As a gamer, you could hop into a Mercedes SLS, Chevrolet Corvette, Toyota Supra or an MR2, Nissan Armada or a GTR and either collect cones along the route or keep revving up the speed till the tyres burst or burn out.
“The look and feel is really world class. It’s not your typical racing game but what makes it different is the stunning backdrops besides the format that’s so easy to figure out. As someone who has lived in Dubai, there’s also some extra appeal,” says Akhil M, who plays the game regularly on his smartphone, solo and sometimes with friends online.
Reviewed by more than 200,000 players, Dubai Drift currently runs on more than 850,000 smartphone and tablets around the world. It’s available for free on Appstore and Playstore.
