A smart, fun and good-looking shooter from Futurlab that makes good use of its smart teleporting mechanic to make one of the Vita’s most unique experiences.
| Developer | Futurlab |
| Publisher | Badland Games; Futurlab |
| Franchise | Velocity |
| Genre | |
| PSTV | Yes |
| Physical English | No – digital only |
World-building & Story
The star Villo has collapsed into a black hole, threatening the mining colonies and spaceships in its orbit. It’s up to you as the pilot of the Quarp Jet – a ship that can teleport through solid matter – to save them, while fending off the mysterious alien race that has appeared along the way.
Velocity Ultra is very much a ‘gameplay first’ kind of title – there’s enough information here to give you a reason for pushing forward, but it’s far from the focus. Still, it’s an interesting world and one I wanted to find out more about – a testament to how much is achieved with the tiniest bit of exposition.
Presentation & Sound
While its origins as a PS Mini are evident throughout, Velocity Ultra very much gets the job done in terms of visuals and even had a few moments of greatness thrown in.
The most prominent of these is surely the story scenes, which are simply static portraits but burst with colour and are beautifully drawn (I seriously love the art style here). I found that I was far more engaged with what was going on thanks to these storyboards being so pretty and was regularly taking screenshots with the thought of using them as wallpapers later on.
In-game, things aren’t as impressive – everything is in simple 2D style and the colour palette is a much more muted mix of greys, although things like aliens and laser grids do bring in splashes of colour. With that said, all the objects are easy enough to make out and the framerate stays at a pretty solid 60 throughout, making the action fast, fluid and responsive which is far more important than flashy visuals.
Probably my favourite part of the overall aesthetic package is the soundtrack – there’s a sublime selection of electronic beats here that make the on-screen action far more exciting, even if some are used a little too often.
Soundtrack highlight – Protect (Coldstorage remix)
Gameplay & Content
Using its central mechanic (teleportation) to great effect, Velocity Ultra is a scrolling shooter with a difference that manages to shine bright in Vita’s library.
After being given story instructions, you’re thrown into a series of missions which involve varying objectives ranging from shooting aliens to rescuing survivors and the variety always keeps the game interesting. Some of the best are the ‘critical urgency’ missions which require you to boost through a zone without stopping in less than a minute and these always require you to use all the skills you’ve picked up so far to succeed.
In-game, you play as a little ship that flies up the screen in traditional scrolling shooter fashion and you have a couple of weapons to take down the waves of enemies that appear – a forward shot with x and a more powerful directional shot aimed with the second analogue stick. Velocity won’t win any awards for its space shooting but the gameplay base is very solid, providing a good representation of the genre.
What makes the game unique is its central mechanic – your ship can teleport, done by holding square which brings up an aiming reticule (letting go of square moves you to the location of the reticule) and allows you to move through solid matter to the other side. With this, you can zig-zag through areas collecting survivors, hitting switches and dodging obstacles – Velocity uses a variety of ideas based around testing your problem-solving skills as well as reflexes and all of them are incredibly fun to figure out.
New mechanics are slowly introduced from this – for example you’ll eventually be able to place a stationary teleporter with triangle which you can return to at any time, leading to some levels where you have to progress down one route and hit a switch to disable barriers, then return to the start and move down a second route to finish a level. There’s a distinct element of puzzle-solving present here and it works extremely well (there’s also plenty of hidden secrets if you’re willing to poke around).
Velocity is incredibly fast paced thanks to its rapid teleporting and speed-up mechanic and you’re going to need to master these to 100% every level – although getting to the end is a challenge in itself, you’re encouraged to go for gold medals by completing levels in a certain timeframe, without dying and also having killed every enemy. I’ll fully admit I didn’t achieve some of these, but despite my failures it was incredibly enjoyable just honing my skills and trying to make steady progress.
Outside of the main missions, there’s a variety of little side-activities – ranging from challenges where you have to race to the exit without touching the sides to a fully-fledged version of Minesweeper which I had far more fun messing around with than I expected. Futurlab give the feeling that the game has been lovingly crafted, which is something really nice to see.
For the bargain price Velocity Ultra goes for it’s difficult not to recommend – you’re getting a tonne of content and some inventive gameplay to boot, making it a surprisingly complete package.
Conclusion
A thrilling space-shooter with an incredibly enjoyable teleportation mechanic, Velocity Ultra is an stand-out indie game which should be a part of any Vita fan’s library. Its roots as a PS Mini aren’t really evident at all thanks to its impressive performance and beautiful artwork – this is a memorable package that you’re sure to have a lot of fun with.
8.5/10
kresnik258gaming 