SpeedX 3D Hyper Edition (3DS) - Review

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SpeedX 3D Hyper Edition is a downloadable title available from the 3DS E-Shop. It resembles a futuristic racing game but in truth you are not racing against anyone or anything. The game gives you very little to play with and thus there is very little to recommend.

You accelerate automatically but by pressing the B or X buttons you can enter Hyper Mode which causes you to accelerate faster and applies a 1.5x multiplier to your score. There are no objectives to achieve, items to unlock, or even opponents to race against. Your high-score is all you are really working for. Even then, you cannot compare your score with other players over the internet, further isolating the player and providing one less reason why you should care at all.

Your vehicle - at least I assume there is a vehicle involved but you actually never get to see it - can pick up shields and other power-ups by going over special tiles in the middle of the road. The first person camera stays low to the ground allowing you to see only so far ahead of you, which forces you to react quickly to the randomly generated geometric obstacles in your way. At some points the camera will zoom in even closer, which increases both the sense of speed and danger.

There is also only one track. Playing SpeedX 3D Hyper Edition, I suddenly felt bad about all of those jokes I made about NASCAR's lack of right turns. This game suffers from tunnel vision. Literally, you start out traveling down a cylindrical tunnel that winds and weaves through the hazy nebulae of space, then every once in a while the cylinder will uncoil itself and present a flat plane to travel on with terminal edges that you can fall off of.

At least the music is solid. During gameplay you can cycle through the game's five songs by pressing the shoulder buttons. The other futuristic sound effects also sound impressive. The visuals are pleasant but overly repetitive. Obviously it was designed with the 3D effect in mind and, even as a big critic of the glassless 3D screen, I can happily concede that the visuals look neat with the 3D turned on. However, trying to play in 3D and keep the 3DS steady enough in your hands to maintain the sweet spot is an exercise in headache-inducing futility. It looks just as nice without the 3D, giving off a very Tron-like vibe, however the visuals quickly grow repetitive and therefore dull. The hue of the level will change every so often but generally you'll be looking at the exact same thing. I'm tempted to label SpeedX 3D Hyper Edition a glorified screensaver. 

SpeedX 3D Hyper Edition costs $2.99 to download from the E-Shop and, believe it or not, that price is way too high. The game should not have been released without offering gamers something more substantial to play with. In comparison to previous releases, SpeedX 3D Hyper Edition features only one game mode, one course, and one difficulty level which equates to just one way to play. It's sad that the 'about', 'options', and 'quit items' on the main menu effectively constitute half the content of this "game".

Honestly I could not imagine myself handing my 3DS with SpeedX 3D Hyper Edition already booted up to a friend to try it out for themselves, let alone suggest anyone pay to download it. It's simply just not worth your time or gaming dollar.

This review is based on a digital copy of SpeedX 3D Hyper Edition for 3DS.

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