Publisher: FuturLab
Developer: FuturLab
Medium: Digital
Players: 1
Online: No
ESRB: E10+
Initially, I was ready to dismiss Velocity 2X as not much more than a reskinned version of last yearโs Velocity Ultra (which itself was basically a redone version of the PSP Mini game Velocity). Thatโs not the worst thing in the world to be, of course; Velocity Ultra was a pretty awesome game, and Iโm always happy to play it again. But still, I was finding it hard to get too excited for a game in which the big draw was โbigger explosionsโ.
And then the gameโs hero, Lt. Kai Tana, steps out of her ship, and itโs instantly apparent that thereโs actually a whole lot more to Velocity 2X than being just an updated version of Velocity Ultra.
I mean, it is partially that. You still spend a good chunk of Velocity 2X flying around in a spaceship, blasting away at aliens and picking up survivors. You still get the story told to you via screen after screen of dialogue. Youโre still graded for each level with three-star rankings, and you still get to compare scores via online leaderboards. All of that is still here, and just as in Velocity Ultra, itโs presented with FuturLabโs usual fantastic sense of style.
What sets Velocity 2X apart, however, is that itโs just as much a fast-paced, side-scrolling platformer as it is a shmup. No longer are you just zooming around space, youโre also running and jumping through a space station. Youโre firing bombs at mines and mounted cannons, and youโre teleporting through walls. While a lot of the basic mechanics are similar, they still feel fresh and different just because of the fact itโs not a spaceship doing them, itโs a person.
(And thatโs without even getting into the fact that said person a woman. Of course, the game doesnโt make a big deal about it, and unless youโre really obsessive about these sort of things, itโs not like youโll notice it either โ but, in its own way, that feels almost as subversive as if it were some big honking deal. I donโt want to dwell on this point too much, since Velocity 2X itself doesnโt, but still: itโs pretty cool.)
On the most critical point, however, Velocity 2X hasnโt changed: itโs still an awesome game, and itโs still absolutely worth your time. Half of it may be borrowed from Futurlabโs previous game, but half of it isnโt, and those two halves add up to make one heck of an experience.