Fast and furiously good.
The first Velocity, which began life as a PSP Mini before getting tarted up for an Ultra Vita version, was rightly lauded for its courage and innovation. Rather than simply go again with this full blown sequel, Brighton-based Futurlab has clearly striven to inject new ideas. Strip the whole thing down and you’ve got a tight, responsive vertical-scrolling shooter. It’s atop this sturdy foundation that a genre powerhouse is constructed, with innovation as the mortar and iconic and frankly gorgeous comic book visuals as the building blocks. There’s even a proper story in there.
Kai Tana is hardly having a great time of it. The central character of this level-bookending space opera has just awoken from a coma, having been rebuilt with cyborgian parts after attempting to save humanity by flying into a rollicking great space anomaly. Now she has to escape the clutches of a dictatorial alien race, the Vokh, while simultaneously saving the enslaved brethren of an erstwhile alien partner and, if she can possibly find the time, making it back to Earth in one heavily modified piece. This narrative unfolds through comic book-like panels, each looking fantastic. The art style, a neat concoction of blocky colours and anime-esque verve, is instantly memorable.
But it’s in the game proper that you’ll come to regard Velocity 2X with true wonder. Its gameplay is split across two arenas. In the main one you’ll be flying your ship ever upwards, avoiding enemies and dodging through tight spaces, like Luke Skywalker’s Death Star run and the Wachowskis had a sexy sci-fi baby. Enter a glowy blue loading bay, however, and the game switches to a side-on 2D platformer puzzler. The two styles meld together brilliantly, with switches activated in the latter allowing you to reach new areas in the former.
As the name suggests, Velocity 2X is all about reaching top speed and attaining that perfect clean run. One of the most laudable aspects is that it puts the pace in your own hands. Hold down the R1 button and you’ll get a boost. Hold it too long or in the wrong places and you’ll end up getting crushed by the enclosing walls of the level or burned to a crisp by glowing hot metal plates. The thrill of risk versus reward is always present and the sense of achievement as you watch the post-level scoring system tot up your epic, blazing run is so potent it could be bottled and sold as rocket fuel.
As you progress through the game you’ll get new abilities, the telepod being perhaps the most mind-bending. Plop this little doo-dad down mid stage and you can return to that spot again with a double tap of the triangle button. Then there’s the projectile telepod, which can be thrown around to cross hazardous pits or to scale tall precipices. Importantly, it all fits together, allowing you to swoosh through stages on the edge of perception while still in firm control.
We think of the many problems Sonic has had keeping his brand of platforming pace relevant and wonder what might have been had the speed freaks at Futurlabs been handed the keys to the ’hog’s ride. We can only dream. That, and jump back into this for another go.
Format PS4 (reviewed), PS Vita
Publisher Sony
Developer Futurlab
Out Now
Players 1