Fresh water splashes into your third-person view as you soar up the vertical rocky plain of a rather detailed waterfall; the finish line is in sight; victory is within your grasp; your chest begins to swell; the pompous mist of pure arrogance and smugness begins to wash over your serotonin-filled brain as words of vaunt spill into your mouth…

*Boom* you get hit by a deceptively well-timed rocket; your mates fly past you; you vaguely envision their faces in their cockpits as they maraud over your ruined plane to snatch victory as little pieces of you are scattered over the well rendered ocean.

Digital Reality’s Skydrift is Mario Kart, Crash Team Racing, WipeOut and Ace Combat all rolled into one; Okay, maybe not Ace Combat, but it does allow an extra axis that the previously mentioned titles didn’t.

All about the context

What you have to understand about Skydrift is it is a game of context.

When put into context, Skydrift’s graphics are extremely impressive – within the realm of 400mb downloads, Skydrift’s graphics are breathtaking. However, when you compared to Forza 4 or Gran Turismo 5 it looks rather sad. The Landscapes are extremely detailed; there are animals that move in the background; and it has dramatic lens flares. Beside the water the environments are truly breathtaking – from the lava pits where you can sense the heat, the shipwrecks that you plummet through, to the UFOs scattered all over the place.

On most of the stages the landscapes deteriorate as the collateral damage builds. The most awesome part of this that, usually on your last lap, massive parts of the stage start falling in your path; while they don’t necessarily cause you to crash, seeing a 90 meter, 400 tonne cooling tower crashing down towards you while you’re moving towards it at over 400kmph is super awesome!

You can see that the creative juices were clearly flowing in Digital Reality’s Art department. Moving around the beautifully-crafted landscapes is both extremely challenging and sometimes rather easy.

All about the control

The control system is easy to understand and adapt to if playing on a game pad. I found myself often using the skills that I had picked up from playing Motorstorm. If playing this title on PC, a game pad is a must – I first tried my hands at being a keyboard cowboy and, alas, I ended up being more frustrated than productive.

I still maintain a keyboard is strictly there for work, first-person shooters, strategy games and for when your inner rocker feels like coming out for a quick round of Frets on Fire. But I digress.

There are eleven planes; the DNA of each plane is comprised of five components namely, Speed ,Boost Power ,Acceleration ,Manoeuvrability and Armour. Each of these components has a five star rating – the higher the star rating the better that plane will perform within the realm of that rating. There is a sixth star, but that is reserved for planes with über abilities.

All about the craft

Of the eleven planes, three are unlocked through the Skydrift: Extreme Fighters Premium Airplane Pack, which can be purchased for an additional R12 – R13 (if the Rand stays within the R8.06-R8.50 to the dollar mark – hoping that the Greeks don’t invade other countries and diminish the overall value of every currency worldwide).

These premium planes include the tankish, flea-like Vanguard – with über manoeuvrability and armour; the completely pointless speed-obsessed Sparrow X1 – with super speed and nothing else; and the Triwing Vintage – with über Boost power, maxed manoeuvrability and super acceleration, making it the perfect all rounder.

My personal favourite is the Triwing Vintage as I find that there is nothing more awesome than taking down a plan that looks like a Stealth bomber/Skyscream hybrid with a plane that resembles something that Orville and Wilbur built in their shed.

All about the course

The Game is divided into 7 stages, each consisting of 5 races neatly divided into a mix of the three game modes – namely:

Power Mode – where you race, blowing each other up using your power ups and boost to try and get ahead;

Survival Mode – where you have to race against the clock and have to gain position like a fat kid in a tuckshop line, in order to survive before the 24 sec timer runs out. To do so you can use your power-ups, burn them, and boost your way to the front;

And finally Speed mode – where you fly through golden rings to gain speed well-beyond that of any boost. There are no power-ups in this lmode, but boost can still be obtained through flying recklessly to close to the water or any object.

All about the cool stuff

Much like WipeOut series, you can pick up power-ups. There are six of them, including a force shield, an EMP, rockets, air mines, a repair kit and a machine gun. You are able to carry two power-ups at a time, and are able to collect two of the same power-ups to either increase your shields or double your arsenal.

The boost power is essentially NOS from the NFS franchise, but what really separates SkyDrift from all the other wacky racing games that I have played is that you can take your power-ups and “burn” them for more boost.

That, for me, is the highlight of the game – sure, you could exact revenge and rumble around trying to kill your enemies like a moronic testosterone fuelled drone; OR you could be clinical and humiliate them by boosting ahead and gaining the lead by an astronomical margin. I don’t care what Vin and his overinflated NOS-filled rants say – a real racer does care whether he wins by an inch or a mile.

All about the community

The Multiplayer experience is very limited – and not by choice. Tthere are plenty of modes, including the Gladiator Multiplayer pack (for  R24 – R30, again dependant on the Greeks and world peace) which allows you to play deathmatch and team deathmatch modes.

The default modes allow you to play against your mates in any of the three main game modes. Sadly, the limited part is that if you don’t know anyone online who has the game, you are not going to get to play. I only got one opponent in more the two weeks of trying, and when I shot past him he just quit.

This game will be awesome with your mates and, to be honest, I would rather buy it on 360 or PS3 as I’m sure you won’t have a problem finding a 12 year old somewhere in the world to fly against.

All about conclusion

In conclusion this game is really cool; it’s only a 400MB download, and for R80-85 for the basic game (and R40 -50 for the additional content) I’d say this game is a steal. The only let-down is the extreme lack of online opponents.

Do yourself a favour and download the demo; once you’ve done that, played it for 20 minutes and decide to buy the full game – let me know so I can try this game out in a truly competitive environment.

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