Freefall ‘95 should be as short-lived as the life of the protagonist you play, who is falling to their doom following a plane… deconstruction. From listening to some tunes to pummeling headfirst into the ground amid engine debris, severed arms, and complimentary peanuts, this is a simple game for simple people. And I am simple.
That’s all there is to it, premise-wise, but what’s the point in watching someone fall to their death? Liven it up with barrel rolls, pop culture references when you straddle jet engines and wing parts, then chain them all together to be the Tony Hawk of the skies, that’s what. Better still, performing all these tricks and challenges unlocks a wealth of other challenges almost immediately.
The base game in Freefall ‘95 is to complete the challenges in each stage. Naturally, gravity plays its part, and you can’t actually fly, yet you can fall with finesse. As mentioned, you can barrel roll, spin and even do The Worm mid-air, and chaining these with other moves, collecting items and shooting off of debris will increase the multiplier. Of course, this can be interrupted if you crash into anything, and given that this whole plane is coming to bits and crashing down on top, you’ll inevitably take damage and may even die before hitting the deck. Which you will.
Collecting so many special items, or chaining several tricks, unlocks coins that can be spent back on the plane(!?) to improve your stats such as health, speed and whatnot. Additionally, other passengers will give you clues on how to progress – fetch quests, if you will- while another gnarly dude will give you a series of challenges you can attend to rather than sticking with the main mission. Here, you will connect so many moves and then share them with your imaginary fans.
Without a doubt, you will start hammering and spamming the same moves in Freefall ‘95, though the only benefit to this is reaching an area a little easier, as repeating moves doesn’t warrant extra points – you have to keep it fresh. Also, adding the momentum to the game (you’re freefalling from a plane to imminent death) really makes this an enjoyable experience. It surprisingly doesn’t feel rushed. There’s always adequate time to go for the objectives, and once dead, you will play instantly. It’s that effective and entertaining.
The visuals are simplistic, but that’s all you need, as the response time for performing these moves is very good and there is never any lag, besides the G-forces. I particularly like the cinematics and couldn’t get enough of them. As an original MTV generation kid, this was pure nostalgia, and I loved the attention to detail. More so, I really liked the game, too. In fact, when a review is done and the game is complete, I seldom keep it in my library due to the next one, but Freefall ‘95 will be making it my Japan trip this Summer, as my AYN Thor should be here by then, and I couldn’t think of a better indie to play on a 14-hour flight.
