TheRetroArcade
Veteran
Posts: 13,223
Joined: Feb 2026
Joined: Feb 2026
But what if we could gawk at the dumpsters
I do not wish to "rule the streets" of Megacity West, dear creators of Airframe Ultra. I wish to be ravished by them, rubbing my face against the rusty corrugated metal of the shipping containers, and savouring the acid blue waters of the bay. I do not want to "become the one thing with freedom in a city of billions: A racer." I want to become the other thing with freedom in a city of billions: a person who slowly drives or – whisper it - walks around just looking at stuff, because gadzooks, this is one of the prettiest PS1 cyberpunk burgs I've laid eyes on.
Those eroded pastel chevrons. Those seductively wobbling vertices. That electric reef of a downtown backdrop, murderously luring your gaze from the on-coming trucks. That layer of invigorating crackle over everything. Every moment or so, I dismount from my hoverbike to inspect some concrete ruin I could swear I last saw in G-Police, or ponder the resemblance between a subway tunnel and WipEout 2097's Gare d'Europa. Then, somebody waps me in the skull with a stop sign at 300 kilometres an hour. But I was already stopped, frantic stranger! Your brutal poetic ironies are wasted on me.
Despite my best efforts, Airframe Ultra is a battle racer. It's co-developed by Videocult, the people behind Rain World – a game it looks nothing like, but is comparable to in the sense that there is an ocean of industrial refuse to navigate, and you will very often die. Each battle race is broken into sprints around a branching course that has been smashed together by the forces of urban decay. You will corkscrew down storm drains and barge through old abandoned clifftop mansions under a scarlet sun, zip along deadly flyovers and thread the barely legible layouts of high density slums.
Your hoverbike handles like a bronco full of helium, and that's before you start wanging it off the gloriously marbled, low-poly rubbish heaps that stud the city, shunting the game's camera through surfaces and exposing the map's underside in what the absolute squares amongst my readers will doubtless deem "an inelegance", but which true turbojunkeys will appreciate for its makeshift exuberance.
You've got a boost button which generally gets you exploded – and all that's before you get to the time-limited battle arenas that bookend each sprint. Here, players attempt to slaughter each other as much as possible, spending collectible cash on floating weapon pick-ups that range from bent pipes to Gatling guns and EMP grenades. Then it's off for another sprint. The first player to earn 10 points and place first in a subsequent sprint wins the match. I have not won many matches. My primary goal right now in Airframe Ultra is persuading everybody to stop and swap some emotes, while I coo over an amazing piece of graffiti I've found.
My efforts to make Airframe Ultra a walking sim aren't just about scenery. The game is surprisingly engrossing on foot, with some woozy tank controls that make me think of the experimental days before every third-person control scheme became a variation on Assassin's Creed, Uncharted or Gears of War. You have to hammer a button to run, for instance, and you'll wind yourself fast. You can also perform punches and kicks in four directions, with grander attacks to discover by smooshing together inputs. You'd best believe I burst into tears when I realised what this reminded me of: it's Bungie's Oni! The game with the finest martial arts system ever coded! There are more obvious influences, like Road Rash, but in these grim days of endless parrying, I'll take all the Konoko callbacks I can get.
Ahhhhh. But if only this had a proper single player mode. Online and local splitscreen with drop-in bot support are all you get. I wouldn't say Airframe is the most balanced deathracer, either. In my experience, and do bear in mind I mostly try to avoid the racing component, victory typically goes to whoever lands a fat cash reserve and grabs an AK47. That...Read more: Full article on www.rockpapershotgun.com
What do you think about this?
I do not wish to "rule the streets" of Megacity West, dear creators of Airframe Ultra. I wish to be ravished by them, rubbing my face against the rusty corrugated metal of the shipping containers, and savouring the acid blue waters of the bay. I do not want to "become the one thing with freedom in a city of billions: A racer." I want to become the other thing with freedom in a city of billions: a person who slowly drives or – whisper it - walks around just looking at stuff, because gadzooks, this is one of the prettiest PS1 cyberpunk burgs I've laid eyes on.
Those eroded pastel chevrons. Those seductively wobbling vertices. That electric reef of a downtown backdrop, murderously luring your gaze from the on-coming trucks. That layer of invigorating crackle over everything. Every moment or so, I dismount from my hoverbike to inspect some concrete ruin I could swear I last saw in G-Police, or ponder the resemblance between a subway tunnel and WipEout 2097's Gare d'Europa. Then, somebody waps me in the skull with a stop sign at 300 kilometres an hour. But I was already stopped, frantic stranger! Your brutal poetic ironies are wasted on me.
Despite my best efforts, Airframe Ultra is a battle racer. It's co-developed by Videocult, the people behind Rain World – a game it looks nothing like, but is comparable to in the sense that there is an ocean of industrial refuse to navigate, and you will very often die. Each battle race is broken into sprints around a branching course that has been smashed together by the forces of urban decay. You will corkscrew down storm drains and barge through old abandoned clifftop mansions under a scarlet sun, zip along deadly flyovers and thread the barely legible layouts of high density slums.
Your hoverbike handles like a bronco full of helium, and that's before you start wanging it off the gloriously marbled, low-poly rubbish heaps that stud the city, shunting the game's camera through surfaces and exposing the map's underside in what the absolute squares amongst my readers will doubtless deem "an inelegance", but which true turbojunkeys will appreciate for its makeshift exuberance.
You've got a boost button which generally gets you exploded – and all that's before you get to the time-limited battle arenas that bookend each sprint. Here, players attempt to slaughter each other as much as possible, spending collectible cash on floating weapon pick-ups that range from bent pipes to Gatling guns and EMP grenades. Then it's off for another sprint. The first player to earn 10 points and place first in a subsequent sprint wins the match. I have not won many matches. My primary goal right now in Airframe Ultra is persuading everybody to stop and swap some emotes, while I coo over an amazing piece of graffiti I've found.
My efforts to make Airframe Ultra a walking sim aren't just about scenery. The game is surprisingly engrossing on foot, with some woozy tank controls that make me think of the experimental days before every third-person control scheme became a variation on Assassin's Creed, Uncharted or Gears of War. You have to hammer a button to run, for instance, and you'll wind yourself fast. You can also perform punches and kicks in four directions, with grander attacks to discover by smooshing together inputs. You'd best believe I burst into tears when I realised what this reminded me of: it's Bungie's Oni! The game with the finest martial arts system ever coded! There are more obvious influences, like Road Rash, but in these grim days of endless parrying, I'll take all the Konoko callbacks I can get.
Ahhhhh. But if only this had a proper single player mode. Online and local splitscreen with drop-in bot support are all you get. I wouldn't say Airframe is the most balanced deathracer, either. In my experience, and do bear in mind I mostly try to avoid the racing component, victory typically goes to whoever lands a fat cash reserve and grabs an AK47. That...Read more: Full article on www.rockpapershotgun.com
What do you think about this?