Aeon Drive

Clearly influenced by retro arcade games of the 1980s, this game innovates on the idea of a leaderboard and brings it to 2021. In Aeon Drive, players are strongly encouraged to minimize their run times on each level not only with an in-game timer but in player-vs.-player competition modes. The result is an extremely fast-paced experience that's demanding and unforgiving. Not only are global online leaderboards used, but Aeon Drive is specifically designed for the capability to work with popular gaming chat app Discord, which many use to play games with friends, as well as with Twitch, a popular streaming platform for players from all over the world to stream their play sessions live.

For some, this sounds like a dream. The trend of speed-running games has persisted in the online gaming content landscape for years. There are entire YouTube channels dedicated to showing off how fast players can complete levels, and the drive to uncover the best strategy and perfect it definitely exists within some. But the speedrunning niche may only appeal to a small population. A clear choice was made to do one thing very well, and while this makes Aeon Drive feel complete and uncomplicated, necessary sacrifices were made. Players who don't like speedrunning will probably find that there's nothing for them in this title beyond an hour or two of play. Losing a life and going back to the beginning of a checkpoint can be irritating if it happens too many times in a row, and while the controls are well-designed and intuitive, that won't save players whose brains work too slowly to keep up. For fans of these games, this is probably a no-brainer, but newer players may want to try speedrunning in another platformer as a trial before deciding to purchase Aeon Drive. Keep in mind that watching others play Aeon Drive online won't be too helpful, as the appeal of watching speedruns and cheering on other players is universal, while actually speedrunning by yourself is completely different.