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The core twin-stick-shooter with a twist gameplay from Velocity Ultra remains intact in Velocity 2X, but everything just feels a little more refined. The awesome structure of spreading unlocks that effectively change the way you play the game being spread out widely through each of the 50 levels also returns. And with it comes that amazing feeling of knowing exactly which previous level that new power will help you get a perfect rating on. Also, the addition of boss battles, especially the ones you have to navigate the inside of is awesome in a way that felt reminiscent of classic arcade games like Galaga, but with a fresh new take on the genre.

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The 2D platforming sections of 2X actually play like the ship portions, which sounds a lot weirder than it is. Just like when you’re in the ship, you can hold Square and move the joystick in any direction and then perform a short teleport. This is obviously handy for getting through walls, or behind enemies to shoot them. The distance is limited, though, and that’s a really good thing because it tightens up the movement of Lt. Kai Tana, 2X’s awesome protagonist, and greatly reduces frustration from mistakes that come from not being able to place the teleport reticle where you’d like.

To shoot, you move the right stick in any direction, but you can’t do this while sprinting. For a few levels I felt that this cut down on the, ahem, velocity of the game, but later on you unlock a rifle that allows you to shoot left or right while sprinting. Like I previously mentioned, the feeling of going back to get a perfect rating on a level with a new upgrade is one of the coolest in gaming.

However, 2X’s biggest misstep also crops up within the 2D sidescrolling sections. There are points in a few levels where you need to perform a longer teleport. Luckily, there’s an item which is pretty much a grenade that you can teleport to. To throw said grenade, you need to stop moving and aim to throw. The reason that I found these parts frustrating was because the last thing you ever want to do in a Velocity game is stop moving. It’s all about going fast, and it’s absolutely jarring when gameplay comes to an abrupt hault. Also, there is a weird amount of latency between aiming with the left stick and the reticle actually moving, so the whole action just feels a little awkward. There are only a few levels where you’ll need to use the teleportation grenade, though, so it’s an easy issue to forgive.

Graphically, 2X makes a ton of small changes that pack a big punch. The fidelity of the beautiful 2D art got a much-appreciated boost this time around. The lighting effects created when you shoot and also when enemies and objects blow up is always fun to look at, and there’s a lot more variety in the set pieces of 2X.

2X’s story is told through 2D slideshow-style cutscenes, and the art is a joy to look at. I was left wanting more, though as I progressed through the story. Everything is almost constantly in swift motion during gameplay, so staring at a static image as I scrolled through text-based dialog caused me to feel an urge to press the skip button more often than I would have liked.

Velocity Ultra had an awesome soundtrack, and I was stoked to hear that some of the tracks would return in 2X, but I was also a little nervous. I’m a big fan of the original game’s tracklist, but there’s a fine line between not fixing what isn’t broken and reusing assets to cut down on development time. FuturLab delivered on this front as well. The original tracks definitely sound like they’ve been touched up, and the new additions in 2X were good enough that I promptly purchased the album online.

It’s incredibly rare that a game comes out and it lives up to the hype that has surrounded it while the release date crept closer. Velocity 2X has not only lived up to the hype, it’s teleported beyond it. It expands on what made the first game great without changing the parts that made up its core. It added a wildly different gameplay style but never lost its heart, and from start to finish it was an absolute joy to play. It’s also free for PS4 and PS Vita if you subscribe to PS+, so you really can’t go wrong with Velocity 2X no matter which way you approach it.