Review: Switch Galaxy Ultra

Posted by Curtis H on January 21st, 2015 | 0 Comments | Tags: Switch Galaxy Ultra

Switch Galaxy Ultra is the most recent in a line of updates (Aqua Kitty, Rock Boshers) to some of the best PlayStation Mobile games available. In a way it’s a second chance at exposure considering how easily forgotten PlayStation Mobile can be. Switch Galaxy Ultra keeps the core gameplay intact while offering a wealth of improvements, a couple new gameplay additions, and multiplayer.

Nick’s review of the original PSM version of Switch Galaxy does a good job explaining what made Switch Galaxy fun in the first place. In each level you’ll pilot a ship that continuously increases in speed. Simply tapping left or right will switch lanes as you avoid barriers and fly over speed boosts on your way to the finish. When you start to reach high speeds the game evokes a similar feeling that I get from playing WipEout. The crazy sense of speed combined with narrowly missing obstacles is exciting.

New to Switch Galaxy Ultra is the need to acquire Tantalums to progress through the game’s campaign. About midway through each stage you’ll enter a gameplay segment in which you’re flying through some sort of wormhole. You have full flight control over your ship and each stage has ten Tantalums to collect. Acquiring all ten isn’t difficult, but you can still lose them if you take damage throughout the last half of the stage. If you mess up it can be easy to lose most of your Tantalums right at the end of a stage. This can be pretty frustrating especially since the Tantalum sections aren’t really all that fun to play.

The story in Switch Galaxy Ultra now features a series of comic book style scenes that you’ll unlock as you progress. The artwork in each scene is really well done, but the actually story just couldn’t grab me at all. The story was more of a hindrance than anything that I actually found interest in.

In each stage you’ll collect currency in the form of glowing orbs on the track. This currency can be used to upgrade your ships or to gain information on each level through the Galaxy Net. For example I can purchase up to ten free passes of a certain color barrier. That way if I accidentally hit a red barrier (after having purchased red passes) I won’t take damage or slow down. This is a pretty nifty little feature considering how tough some of the later stages can get.

Switch Galaxy Ultra features a multiplayer mode that I’ve unfortunately been unable to actually try. In all of my attempts the game has just been unable to find anyone else playing online. Manually searching for a room yields zero results.

Whether you played the PSM version or not Switch Galaxy Ultra is still just really fun. I’m personally not super keen on all the surrounding additions to the game I just like the core gameplay. It’s for the same reason that I love the Zone mode in WipEout so much. Reaching crazy fast speeds and avoiding obstacles is fun and even after you finish the Campaign you’ll still need to see how long you can last in Survival.

A copy of this game was provided by the publisher for review purposes. For more info on our review policy click here.

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