AirBlade is a futuristic extreme sports game developed by Criterion Games and Namco, and is the spiritual successor to the Dreamcast game Trickstyle. It was released on November 9, 2001 for the PlayStation 2 platform.
Oscar had just perfected his prototype for a Hoverboard called the AirBlade when the GCP Corporation decided to shut down the project. 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 Hacker friend Kat to get Oscar back.
The gameplay is very similar to the early Tony Hawk's videogames; Players have a limited time to complete all the challenges in a level (such as knocking out a number of Henchman 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.
AirBlade received average to good reviews. Reviewers praised the tight controls and impressive graphics, with IGN claiming that the game was "a brilliant advertisement for the RenderWare graphics engine". However, 1UP.com and GameSpot both criticized the brutal difficulty, mainly cause by the linearity of the challenges - if one task has not been achieved when the time runs out, the player is forced to restart the level and try them all again.
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