Ludography
51/100
Players7 ratings
60/100
Critics1 review
AirBlade cover

2001 · Criterion Games · Arcade · Extreme sport

AirBlade

PlayStation exclusive

AirBlade takes place in the near future as a man named Oscar has developed a perpetual energy source that will revolutionize the world, however, the GCP Corporation has discovered it as well and fears that it will hurt the company which is heavily invested in the oil companies. Desperate, they kidnap Oscar in an attempt to silence him, but before he is captured, he gives his friend Ethan a prototype hoverboard called the AirBlade.

Released
9 November 2001
Platforms
PlayStation 2
Genres
ArcadeExtreme sportRacingSimulationSports
Developers
Criterion Games
Publishers
NamcoSony Interactive Entertainment
Modes
MultiplayerSingle-player
Perspective
Third person
Themes
ActionScience fiction
Engine
RenderWare
Country
United Kingdom
Age ratings
ESRB T
Languages
English

About

AirBlade (stylized as airblade) is a sports video game developed by Criterion Games and published by Sony Computer Entertainment for the PlayStation 2. It is the spiritual successor to the Dreamcast game TrickStyle. Namco Hometek released the game in North America.

Keywords

  • futuristic
  • extreme sports
  • anti-gravity racing
  • renderware
  • retroachievements

Media

AirBlade screenshot 1

The articlegameplay, story, development, reception

Gameplay

The gameplay is very similar to the early Tony Hawk's video games. Players have a limited time to complete all the challenges in a level (such as knocking out a number of henchmen or destroying searchlights), with small amounts of extra time awarded for each success. There is also an emphasis on tricks and combos, which fill up a Boost gauge allowing Ethan to move faster and jump higher.

Upon completing a level, the player is awarded a rank based on the time taken to complete the level, how many trick points were earned, the largest successive combo and the number of falls. These ranks range from A-D (D being the lowest rank possible to still pass the level), with an additional 'S' rank for extremely good performance. Any rank is sufficient to continue to the next level, but high ranks are needed to unlock certain playable characters.

Story

Oscar had just perfected his prototype for a hoverboard called the AirBlade when the GCP Corporation decided to shut down the project due to its energy source that would make traditional fossil fuel obsolete. A frustrated Oscar smuggled his invention home, but was tracked down and kidnapped by his former boss. His roommate and keen skater Ethan finds the AirBlade hidden in the apartment, and decides to use it with the help of his hacker friend Kat to get Oscar back while on the run from the GCP Corporation who wants to destroy the AirBlade to keep their investors and profits for traditional energy sources.

Reception

AirBlade received mixed reviews from critics. It received a score of 73.12% on GameRankings and 70/100 on Metacritic.

Reviewers praised the tight controls and impressive graphics, with IGN claiming that the game was "a brilliant advertisement for the RenderWare graphics engine".

Releases by platformdates and regions as published

PlatformReleasedRegions
PlayStation 29 November 2001Europe · North America 28 January 2002

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Collections2 collections

Platform libraries

Description adapted from its source, CC BY-SA 4.0.