AiRace Xeno (Nintendo 3DS) Second Opinion Review

After mastering the controls, it is awesome "don't blink, don't think" racing action. At the best moments, the game feels like replaying epic escape scenes from Star Wars. Each of the nine levels consists of several laps, with every lap having multiple save points. Scraping along the wall isn't a big issue; the biggest danger is crashing into an obstacle. A crash puts the race ship back at the latest save point and adds a three-second penalty to the timer, and with each new lap, the ship's speed increases a bit.

The game looks gorgeous, with beautifully carved levels, and the 3D effect makes everything even prettier and more immersing. The game also has touch controls, but they are so unresponsive that it's a mystery why they were added in the first place.

The difficulty is just about right as well. Bronze medals aren't too hard to get after just 10 minutes with the game, and then after having played a level several times it makes it rather easy to get a silver medal. As for the gold medals, they do provide some extra challenge: even constantly boosting and no crashing do not warrant gaining the coveted gold medal. One of the levels included is an 'endless' level, and here it is not a race against the clock, rather a survival mode. With every lap, the speed increases, and the goal is to survive for as many kilometres as possible. It's a nice concept, yet it would have been nice if all levels came with an 'endless' option.

After getting gold medals, the online leader-boards give reason to replay the levels for even faster times. The game also has fun achievements like "Fly 120 seconds with the nitro constantly running and without crashing" and "Complete five full levels without touching any wall."

Even though the game does what it wants to do, there seems to be something missing. The world can feel dead and empty; it's Star Fox without the shooting, it's F-Zero without any opponents. That's the biggest problem with AiRace Xeno: racing against the clock gets repetitive after a while. Those moments that feel like Star Wars don't happen quite often enough. The game would greatly benefit from something simple as racing against other players' ghosts, whilst a multiplayer mode would have been even better. Perhaps that can be included in a future instalment, QubicGames?

Some notes for people who already played AiRace Speed: this game feels more like an add-on than a true sequel. A big change is the lack of moving objects in the levels. Speedhad rotating and moving elements that could cause frustrating crashes, whereas this game removes them, which makes for a less random and more streamlined experience overall.