Terminal Velocity™: Boosted Edition

Played this game a lot back in the day, one of the earlier full polygonal and texture mapped 3D games. This is a pretty faithful port... and that means pixels the size of your fist, geometry that pops and has cracks into the void in it, textures that stretch, warp and glitch, AI that is dumber than a doorstop and default controls that are counter-intuitive.
... switch up and down and you'll probably be a lot happier.
Yeah it's old and they did very little to fix any of it. And I'm fine with that, I wouldn't have it any other way. This is the way Terminal Velocity is supposed to be. Repetitive, weird and against all logic - lots of fun.
Recommended, but only if you're into very old DOS games.

A classic from the 90s. A great game to shut your brain off for a couple hours and unwind by flying a physics defying space fighter and blow stuff up.

Terminal Velocity™: Boosted Edition is a modernized rerelease that preserves the essence of Terminal Reality’s 1995 arcade-style flight shooter while giving it enough technical updates to run comfortably on contemporary systems. Rather than reinventing the classic, the Boosted Edition serves as a faithful restoration—one that brings widescreen support, smoother performance, improved draw distances, and cleaner HUD elements without altering the original game’s fast, rebellious spirit. The premise remains delightfully straightforward: in the year 2704, Earth has been betrayed by its former allies, and you step into the cockpit of an advanced strike craft to battle across hostile worlds, dive through sprawling tunnel systems, and annihilate enemy forces with overwhelming firepower. It’s a pure power fantasy, framed in the energetic, no-nonsense style of 90s PC action games.
The gameplay is built around speed, maneuverability, and explosive combat rather than simulation-heavy controls. Your ship moves with a fluidity that feels more like a weaponized camera than an aircraft—capable of banking, looping, strafing, and boosting at velocities that blur the horizon. Each mission places you on a different planet divided into several stages, blending open-air combat zones with elaborate underground tunnel networks. The tunnels, in particular, remain the game’s standout feature: twisting corridors that demand precision, quick reflexes, and constant enemy engagement. Combat is frantic but readable, with an arsenal of powerful weapons and generous ammunition that encourages aggressive play. The simplicity of objectives—destroy key targets, clear bases, navigate tunnels—keeps the pace brisk, making each mission feel like a bite-sized action blast.
The visual facelift is modest but meaningful. While Boosted Edition does not overhaul the low-polygon geometry or basic textures of the 1995 release, the enhanced draw distance, widescreen formatting, and stabilized framerate make the environments feel far more coherent than they once did. What was once foggy, abruptly-clipped terrain now extends further toward the horizon, giving a stronger sense of scale. The retro aesthetic remains intact, retaining its angular charm and vibrant explosions. For players with a fondness for 90s PC shooters, this updated presentation strikes a comfortable balance between preservation and playability. The game still looks like the product of its era, but it runs with a crispness the original could never fully deliver.
Sound design stays faithful to the original as well, carrying over the energetic techno soundtrack and bombastic sound effects that defined the game's identity. The thrum of engines, the punch of plasma fire, and the satisfying detonations of destroyed enemies all reinforce the arcade sensibility. While the audio quality shows its age—with some effects sounding compressed or thin—the overall mix supports the action well. There is a nostalgic warmth in hearing these sounds again, especially for returning fans, and even new players can appreciate the kinetic blend of music and combat that accompanies the game’s relentless momentum.
Despite the enhancements, the game’s age does show in its design. Enemy AI is predictably simple, often flying directly at you or hovering in place waiting to be destroyed. Mission objectives, though serviceable, repeat their structure across worlds, occasionally creating a sense of sameness. Some surface-level missions can be trivialized by simply boosting past enemy fire, while a few tunnel segments may feel claustrophobic or disorienting by today’s standards. For newcomers expecting deeper systems, narrative complexity, or modern shooter conventions, Terminal Velocity might feel shallow or repetitive. But these qualities were part of the original’s identity—a distilled, high-speed shooter unconcerned with realism or elaborate mechanics.
Within its niche, however, Terminal Velocity: Boosted Edition succeeds at exactly what it sets out to do. It delivers a dose of retro arcade flight-action that remains surprisingly exhilarating, especially when played with modern framerate stability and responsive controls. The improved performance makes the game feel smoother and more accessible than ever, and the original design—built on speed, spectacle, and chaotic dogfights—still holds up as a uniquely satisfying experience. For fans of classic PC shooters, it’s a welcome preservation effort that respects the original while making it functional for new hardware. For players who enjoy fast, arcade-style aerial combat, the game offers an unapologetically old-school thrill that stands apart from more complex flight games of today.
Ultimately, Terminal Velocity: Boosted Edition is a celebration of an era when PC action games were bold, fast, and uncomplicated. Its value depends on your appreciation for retro design, but when evaluated on those terms, it delivers an entertaining and lovingly restored blast of 90s nostalgia—one that still knows how to make the skies feel dangerous and fun.
Rating: 7/10

