Just the tip with Velocity Ultra
I remember playing Vertical Scrolling Shoot ‘em Up games on arcade machines. The player taking command of a World War II style fighter plane and destroying tanks and enemy planes, aiming to reach the Stratofortress at the other end of the level, where you’d line up the turrets and blast sections clear off the boss. How can Velocity Ultra revive the ancient gameplay mechanic?
Velocity Ultra makes me feel like an intergalactic superhero. With it’s quick, tight controls and amazing soundtrack, I kept getting caught in it’s grasp. But occasionally I would slip. After an hour in it all started to make sense.
Piloting the Quarp Jet, a teleporting spaceship, the players missions are set out before each of the levels. Most of these range from simple “rescue the survivors” (in the form of floating space pods), to time sensitive speed runs and shooter intensive kill fests. The game uses animated stills and text bubbles to give you the what and why, but most of the time it’s an A to B affair. At first.
With simple but effective controls and my warp skills and weapons laid out in front of me in the first few missions, I was quickly firing lasers, dropping bombs and warping between sections of the screen in no time. The first few levels left me feeling kind of mixed. The game would be incredible one second, with the awesome soundtrack blasting through my headphones, only to let me down a moment later. I’d be flying along kicking ass, only to fire a bomb while using the directional stick and pull myself into an enemy turret, or warp into a pack of bad guys and get instantly killed. I could survive a laser blast, but be destroyed by tapping a turret while preforming a bomb run.
I felt strong enough to let my guard down, weak enough to instantly regret it.
Velocity Ultra makes me feel like an intergalactic superhero. With it’s quick, tight controls and amazing soundtrack, I kept getting caught in it’s grasp. But occasionally I would slip. After an hour in it all started to make sense.
Piloting the Quarp Jet, a teleporting spaceship, the players missions are set out before each of the levels. Most of these range from simple “rescue the survivors” (in the form of floating space pods), to time sensitive speed runs and shooter intensive kill fests. The game uses animated stills and text bubbles to give you the what and why, but most of the time it’s an A to B affair. At first.
With simple but effective controls and my warp skills and weapons laid out in front of me in the first few missions, I was quickly firing lasers, dropping bombs and warping between sections of the screen in no time. The first few levels left me feeling kind of mixed. The game would be incredible one second, with the awesome soundtrack blasting through my headphones, only to let me down a moment later. I’d be flying along kicking ass, only to fire a bomb while using the directional stick and pull myself into an enemy turret, or warp into a pack of bad guys and get instantly killed. I could survive a laser blast, but be destroyed by tapping a turret while preforming a bomb run.
I felt strong enough to let my guard down, weak enough to instantly regret it.
I couldn’t help but feel that the touch controls from the original title on Playstation Vita would be better suited to the narrow passages and rooms, but playing for another thirty minutes I discovered that I could use the right analog stick and save myself the painfully annoying kamikaze runs. Just as I was getting comfortable with what I had at my disposal, the game introduces warp gates.
After the hour I’ve played, Warp gates are my favourite gamely element so far. It’s a simple concept. The player is faced with two paths to choose. One might include rescue pods, or the second and fourth switch to deactivate a forcefield, while the other path if filled with enemy ships and the first and third with to destroy. I was quickly warping back and forth in order to hit the switches in their corresponding order and collect the goodies laid before me.
Velocity Ultra contains fifty zones. In my first hour I reached Zone 18, Kerridge Gate. Only 32 zones to go.
Playstation 3 players will be able to join in from the 12/13th of November and can purchase Velocity Ultra through the PSN store.
After the hour I’ve played, Warp gates are my favourite gamely element so far. It’s a simple concept. The player is faced with two paths to choose. One might include rescue pods, or the second and fourth switch to deactivate a forcefield, while the other path if filled with enemy ships and the first and third with to destroy. I was quickly warping back and forth in order to hit the switches in their corresponding order and collect the goodies laid before me.
Velocity Ultra contains fifty zones. In my first hour I reached Zone 18, Kerridge Gate. Only 32 zones to go.
Playstation 3 players will be able to join in from the 12/13th of November and can purchase Velocity Ultra through the PSN store.
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