Thanks to Qubicgames for the review code

Title: Air Race Speed
System: Playstation Vita/TV
Price: $4.99
Release Date: 12/20/2016

Presentation

Air Race Speed (Now adding an r to the title) appears to be a combination of Airace Xeno and Airace Speed on the 3DS, and just like I mentioned way back in the Xeno review, the graphics are well done here, and thanks to the increased power of the PSTV/PS Vita, the visuals are finally able to shine in the best way possible, making the game look absolutely gorgeous when played on a Playstation TV.

Unfortunately, I still found most of the music tracks to be rather dull and techno-focused, but that’s not too much of an issue here considering how the visuals were improved for the better.

Gameplay

Air Race Speed is a high speed racing game with more of a focus on avoiding obstacles instead of racing other opponents. Like I mentioned way back in my Airace Xeno review, the goal of the game is to reach the goal as fast as possible without crashing in order to get the gold star ranking for each stage, and every once in a while you’ll be thrown in an endless stage where one crash halts your progress entirely. (In these stages stars are rewarded based on progress made instead of your time) There are three tiers of levels to unlock, and whenever you unlock a new vehicle a bonus stage corresponding to that ship will unlock, which tests your skills with each ship.

Like on the 3DS, each of the ships you unlock control differently from one another, with some ships having better control and handling while others sacrifice that in favor of increased acceleration. Depending on how many stars you obtain you unlock more and more, and with each ship you’ll also unlock the aforementioned bonus levels. Regardless of the ship you choose, the overall controls manage to feel tight and responsive, with me finding the Dualshock 4 controller to be a lot more comfortable than the 3DS due to the superior analog stick, so Playstation TV owners get that little perk with this game.

Conclusion

It feels good to come back to the Air Race series after so long, since AiRace Xeno was the second game I ever reviewed on this site. Having played this complete package for quite a while now, I can safely say that this game is one of the best budget titles I’ve played in a long, long time, mostly due to the amount of polish in the stages and the addicting nature of this game staying strong after all these years.

If you enjoyed any of the Airace games on 3DS, then this should be on your Playstation Vita/TV already. If you’re new to the series, then this is a perfect starting point, since its pretty much a directors cut of both 3DS titles. Either way, Air Race Speed has a good amount of replay value for the price, and trophy hunters will have a lot to do if they hope to obtain the platinum. I give Air Race Speed an 8 out of 10, and recommend it to all racing fans.