Recent reviews by ATH-2-M31

The game elements that made me love the experience (before ver 1.0) are GONE, the dev decided to take it into a frustrating direction gradually..

- the WO2097 / WO3 physics are no more we now have Wipeout Fusion like physics,
Artificially gluing ships to the ground making them feel super heavy and unresponsive (they behave like truck cars)
- Tracks lost their unique 'quirky' layouts replaced by watered down race lines adapted to this WO fusion physics.
Some also lost some of their Openess scenery making them more claustrophobic and visually busy

- the legacy WO ships are no longer compatible for the game engine.
(You might have the cosmetics but their behavior no longer available.)

- anti-fun/skip policy that interrupt the flow of the racing.
(a time penalty feature for the skips could have been a less annoying solution to that problem)

- unleast the pre-release version of BallisticNG is made available many legacy & community maps are unusable. Some very technical ones are design with the skips "feature" in mind

- the v1.3.3 update affecting the Caliburn killed the last bit left of that loved initial ballisticNG era.
It was my fav ship along with the barracuda

- the results of those factors made the solo campaign unappealing

In other words the better version of the game died gradually, the few veteran pilots with enough skills noticed it and stopped playing.

All the changes occurred to get rid of what was considered bugs but to dear fans of classic WO like myself they made the true greatness of the retro experience.

(peoples are losing track that the greatness was not in the lore, not the graphics, not the weapons, not the leader-boards.. but the ships physics and the sense of speed+freedom they provived on the track)

I wish the game code could be open-sourced (since bng was born from a community desire) so we could
preserve the WO retro experience for PCs.

A game like I want to see more these days.

The story is nice, the game play a bit slow (many visual elements on the field block your movement).
You get to know a bit of the asian culture, the characters uniqueness are solid.
Different endings are available apparently and you get to replay a minigame at the end so that's cool.

The small let down for me might be in the music, I was expecting more memorable track since the game has a japanese ost. (it conveys the depressing mood of the main character but is not memorable as a result)

It's over all a well though game with an interresting take on the visuals.

Maybe something with a more uplighted story would be nice to see next. The concept works well for young children and its much better than popular things around VN.

A beautiful nostalgic retro game. The lore of the classic SW is well recreated.
Due to age It comes with some caveats however..
The controls and graphics are not very extensive and compatible with modern hardware making a pain to bring it to Linux or recent windows.
There is also horrible default camera settings and bind issues.
Missions are very short, targets completely ignores you but still offer good challenge if you want to unlock the gold medals.

You will need a good controller (the 8bitdo M30 might do the trick since it has good D-pad)
The game came out around the 2000s, times when windows95+dos was still in use and depsite that it is still a fun experience.

Is there anybody interested into replicating the flying physics of this game on a free software project ?

Runs on Linux !
My controller of choice (8bitdo M30) need the GOG version of the Game and the Joy2Key tool in order to have the arrows mapped to the D-pad.
You trade analog sensitivity for the steering but have faster and sharper control provided by the keyboard.

The tracks can be unforgiving at times with their tight corners so a fast and sharp steering if preferable to smooth analog.

Runs on Linux so that's a main good point.

The gameplay get boring pretty fast but its straightforward and fast to pick up.
I wish it could pack more meme related content ( gamemodes, animations etc.. ) in that regard it has a lot of potential.

This is a 1 man project so it's very impressive.

Now for the cons:
The visuals are too agressive and the level of difficulty has trouble to keep up with the scaling of the power ups.
Graphics are not very optimised, visual clutter makes late game impossible to run at good fps (there is a ton of calculations going on with the weapons modifiers so its not a surprise).

A plot that make you lose IQ points for playing and the last boss pyramid concept is trash.

The game engine runs smooth, the level of difficulty is ok.
The cartonish style work better for me that the ultra gore one of the original and remasters editions.

I'm fed up with those type of gore games.

"Making you forget your problems don't fix them." -- Senpai of the Pool

If all those hours would have been spend making Art, playing sports, learning music or even reading books Life would have been much improved.
After all those years, 1.6 become a sinkhole.
Not even enjoying it at the start (I was more into arena shooters) but bad habits build in.

Surely I got to know the flow-state, learn 1-Taps, Handling stress in clutches, edit cfgs, learn game meta, use strats and joke around with virtual teammates but none of this is useful IRL.

Specially nowadays where you can do SOO MUCH MORE with internet and the precious lifespan.

Good game mechanics overall and level progression.
The thumbs down goes for the subliminal harmful codes flashing occasionally.

Those things fly over the head of clueless peoples but regardless the effects induced apply to all so beware.

I only have 1.8 hours in but I can already tell this is a good one from first impressions.

- Nice voice acting
- The gameplay is fluid and responsive
- Maps are stunning of details (require screen above 1080p to appreaciate fully I guess)
- color palette is vivid (a tight too much for my taste but this is a good change from current dark looking games)
- characters complement each other well gameplay wise, you got enough freedom to solve the puzzle inthe style you like.
- newcomers friendly it seems

To summarize : It's a well crafted game worth a full price.