The classic 3-D space combat game is back in the new Boosted Edition! Updated to run better on modern hardware and to include all-new achievements, this game will keep you on the edge of your seat as you fly through 27 insane levels to save the Earth from the Alliance of Space Faring Alien Races after they turn on us and attack our home planet in the year 2704.

Gameplay is simple. You fly the TV-202, an advanced space fighter, on a solo mission to defeat the alien menace and save the Earth. Missions are divided into episodes, with each episode taking place on a single planet with three missions per episode except the last episode which only has two missions, and the secret bonus mission which stands alone. Missions have you flying over a variety of worlds, fighting both air and ground units while you fly from checkpoint to checkpoint, sometimes also destroying various ground targets to move the missions along. Some missions also require you to fly though narrow tunnels to reach distant objectives, collect power-up, and fight bosses. You have a variety of weapons at your disposal, from basic plasma guns to advanced lasers and missiles. You can equip and upgrade weapons by flying through weapon power-up orbs, and collect power cores and shield restore orbs to refill your shields as you play. You can also pick up Afterburner orbs that allow you to fly at high speed.

Controls are a bit sensitive and take some getting used to, but are well-suited to the fast-paced action. Your fighter can be a bit tricky to control at times, as it tends to roll while you turn, requiring you to adjust and correct mid-turn or risk spinning out of control during wide turns. Turning is a little easier to control during the use of afterburners, thankfully, though at high speed you have less time to react.

Music and sounds are some of the best for a game of this era, and each planet has unique music that is memorable and fun to listen to as you fly. Sounds are well done here too, with each weapon having a distinct sound and the sounds of enemy fighters flying close and ground units firing at you creating an excellent, immersive experience. The sounds of your fighter bouncing off the ground or scraping the sides of tunnels are pretty funny too, eliciting an "oof" each time!

Graphics are a bit of a letdown, though. Although the graphics have been upscaled and the resolution adjusted for widescreen support, none of the textures have been updated significantly nor has the framerate been improved much, so the game still looks much like it did 1995. Also, none of the 3-D rendered cutscenes between episodes have been improved at all, so they still look extremely low resolution. The graphics were pretty amazing for 1995 and they still look okay today, but they are clearly primitive by modern standards and really could have used more work to make the Boosted Edition stand out better.

While the game is fun to play, my biggest criticism is that the game is extremely long without much gameplay variety. Missions drag on for long periods of time, especially if you're going for completion and trying to destroy everything and find every tunnel. There isn't much variety in the enemy types either, other than their appearance and some subtle behavioral differences. A few areas are unique and memorable, but that's about it. This is a game you'll probably play in small chunks off and on when the mood hits you, unless you don't mind the lack of variety.

I received this version of the game for free when it released since I had already purchased the original version previously. And I'm glad for that because I don't know that I would have paid full price for the Boosted Edition if I had known how little had been improved from the original version. Still, it's a fun time if you're into this type of game, though I'd wait until it goes on sale.

Used to play this and Fury3 a lot on my old Packard Bell, this hits that sweet nostalgia hot spot and holds up so well (at least to me).

it is an awesome space shooter

This game is really exciting