Velocity Ultra Review
Moving at the speed of fun.
Rhythm
is the X-factor in almost any fast-paced action game. The best ones arm
you with an array of simple techniques and condition you to apply them
in time with the specific beat of the gameplay. Velocity Ultra
does precisely that by weaving together multi-directional shooting and
teleportation mechanics at breakneck speeds, creating a vertically
scrolling shooter that not only marches to its own tune, but also begs
you to follow along until you can match its every step perfectly.
Initially, Velocity Ultra looks much like any other vertically
scrolling shmup where you take down formations of enemies with little
more than a peashooter that gets progressively shootier as you go. Enemy
variety is almost as thin as your armory, which sports but a few
uninspired weapon pickups with limited-time use. Its cookie-cutter art
doesn't exactly set it apart either, though it's technically competent
enough to look sharper and run smoother than its PSP counterpart, even
as the screen quickly fills with bullets. Measured purely as a shooter,
Velocity Ultra is entirely competent, but a bit toothless compared to
classics like Blazing Lazers and Space Mega Force.
Surprisingly, this never becomes too much of an issue, because
Velocity never puts the bulk of its weight on its shooting. Instead, it
focuses on traversal and light puzzle-solving, the
last two things one would expect from a genre known for big guns and still bigger explosions. Stages scroll inexorably upwards as you'd expect, but they're littered with barriers that would be impassable in any other shmup. And it's at this point where Velocity Ultra breaks sharply with convention by adding the ability to teleport near-instantly to any point on the screen. Simply holding the square button brings up a targeting reticule you can move freely, and once you let go, your ship will instantly Nightcrawler its way to the chosen destination. It's every bit as fun as it sounds, thanks to level designs that give you the freedom to play with that mechanic at will. This freedom is well accented by the ability to hurl a bomb-like projectile in any of four different directions around you, which comes in handy for breaching destructible barriers and activating special switches that can only be hit from specific angles. The addition of the Vita's second analog stick makes using this weapon more intuitive than in the PSP original. Teleporting into the middle of a ring of enemies, hurling bombs every which way, and warping back out before their volley of shots can reach you proves far more satisfying than simply bobbing and shooting, and I often found myself forgetting that I had conventional weapons at all.
As fun as it is to warp around slinging bombs at fools, it would get old fast if that was all you could do, but Velocity adds yet another wrinkle. Though this is a vert-scroller, there's a ton of horizontal ground to cover too. That structure gives rise to many branching paths, especially as you get deeper into the 50 mission-long campaign. You'll be presented with dense tangles of color-coded force fields and numbered switches that have to be activated in numerical order, and in most cases, there's no way to hit everything in one run. For these areas, you get a limited stock of teleportation beacons to set down as custom checkpoints. You can return to any of these at any time, and a tap of the L button displays a detailed map of everything you've seen thus far, giving you all the info you need to bounce confidently back and forth through every labyrinthine level.
All these parts work well on their own, but it's the grading system
gluing it all together that snagged the perfectionist in me hook, line,
and sinker. You'll be evaluated on your efficiency at collecting
survivor pods, your ability to score big by shooting down every enemy in
a given wave, and most of all your speed. The “velocity” in the title
refers to the boost button, which dramatically increases the speed at
which the stage scrolls by. I didn't truly appreciate the elegance of
how some of the mechanics work together, or how responsive the controls
are until I started trying to do everything at once in a third of the
time it originally took me. And when I finally hit that sweet balance of
speed and performance and earned my first “perfect” ranking, my inner
speed-run junky came screaming out. It sought the most reckless, and
ruthlessly efficient ways to tackle each stage – an impulse further
goaded on by the newly added online leaderboards.
The only piece that doesn't fall so perfectly into place when things get speedy is the long-form teleporting between waypoints. It does a good job of facilitating the puzzle aspects of the gameplay, but when you're breathlessly trying to tear through a level post-haste, pulling up a map and deciding where to warp to next feels like a bit of a stumble despite being exactly what you're supposed to do. Even if you aren't trying to be all Speed Racer about things, the limited number of creatable waypoints along with the overly obvious on-screen prompts telling you when you're “supposed” to drop one limit its range of creative applications.
