Skydrift Infinity (Switch eShop) Review

One of the most irritating things anyone can say online is, “No one asked for this.” It’s an arrogant and unfairly harsh way to shut down any new game that isn’t on someone’s specific wish list, and not only is it generally disrespectful, it can also be totally pointless.

After all, there is no need for a game to have been requested much by the game’s public to make it worthwhile, and Skydrift Infinity is a perfect example of this. We’re pretty sure no one asked for it either, but it’s here anyway, and it’s immensely fun while it lasts.

For those of you unfamiliar with it (and we imagine most of you are), Skydrift Infinity is not to be confused with the strange Switch Gensou SkyDrift girls racing game. Instead, it is based on Cloud movement, a download-only game that quietly launched on the Xbox 360 and PS3 digital stores a decade ago. Skydrift Infinity is a remastering of that game, bringing a visual upgrade and adding some new planes for good measure.

While at first glance it may seem like a dogfighting game, Skydrift Infinity is in fact an arcade-style racer in which the goal is to simply finish first ahead of your opponents. There are three main types of races available: Power Race is the typical Mario Kart race where power-ups litter the track, Speed ​​Race removes power-ups and replaces them with rings in the air that give you extra speed, and Survivor is the something you always see in racing games where the racer who is last after a certain period of time is eliminated.

So nothing groundbreaking, but that doesn’t really matter when the actual race feels solid enough, like it does here. Each plane handles very well and things can get really exciting as you go into little gaps and make extremely sharp turns to avoid hitting the canyon walls.

The original game had eight planes, with additional DLC raising it to 11. Infinity includes all of them and adds five new ones, including some cameos from other THQ Nordic games. There’s an EDF Gunship from Red Faction: Guerrilla Remastered, the BS4-VR Sporano from Sine Mora EX, and even a couple of Death and War-based planes from Darksiders.

Although there is a clear difference between some of them: you have the typical tropes of the high speed ones that cannot turn well and the slightly slower ones that favor maneuverability, it is fair to say that many of the planes have almost identical statistics, although this It means that once you find a plane that suits your style, you will at least have a few designs to choose from.

As for the stages that you will actually compete in, they are great. Whether you are racing over an idyllic lagoon, a snowy mountain with ice caverns, or a narrow desert course at sunrise, the tracks offered here are well designed and have enough alternate routes for you to play multiple times to try. discover the best way to go.

The ignition system is also efficient enough. It’s similar to Diddy Kong Racing, with several color-coded icons scattered around the track. This means that players can go out of their way to ensure that they choose the specific power-ups they are looking for, adding some of a tactical element. When you’re ahead you’ll actively search for shields and repair power-ups, while when you’re behind you’ll naturally target homing missiles and machine guns.

You can only have two power-ups at any one time, and if you’re stuck with the ones you don’t want, you can use them to recharge your boost gauge. The momentum can also be completed with a dangerous performance: almost losing the stage, flying close to the ground and the like. This is a game that rewards risk and feels more exciting as a result.

It all comes together to create a brilliantly entertaining arcade-style racer that we don’t see enough of these days, or at least certainly not to this standard, no nonsense like DLC. All planes and their skins are unlocked through good old-fashioned progression, just like it used to be.

It reminds us of an airborne version of the N64 and the Dreamcast classic Hydro Thunder, which also offered arcade-style racing with an offbeat vehicle (a speedboat, in his case) and became a cult audience for its great stunts and exaggerations. Races We can imagine Skydrift Infinity gaining similar followers.

The Switch version comes with two graphics options, Performance and Detail. Performance is the default and runs the game at a near-perfect 60 frames per second, while still looking impressive enough that most gamers will probably (rightly) stick with it. The Quality setting reduces the frame rate to 30 in favor of an apparent increase in graphic detail, but to be honest it’s so negligible that even when we stopped the game and switched between the two settings on the fly, we couldn’t see much of a difference.

So almost everyone should play in Performance mode. A game is fast as this really benefits from the boost at 60fps, and there isn’t enough of a difference to justify the change. Even in handheld mode, where the image is noticeably a bit blurrier, Quality mode didn’t improve that much, which means you’re better off sticking with 60fps Performance there too …

The only real disappointment we have with the Skydrift Infinity is how long it lasts. There are only six courses in the game, and while each has a reverse option and can be played in all three different types of races, it doesn’t take time to see everything the game has to offer.

The campaign mode, which features seven rounds of five races, is all there is for individual players, with no Time Attack or Grand Prix modes to mix things up a bit. Once you’ve run through all the races and unlocked all the planes and liveries, you’ll have done pretty much everything you can with it except go back and play in events you already won just for fun. that.

There is a local splitscreen multiplayer option for up to four players that adds a couple of Deathmatch modes to the three normal race styles. It’s quite fun, and although the visual quality drops a bit, it still manages to run at 60fps in two-player mode (dropping to 30fps for three and four players).

Other than that though, that’s it. Technically, it also has online multiplayer, but as with so many low-key games on the Switch, you should be exceptionally lucky to find a career (we didn’t after numerous attempts).

So it’s more of a case of quality over quantity, and a number of players have likely seen everything Skydrift Infinity has to offer after just a few hours. Its price reflects this, to be fair, but it’s a shame there isn’t more meat on its bones, because what’s out there is so entertaining and makes us want more.