Review: Sky Drift (Xbox Live)

By Wayne Webb

Sky Drift is essentially the same as any recent car racing/destruction game but set in the air. It’s easy to pick up, but hard to put down once you’ve started playing.

Sky Drift is arena or circuit racing with a closed racetrack-like environment with the added dimension of height. You get a basic aeroplane that stays in the air as long as you keep moving forward. You have an accelerator, a brake and the joystick and just like that you’re flying. Most flight sims require you to know a bit about flying or at least master some virtual control mechanism – not so with Skydrift. Point forward, hit the gas and you’re literally flying.

Races have various conditions similar to many car-based games such as speed, elimination, boost and have the added bonus of weapons. I favoured the heat seeking missiles myself, but a slew of options are there from guns and missiles to shields and repair bonus items. Fly over them and then activate to gain advantage, or sacrifice them for extra speed.

Levels and planes are brightly coloured and detailed, adding some excitement visually to the hard core do-or-die race that might have you exploding in flames in one second then boosting past your erstwhile assassin the next. There’s not a lot of variety once you get past the first few unlockables – but there does not need to be as you can either best yourself and the AI for the rewards and badges – or go online and challenge real people to duel in the skies.

Once you get the hang of it – which does not take long – you’ll be back and back for more. Not a big download at 500Mb but a lot of game play and repeat session playability in this small but exciting package.

Pros: Fun, frenetic, addictive and explosive. Easy to master controls.
Cons: Not a lot of depth, Not much progression.

4 Shacks out of 5