AiRace Speed – Review
Climb in your cockpit and put your helmet on, to brace yourself for the tracks you’ll have to fly through in AiRace Speed. One of the newest games on iOS and the Nintendo 3DS. AiRace Speed happens to be one of those smaller games that might just use the graphical powers of the 3DS.
Story
AiRace Speed is one of those games that situates itself solely around its gameplay. Except for a fancy opening cinematic there’s not really any story value that this game has to offer.
Graphics
Graphical quality is probably one of the main selling points of this game, when looking at the Nintendo 3DS version. In 2d the game already uses a lot of the capabilities of Nintendo’s handheld. When turning the 3D switch on, it’s easy to say this game is pretty amazing to look at. AiRace Speed does a great job in drawing you inside the game when flying through the great looking levels and obstacles you’ll have to fly through.
Turning on the 3D settings will take some time getting used to. You’ll sometimes have to learn how to estimate situations when trying to avoid obstacles or when flying through obstacles. When you’re used to it, you’ll simply love it.
Whilst a lot of the levels will have resemblances to each other, they will all have their key points and amazing parts that will pretty much ‘wow’ you compared to many of the other games on the Nintendo 3DS. You will certainly want to take a closer look at each of the tracks and its many corridors.
Sound
AiRace Speed offers a decent soundtrack of ‘techno-ish’ songs that will motivate you to play the levels over and over again. The tracks are decent and will not give you the impression you’re playing a game that will hardly cost you anything.
As far as sound effects go, you’ll have to make do with the sound of your ‘airplane’ and the sound of you crashing into obstacles.
Gameplay
In essence AiRace Speed isn’t really a ‘racing’ game but more a game where you’ll have to dodge obstacles at high speed. Each track will present you with a set of obstacles, which are alike for nearly all tracks. You’ll mainly have to concern yourself with flying through small passages and dodging a few moving obstacles.
The game will present you with 18 tracks you’ll have to fly through in one piece. You’ll unlock them by earning star ranks on the ones you complete. For instance the first levels you’ll be able to unlock with bronze stars, whilst the later levels can only be unlocked with silver and gold stars. This will make the game a lot harder than it may seem.
Having star ranks is not the only thing that creates replay value for AiRace Speed. Each level has different routes which makes it fun to explore new routes and come across new obstacles and clear the level in faster time which will in turn earn you your better star ranks.
The controls of the game however aren’t always at the same level as the rest of the game. Nintendo 3D’s stick isn’t really made for games like this as well as the shoulder buttons aren’t always that comfortable to perform rolls for you to pass obstacles more swiftly or easily.
Working with a control scheme that isn’t really to your liking might result in errors of judgment and crashes that will follow up those choices. You’ll fly into many walls and obstacles. Then again this creates opportunities to constantly keep trying to improve your previous track records. If you’re truly getting certain you’ll be able to keep that boost button pressed down and try and go for the gold.
The second screen of the 3DS, sadly, has nearly no purpose at all. It will indicate your health and will go down when you’re wall hugging a tad too much, as well as drop down when you keep using your boost too much.
Conclusion
AiRace Speed is one of those smaller games for your 3DS that happens to be a little diamond in the rough. You’ll surely enjoy yourself playing through this small yet not so easy game. Beware, walls may be closer than they appear…
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