SkyDrift

In SkyDrift players pilot one of several airplanes in a fictional racing competition. Gameplay is similar to other airplane racing games such as Plane Crazy and the flight mode of Diddy Kong Racing. The game features 33 single player challenge stages as well as online multiplayer. While the primary focus is racing, dogfights play a large part in some of SkyDrift's game modes.

Players are rewarded with boost, which provides a temporary burst of speed, by flying acrobatically, low to the ground, or by taking down opponents. Planes and their separate liveries are unlocked as players progress and complete specified challenges. As players progress on a given course they are sometimes presented with progressing environment hazards such as falling rocks or an avalanche.

The developers said that they wanted to keep a certain amount of realism to the setting of their game. Senior Game Designer Peter Petrekovits described the game's direction as "not a science fiction, but a racing on the most beautiful places on earth". Development began with low polygon versions of the game's three settings to hone gameplay, which were later upgraded with details created from primitive shapes. Artists then took these settings and provided finalized environments while course designers laid out the specific elements to each race.

Multiple routes were created in each setting allowing for several course configurations. Some of the plane designs were inspired from real-world fighter planes, but each were evolved from initial concept art into their current designs. Petrekovits elaborated on their design: "These planes are not real life models. You might see some part[s] of them [that are] familiar, but these are whole new concepts".

The PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 versions of SkyDrift received "generally favorable reviews", while the PC version received "average" reviews, according to the review aggregation website Metacritic. According to Gamasutra's analysis SkyDrift moved over 5,100 units on the Xbox 360 and 4,700 units on the PlayStation 3 during the month of its release. The Xbox 360 version moved over 7,500 units as of year-end 2011.

The game's visuals were well received by critics. IGN reviewer Stephanie Lee lauded the visuals. She stated that the graphics are "beautiful detail and [have] a warm color palette". Robert Workman of GameZone also gave high marks for SkyDrift's graphics.