Sky Drift is a aerial racing game in the vain of Mario Kart. Imagine Hydro Thunder with planes meets Mario Kart, and that is what Sky Drift is. When going into this game I did not really know what I was getting in to. I thought Sky Drift was an arcade version of Ace Combat or HAWX, where I was a plane fighting enemies and completing missions I do not know if I was pleasantly surprised or not.
Sky Drift definitely evokes the same feelings that a Mario Kart would. The controlling is is insanely arcade-like and over the top. You use the triggers to accelerate and break and a to boost. It controls like almost any current game with cars, except you a flying a plane. You get to choose from two different planes in the beginning but through out the campaign you can get up to seven. Each plane has four unlockable skins and five different attributes, speed, boot power, acceleration, maneuverability, and armor. Each is rated with a star rating of one to five stars and they effect the plane you chose for the different types of events. The racing is similar to burnout, where driving,or flying, dangerously gains boost and crashing does not mean much.
The campaign is seven stages with five to six events per, with the exception of stage seven which is one special event. There are three different types of events which are all combined in the final stage. The three types are, power, speed, and survivor. In the power races it is the typical cart racing you expect from this type of game. There are six different power-ups which you can hold two different power-ups at once and if you collect multiple of one power up it gets more powerful. The race ends after a set number of laps,first few stages it’s two and it goes to three in the latter half,and complete the event is considered complete when you place in the top three. In the speed type all power-ups are stripped and added are speed rings. When you go through the rings to gain speed and the race also ends in a set number of laps. The last type,survivor, is what it sounds like. Every so often the person in last place is eliminated and the event is over when all but one person is eliminated. Through out playing the game and doing certain things you will get badges and medals. For the medals it is for things like winning a power race, and the badges have tiers for things like getting kills with the missile power-up
The art style look much like a Hydro Thunder would if it were made with boats. The tracks are similar in that you must use crazy momentum in order to get the best time. On the tracks, like in Hydro Thunder, are short cuts that you can take in order to cut time, but that are more dangerous and can cost you time if can get through clean. Other than the sounds of planes crashing the only other sound is the announcer and some background music that is quiet when compared to the plane noise. The announcer has a very Quake or Counter Strike vibe as he announces when you get multi-kills or when you overtake a race or get in first place. When racing you are facing off against seven other racers all named as if you were playing online. I did not actually get to play online as other than me there was only one person playing Sky Drift, but I see it being the same but harder as it is against real people.
Sky Drift is 1200 Microsoft points($15) and has a decent bit of re-playability,which can be had by going back and trying to get all the medals and badges. Just playing through the campaign on medium difficulty and not worrying about getting first on all events you are looking at a good six plus hours. If you are the type to want to get everything in the game it can take awhile and may even be impossible. There is a plane and multiple skins that require you to play online to get, so if you end up buying Sky Drift and want to get those skins, and achievements, you have to get some people together to make that possible. If you like cart racers like Mario Kart and Hydro Thunder, and are looking for something to play on the 360 or PS3 you could probably do worse than Sky Drift.
Sky Drift definitely evokes the same feelings that a Mario Kart would. The controlling is is insanely arcade-like and over the top. You use the triggers to accelerate and break and a to boost. It controls like almost any current game with cars, except you a flying a plane. You get to choose from two different planes in the beginning but through out the campaign you can get up to seven. Each plane has four unlockable skins and five different attributes, speed, boot power, acceleration, maneuverability, and armor. Each is rated with a star rating of one to five stars and they effect the plane you chose for the different types of events. The racing is similar to burnout, where driving,or flying, dangerously gains boost and crashing does not mean much.
The campaign is seven stages with five to six events per, with the exception of stage seven which is one special event. There are three different types of events which are all combined in the final stage. The three types are, power, speed, and survivor. In the power races it is the typical cart racing you expect from this type of game. There are six different power-ups which you can hold two different power-ups at once and if you collect multiple of one power up it gets more powerful. The race ends after a set number of laps,first few stages it’s two and it goes to three in the latter half,and complete the event is considered complete when you place in the top three. In the speed type all power-ups are stripped and added are speed rings. When you go through the rings to gain speed and the race also ends in a set number of laps. The last type,survivor, is what it sounds like. Every so often the person in last place is eliminated and the event is over when all but one person is eliminated. Through out playing the game and doing certain things you will get badges and medals. For the medals it is for things like winning a power race, and the badges have tiers for things like getting kills with the missile power-up
The art style look much like a Hydro Thunder would if it were made with boats. The tracks are similar in that you must use crazy momentum in order to get the best time. On the tracks, like in Hydro Thunder, are short cuts that you can take in order to cut time, but that are more dangerous and can cost you time if can get through clean. Other than the sounds of planes crashing the only other sound is the announcer and some background music that is quiet when compared to the plane noise. The announcer has a very Quake or Counter Strike vibe as he announces when you get multi-kills or when you overtake a race or get in first place. When racing you are facing off against seven other racers all named as if you were playing online. I did not actually get to play online as other than me there was only one person playing Sky Drift, but I see it being the same but harder as it is against real people.
Sky Drift is 1200 Microsoft points($15) and has a decent bit of re-playability,which can be had by going back and trying to get all the medals and badges. Just playing through the campaign on medium difficulty and not worrying about getting first on all events you are looking at a good six plus hours. If you are the type to want to get everything in the game it can take awhile and may even be impossible. There is a plane and multiple skins that require you to play online to get, so if you end up buying Sky Drift and want to get those skins, and achievements, you have to get some people together to make that possible. If you like cart racers like Mario Kart and Hydro Thunder, and are looking for something to play on the 360 or PS3 you could probably do worse than Sky Drift.
Download Sky Drift 2011
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