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Nexon latest game Air Rider Online CBT had just ended yesterday.  After playing it for a couple days I am pretty confident to say that the game has tons of replay value in it.  Don't let the kiddy graphics throw you off.  Air Rider Online may not look good but it's funner when you are actually playing the game.  It also has a pretty easy learning curve for non-experienced players or those who have never played flying racing game can adapt very easily.

Character Creation

There are a lot of characters that you can pick from at the start.  Though they can not be customized their outfits can be dyed to a wide variety of colors.  There are a lot of returning Kart Rider Online characters in Air Rider Online that will look familiar to you.  Some of these characters would be Bazzi, Diz, Mos, Maridia, Dao, Uni and many more.  I assume in the near future they would have hidden characters or maybe customizable chars but it is far to early to tell since it is CBT1.

Game Modes

Air Rider Online currently has two game modes at the moment.  The first game mode is Item Mode which plays exactly like the original Kart Rider Online game or if you aren't familiar with Kart Rider Online.  Then I must use the Mario Kart game instead as a reference!  In Item mode you race drift around maps while picking up random box's on the map that have "?" on them.  After you pick up an item box you will be given a random item that will help you in your race ranging from Missiles, Boosters, Debuffs, and more!  Unlike Chase mode you don't have a machine gun nor rockets to spam.  Item Mode is just pure racing and items which a lot of Kart Rider fans would most likely prefer play.

The other game Mode featured in Air Rider Online is this new mode called Chase Mode.  In this mode you can load out in three different ways before you start the game.  Single, Double Player, and Single with NPC.  Team work is a big plus in this game mode.  I very much enjoyed this game mode the most even though most of the time you get stuck with very bad players who don't know what they are doing.  The main objective in this mode is the same as any other racing game win first place but it is very tricky compared to most games you may have played.  The only way to fully enjoy and play Chase Mode the right way is by partnering up with another player friend or some random person.  One player is in charge of controlling the air plane while the other is mounted on the gunners pit.  The big disadvantage if you solo play in this game mode is you can't turn around and shoot the enemies while driving at the same time.  You also can't spam your Missiles, Boosters, and Machine Gun!  There are cool down times for all of these skills so you must use them wisely.  The only way to replenish those skills is to either way for it to go up gradually or have your gunner shoot down a ship.

Gameplay

So you're probably wondering wow Chase Mode doesn't sound fair for people in first place who the heck is going to play that crazy mode that requires no skill?  See there is a big misconception about this game mode being unfair and unbalanced.  It all depends if you are sync with your gunner or driver vice versa.  For example you're doing very good keeping that first place.  So you have a couple guys shooting at you right?  But not all of them will be shooting at you so your gunner would then turn around and shoot the other players that are low hp.  Take that person down and you have full machine gun ammo + booster.  Use booster and shoot down the next guy since you have full ammo you can take down another ship repeat over and over.  Then you will have set a wide gap between you and your enemies.  The only way to keep this first place now is to change to missile mode.  And lock-on and fireeee~~ if you see anyone from a distance.  It's pretty much game over if your gunner takes out two or three guys in a row and your driver uses those boosters after another.  The only way to catch up to first place is if you and your partner enters rage phoenix mode.  Which usually happens if you get taken down a lot or targeted often.  Then a 4rd place player can then catch up to a player in 1st place IF their gunner takes out 3rd and 2nd players with machine gun during phoenix mode and driver is spamming booster... a little bit complicated and harsh but that's what makes this game mode more exciting and well balanced.  There are a total of 9+ maps along with night and day time versions of each one which is a lot of maps for CBT1!

Shop

This where you use up all your monies that you earn from races and tutorial.  You should get all the medals you can earn in tutorial when you start the game because you will be able to buy a brand new ship or two after completing all of tutorial.  In the item shop you can buy a lot things ranging from new ships, ship add-ons, new characters, character dyes,ship dyes and etc.

Controls

The controls are very easy and will be explained in tutorial.  Arrow keys to accelerate and space bar to use your boosters,item, missile and machine gun in chase/item mode.  Air Drifting would require you to hold down the accelerate key which is up then either left or right along with the shift button.  So if you want to drift left you would press shift + up + left and shift + up + right if you want to drift right.  You can also dodge missiles and gun fire if you press the shift key 2x or left key twice or right key twice before impact.  Timing is a bit essential for missiles but not life threatening you can dodge machine gun fire easily.

Sound

All the characters have their voices and make cute noises when they do actions like shooting or using boosters.  Nothing seems to fit out of place the BGM fits perfectly fine in each one of the race courses.

Graphics

The graphics are decent enough not to fancy not to ugly.  It is from the same makers of the original Kart Rider guys anyway.  The load times are almost instantly depending on the players you are playing with.  Some players computer tend to lag a lot which holds back load times and can be very annoying but does not happen that often.  There wasn't much graphical customization in CBT1 which was a big let down but hopefully will change in the near future.  The only thing I want and probably most players would want is HD or higher resolutions.

Conclusion

Air Rider Online CBT1 was a very a successful for it's first testing phase.  Though the servers were a bit hammered on the first day it was resolved and dealt with quickly and efficiently.  Honestly, the game feels very much complete when I tested it out but who knows maybe Lodumani will have some crazy idea and add more fun features to the game.  I will be eagerly waiting for this game to come out in Open Beta that's for sure.  It will be much funner to play it with friends and players that you can depend on.

Game Score: 8.0

Developer: Lodumani
Game Publisher: Nexon Korea
Game Site: http://air.nexon.com

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