Hyper Air Rally reminded me at first of A Series of Tubes. Hang on, though, don't run away just yet. That was only my first impression.
Once I got to dig into Hyper Air Rally what I saw as a fun, adrenaline-fueled air race. Like anything, though, it could be better. The designers seemed to be talented but misguided. There seemed to be a lot of unnecessary effort that, if redirected, could have turned this unfinished yet entertaining romp into an experience to rival Diddy Kong Racing.
The controls, I'm not gonna lie, take a bit of getting used to. They commit the mortal sin of making the arrow keys the primary directional buttons; and even go further to insult me by making "S" and "D" into secondary directional buttons. Nonetheless, once you do learn them, navigating the racetracks can be fun, albeit unimmersive due to the physics engine.
Oh yeah, the physics engine is a sack of lard on a hot summer's day. When you collide with a wall, you just kind of stick onto it with no kind of rebound to get you back on course. This means one crash is, more often than not, not only fatal but also infuriating.
Those are really the only two complaints I have with the game. I can look at most of these games, pick out their flaws and think "okay, maybe they just didn't have the time or manpower to iron that out," but that's not the case here. Fact is, they just tried to cram too much into the game; therefore, they weren't able to perfect the parts of the game that needed perfecting.
The weapons are the biggest culprit. I never even figured out how to use the weapons and every time an opponent fired upon me, I was able to dodge it without even trying. The controls are hectic enough without the added stress of timing and aiming rockets, so the weapons are just superfluous. The icing on the cake is that there are tons of weapons on the customization screen, each one a subtle middle finger to me and my desire for the game to wow me.
Even with all that, I had fun with Hyper Air Rally. That's all I got for now. Until next time, stay aerial
Links
Sniper Pear Valley: https://www.digipen.edu/?id=1170&proj=491
