Screenshots & trailers
Review sentiment over time
Weekly positive-review rate (green) and review volume (bars). Dashed lines mark significant patches; the amber line is the start of the current scoring window. Hover the dots to see what drove a dip or a jump.
How this score was computed
The VGC Score is a weighted blend on a press-comparable 0-100 quality scale. Steam approval rates are first calibrated (95% positive on Steam ≈ 89.5 quality, since Steam approval skews high). Press and tracked creator reviews each count ~2x a player review and share one cap against player evidence (creator buy/skip calls pool into an approval rate, calibrated like Steam approval); all-time sentiment is capped and halved (it's context, not verdict); reviews of the current build carry the most weight when a fresh patch anchors the window; and a 'typical game' prior keeps small samples from pegging the scale. Because press reviews and Metacritic user aggregates describe the launch build, their weight decays as the game ages (3-year half-life after a 1-year grace). That's how a game that launched rough can outgrow its old reception once updates win players over. Reviews under 2h playtime (the refund window), non-Steam activations, and free copies are downweighted.
| Component | Positive | Quality (0-100) | Weight (pseudo-reviews) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Press reviews (OpenCritic) | – | 60 | 7 |
| All-time Steam reviews | 89% | 83 | 315 |
| Metacritic user ratings | – | – | 0 |
| Post-patch Steam reviews (trust-weighted) | – | – | 0 |
| Calibration prior (typical game) | – | 72 | 50 |
Scoring window: last 30 days (no significant patch detected) · 0 reviews sampled · 0 total reviews in window · weighted 0 up / 0 down · computed 3h ago · full methodology →
Press & Creators reviews (14)
Individual verdicts from outlets we track: scored reviews first, most trusted outlets first among them. The small badge is each outlet's trust score: how well its scoring history aligns with players.
- 60
“Gensou Skydrift is one of the few karting games on Switch to come even slightly close to Mario Kart in terms of its racing mechanics, and when it all comes together it's a fun time. Unfortunately, the lack of meaningful single-player content and the fact that the online is dead on arrival means this should be strictly considered a local multiplayer game if you want to get your money's worth.”
read full review ↗ - 50
“Despite all of those couple-thousand-words up there, I think on some level that I kind of hit this one right when I started out. It’s a Touhou kart racer. For the people who dearly want a Touhou kart racer, this provides exactly that, and the reality is that the only really big criticism that’s actually crippling is the game’s length. Everything else winds up landing at the point that this is a game without Mario Kart money or polish trying to be Mario Kart.”
read full review ↗ - 61
“While its novel style has some charm the bland and uninspired play leave it a bit flat”
read full review ↗ - 60
“Technically competent, and surprisingly well done, the simple lack of depth prevents this from doing any better. It can actually be completed in a few hours at max. Having a friend or playing online can extend the fun, yet the lack of content becomes obvious fairly quickly. The developer has promised more updates, which will hopefully come through, as the game has a good base to work with.”
read full review ↗ - 60
“Gensou Skydrift feels more like the fan game it actually is than I hoped. The references to Mario Kart: Double Dash are warranted, but it lacks the polish and finesse of that GameCube classic. If anything, Gensou Skydrift shows how far Mario Kart has come, because this might as well be a port of a game from 2003.”
read full review ↗ - 40
“Gensou Skydrift can't offer nothing special, especially to fans of a genre that has more ideal options, with a small cast of characters, a limited roster of loyalists and quite unstable frame-rate.”
read full review ↗ - 90
“Overall, Touhou Gensou Skydrift is an absolutely great racing game. While combining the feel of both a Mario Kart title with closer to F-Zero style gameplay, challenging yet fun courses, and an amazing soundtrack, Skydrift will definitely meet your racing needs. No prior Touhou world knowledge is needed either, and with a large cast of characters to choose from, it's really fun to figure out what tag-team combo you like the best. Although the number of courses may be on the smaller side, they're all really fun, especially once you've had some time to practice on them. If you're looking for a tide-over between Mario Kart titles, or just want something a little different from them? Touhou Gensou Skydrift is definitely for you.”
read full review ↗ - 53
“Gensou Skydrift isn’t a good game. The ideas of interchangeable witches and the shooting of the cards with their respective powers to use in the competition are appreciable, but beyond that I didn’t feel particularly involved in the game. An enjoyable and fun work just that little bit, but perhaps with some refinement of the plot and gameplay, or the addition of some more particular competition also for the purposes of the plot itself, it would have had more effect. A little bit enjoyable and fun title, but perhaps with some refinement of the plot and gameplay, or the addition of some more particular competition also for the purposes of the plot itself, it would have had more effect. After all the tracks are very linear with only the circles of magic and the drift to perform, you could say that even just the races levels of Crash Bandicoot 3 are much more engaging and full of interesting obstacles.”
read full review ↗ - 50
“Gensou Skydrift isn’t a terrible racing game, but its awkward controls and iffy drifting mechanic heavily reduce the fun that can be had from it. Add into the mix poor visuals and a dire campaign, and unless you’re happy to race online you should probably avoid it. Hopefully the option to remap the controls will be delivered in an update, because that would definitely make it more of an interesting proposition.”
read full review ↗ - 60
“Despite the surprisingly great controls, Gensou Skydrift is a low budget disappointment. It’s ugly, it doesn’t feature a lot of content, and it’s not exactly the most accessible game if you’re not a die hard fan of the Touhou franchise, since you won’t understand a single thing about its plot otherwise.”
read full review ↗ - 50
“Overall, I enjoyed playing Gensou Skydrift, but it did have some issues. It is quite short, without many modes. It has some technical issues and it’s not great graphically. With that said, I certainly enjoyed that it was more difficult than the average and it is very fun to play against friends, as well as in single player. The skill needed to successfully navigate the courses is what makes it stand out the most to me and certainly fits in with the rest of the Touhou Project series in that way.”
read full review ↗ - 80
“I have to say overall I had a great time with GENSOU Skydrift. The racing was fast, fluid and just a lot of fun. The graphics and artwork are outstanding. The game runs at a solid framerate no matter if the Switch is docked or in handheld mode. I polished off the campaign mode in just a few hours, but I spent about 4 or 5 more playing around on all the tracks with friends and CPU racers. The $23.99 price tag might seem a little steep, but this is a quality racing game. If you’re a Touhou fan I think you will find a lot to love here, and if you’re a racing fan looking for a solid title this might just be your cup of tea as well.”
read full review ↗
Nintendo Life
Gamer Escape
Nindie Spotlight
Cubed3
NintendoWorldReport
Enternity.gr
Chalgyr's Game Room
Serial Gamer Italia
GameSpew
WayTooManyGames
NookGaming
oprainfall…and 2 more tracked reviews.
Patch history
- 2.090 UpdateJun 23, 2022
- 2.082 UpdateJun 17, 2021
- 2.080 UpdateMar 8, 2021
- 2.072 UpdateOct 1, 2020
- 2.070 UpdateSep 3, 2020
- 2.062 UpdateMay 28, 2020
- 2.052 UpdateApr 13, 2020
- 2.050 UpdateMar 23, 2020
- 2.042 UpdateMar 9, 2020
- 2.040 UpdateFeb 12, 2020
- 2.030 UpdateJan 30, 2020
- 2.020 UpdateJan 21, 2020
- 2.014 UpdateJan 6, 2020
- 05/Jan UpdateJan 5, 2020
- 12/26 Update!Dec 26, 2019
- 12/20 PatchDec 20, 2019
- 12/19 UpdateDec 19, 2019
- 12/16 Bugfix UpdateDec 15, 2019