Mario Kart style games with power-ups are a dime a dozen, but you don’t see too many racing titles featuring airplanes. SkyDrift is a downloadable arcade style racer that takes to the skies for Xbox LIVE and PSN (360 version reviewed here).

Choose from several fantasy styled airplanes and unlock more as you play. You’ll race around airborne tracks and weave around mountains, forests and other obstacles. Controls are like any other racer except you can use the right stick to tilt your plane sideways for even sharper turns. The 3-D graphics are quite remarkable for a downloadable title.

Scattered about the tracks are power-ups and weapons you can use against the other racers to give you an edge. These include machine guns, missiles, air mines, shields, repair damage, plus more. You can hold two at the same time and switch between them, and if you collect two of the same kind, it’ll upgrade to a more powerful weapon. Or you can use your power-ups to convert them into boost power. You can also fill up your boost by flying low to the ground or by doing stunts.

In the regular game, you’ll be challenged to place in various events. Power Races are the standard modes where you can pick up weapons and race to the finish line. Speed Races require you to fly through rings that make you go faster, and the last plane standing wins in Survival Mode. Completing events unlocks more tracks and challenges, as well as new planes, skins, awards, medals, and other goodies.

While the game supports up to 8 racers in online multiplayer, there is no split screen mode for local fun, so that’s one big problem right there. The game could’ve also used more tracks and planes to fly. And I felt the controls were a little too touchy, although it could’ve just been the planes I was choosing.

Even with these problems, I have a lot of friends who enjoyed SkyDrift, so if you like arcade racers such as Blur or Diddy Kong Racing’s flying segments, you might want to check this one out, too.

Kid Factor:

SkyDrift is rated E-10 with an ESRB descriptor of Mild Violence. You shoot guns and missiles at airplanes and can explode and crash, but that’s it. Reading skill isn’t necessary as all the instructions have spoken voice, but younger players may get frustrated at the high challenge level. Even on easy, winning first place is a tough battle. If there was local split-screen multiplayer, it would’ve been a better game for families to play together. Still, kids love airplanes so they’ll still probably find enjoyment in this game anyway if they love Mario Kart styled racers.

Tags: Game Reviews