Velocity Ultra is a remake of the original PS Minis game and features
trophies, online high scores and a completely overhauled visual style
at native PS Vita resolution.
In 2212 the distant star Vilio exploded into a red giant, sending an
electromagnetic pulse surging into our deep space mining ships, colony
cruisers and Special Forces fighters. Now the star is beginning to
collapse into a black hole, pulling our stranded fleets to their doom.
To make things worse, our warring neighbors have deployed scavengers to
prey upon our people. Only one craft is capable of a rescue mission, the
Quarp Jet -- a spacecraft capable of teleportation.
Take control of the world’s first quantum teleport craft in this innovative shooter, using a range of teleport controls to outsmart enemies, solve action puzzles and rescue survivors from their deep space hideaways. Features genre-busting game play and music from Joris de Man (Killzone.)
Joining the fray.
last two things one would expect from a genre known for big guns and still bigger explosions. Stages scroll inexorably upwards as you'd expect, but they're littered with barriers that would be impassable in any other shmup. And it's at this point where Velocity Ultra breaks sharply with convention by adding the ability to teleport near-instantly to any point on the screen. Simply holding the square button brings up a targeting reticule you can move freely, and once you let go, your ship will instantly Nightcrawler its way to the chosen destination. It's every bit as fun as it sounds, thanks to level designs that give you the freedom to play with that mechanic at will. This freedom is well accented by the ability to hurl a bomb-like projectile in any of four different directions around you, which comes in handy for breaching destructible barriers and activating special switches that can only be hit from specific angles. The addition of the Vita's second analog stick makes using this weapon more intuitive than in the PSP original. Teleporting into the middle of a ring of enemies, hurling bombs every which way, and warping back out before their volley of shots can reach you proves far more satisfying than simply bobbing and shooting, and I often found myself forgetting that I had conventional weapons at all.
As fun as it is to warp around slinging bombs at fools, it would get old fast if that was all you could do, but Velocity adds yet another wrinkle. Though this is a vert-scroller, there's a ton of horizontal ground to cover too. That structure gives rise to many branching paths, especially as you get deeper into the 50 mission-long campaign. You'll be presented with dense tangles of color-coded force fields and numbered switches that have to be activated in numerical order, and in most cases, there's no way to hit everything in one run. For these areas, you get a limited stock of teleportation beacons to set down as custom checkpoints. You can return to any of these at any time, and a tap of the L button displays a detailed map of everything you've seen thus far, giving you all the info you need to bounce confidently back and forth through every labyrinthine level.
Action!
The only piece that doesn't fall so perfectly into place when things get speedy is the long-form teleporting between waypoints. It does a good job of facilitating the puzzle aspects of the gameplay, but when you're breathlessly trying to tear through a level post-haste, pulling up a map and deciding where to warp to next feels like a bit of a stumble despite being exactly what you're supposed to do. Even if you aren't trying to be all Speed Racer about things, the limited number of creatable waypoints along with the overly obvious on-screen prompts telling you when you're “supposed” to drop one limit its range of creative applications.
Velocity Ultra is a remake of the original PS Minis game and features
trophies, online high scores and a completely overhauled visual style
at native PS Vita resolution.
In 2212 the distant star Vilio exploded into a red giant, sending an
electromagnetic pulse surging into our deep space mining ships, colony
cruisers and Special Forces fighters. Now the star is beginning to
collapse into a black hole, pulling our stranded fleets to their doom.
To make things worse, our warring neighbors have deployed scavengers to
prey upon our people. Only one craft is capable of a rescue mission, the
Quarp Jet -- a spacecraft capable of teleportation.
Take control of the world’s first quantum teleport craft in this innovative shooter, using a range of teleport controls to outsmart enemies, solve action puzzles and rescue survivors from their deep space hideaways. Features genre-busting game play and music from Joris de Man (Killzone.)
Release Date: May 15, 2013
E for Everyone: Mild Fantasy Violence, Alcohol Reference
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