Air Supply Infinite Review

Air Supply Infinite is a test of endurance. The hazards are limited and not necessarily all that threatening. Controlling Spaceman Sam running around a planet, there’s one persistent threat: the alien running in the opposite direction. So when their paths cross, it’s time for Sam to jump! Occasionally a UFO that freezes Sam will come along, and an asteroid crashes into the planet reversing the direction of Sam and the alien for 10 seconds. Each individual hazard itself isn’t too much to handle, but it’s trying to survive them over time that’s the problem!

See, Sam has a limited supply of oxygen. It’s something that plagued him in the original Air Supply and it still does now. Falling icons that supply more O2 come in periodically, and they are tantamount to long runs. The smartbomb that clears out hazards and fills Sam’s O2 back up to 4 comes in handy for emergencies, but they’re an even more limited resource. Lasting for a long time means that the game gets subtly faster and faster, while getting hit diminishes O2 and slows things down. Players want things to get fast, as trophies can be collected at max speed to unlock new planets; which are just cosmetic changes but hey, style matters.

It’s a really interesting endless runner to me, because most games like to get progressively harder by throwing new, unexpected hazards the player’s way. Yes, the game gets subtly faster, but otherwise it’s just a test of repetition, of not just timing one jump, but ten, a hundred, a thousand - and then being able to handle the shifts. It’s a unique challenge.

Pacing-wise, a good round can take some time as Air Supply Infinite is built to be a slow burn; it’s better on the iPad. All the unlockables merely adjust things like color, music, and Sam’s costume rather than having much of a discernible gameplay effect. I would like to see, especially in the early game, things set up to where players can only fail by way of actual failure, instead of running out of O2. Frequently I have to activate a smartbomb early on solely because O2 bubbles didn’t come in at the right time as my meter kept ticking down, and I was powerless to do anything with it. Over time this all evens out, but it can feel unfair when it happens early on.

Air Supply Infinite isn’t the greatest endless runner of all time, but I applaud it for doing something quite different in a crowded genre.