Acro Storm

My first instinct when I saw Acro Storm was a good one. F-Zero-style hoverbikes, weapons you fire on the fly, a character roster with individual story modes, three vehicle classes to pick from across Sport, Pocket, and Cruiser categories. On paper that is a genuinely appealing checklist for anyone starved of anti-gravity arcade racers on PC. The reality, unfortunately, is that the asterisk on this one is bigger than the game itself. What the early-access build actually delivers is a weapon-equipped airbike racer that leans fully arcade rather than simulation. There are no air brakes to master, controls are approachable out of the box, and the sense of speed comes through in a way that a lot of budget indie racers fumble. The weapon system promised offensive tools like rapidfire cannons, heatseeker missiles, arc lightning, and spreader mines, plus a defensive slot alongside them, meaning you are theoretically always managing two options at once rather than just spamming one pickup. That split-second decision layer is exactly the kind of thing that makes couch multiplayer sessions interesting. The Grand Prix mode, Time Trial, and Single Race/Arcade mode are all present in the early-access version, along with online PvP and partial controller support. Here is where things get genuinely uncomfortable to write. Steam itself flags that the last developer update was over six years ago. Only three of the planned twelve characters were ever unlocked. Story modes were not playable at launch. The Pocket and Cruiser vehicle classes, and most customisation options, were listed as unavailable at early-access release with a promise they would come later. That later never came. Community feedback from the Greenlight era noted rigid turning, static character animations, repetitive gameplay, and a lack of visible progression or goals. The game was inspired by JetMoto, F-Zero, and WipeOut, which is a fantastic reference list, but inspiration is not execution, and execution here stalled well short of the finish line. For the "is it fun for four drunk friends" test I hold everything to: online PvP exists in principle, but with a near-zero active player base after all this time, finding an online lobby is essentially impossible. There is no confirmed split-screen. A gamepad works with partial support. Racing wheel owners should not bother, this is not a wheel game by any stretch. Solo, the arcade racing loop has a certain raw energy to it, and if you genuinely have no other options for a fast, weapon-based futuristic racer on PC it scratches a very specific itch for thirty minutes. But thirty minutes is roughly the ceiling of fresh content currently in the game. The concept deserved a real team and a proper budget behind it. What shipped is a skeleton with good intentions that never got the muscle to stand up. Approach this one as a curiosity at most, and only if the price reflects an abandoned project, which it should.

Riley · Scout Team

Sports & racing

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