Astral Traveler Review – An Anti-Gravity Space Racer

The thrilling indie title – Astral Traveler – sits among many other anti gravity/runner racers, like Wipeout and F-Zero. With a unique outlook on platforming as well, this new title brings new features to the fast-paced genre.

Racing through space set to “tube-like” courses, Astral Traveler takes the player through plenty of ups and downs in a diverse race setting. Using a combination of platforming and ‘runner-style’ race mechanics, you’ll dodge race-ending objects, shoot enemies and blue “pulsar” spheres, as well as leap over death-defying gaps smacked in the middle of the race.

The courses range from a style similar to racing inside of a tube, then will switch to what appears to be the outside of the tube. Both convexed and concave styles of racing have their own unique obstacles and techniques, providing plenty of heart-racing challenges across the title. Throwing in a flurry of enemy ships firing laser cannon shots gives an increase of difficulty to the racing action.

Located throughout the almost 50 courses to speed through are special blue pulsar spheres, which aid you in a couple of different ways while your racing. By shooting your laser cannon-shot at the spheres, the pulsar’s break into multiple yellow fragment pieces which help replenish your health bar, in turn keeping the race alive. Another effective maneuver is gaining a speed boost by activating the “pulse” button a split second before contact with the pulsar. This will allow your ship to absorb the blue sphere and gain a quick burst of momentum to help squeal a few seconds off of your finishing time.

As the game continues through the various Nebulas, – the homes of multiple race courses set to various settings – the obstacles to jump and avoid, the enemy types and different strengths and the overall layout of the course grow increasingly more difficult. Astral Traveler will truly test your reflexes as you leap over lava pits, avoid drifting into space or worse, being shot down by the opponent ships. With the help of the pulsar spheres and the continuous flow between failed races and restarts, and a forgiving checkpoint system to help ease the pain of doing an entire race over again, all provide anti-gravity racing fans an exhilarating and addictive experience.

Astral Traveler screams along your screen and begs to be tested at high-octane speeds. Find this top-speed anti-gravity runner on Steam for the PC system.