Bravo Air Race
Bravo Air Race is an arcade air racing game developed by Xing Entertainment and published by THQ for the PlayStation in 1997. It is known as Reciproheat 5000 in Japan and Air Race in Europe. You pick from twelve aircraft spanning several decades, from the Gee Bee Racer and Pitts Special to the P-51 Mustang, Spitfire and F-117, and race them through four courses full of ravines, bridges and tight turns. There is no combat; it is purely a race.
Controls
What Bravo Air Race is
The game takes the idea of real-world air racing, such as the Reno Air Races featured in its intro, and turns it into a simple arcade racer. The roster mixes racing planes, World War II fighters like the P-47 Thunderbolt, F4U Corsair, P-38 Lightning, Zero, J7W Shinden and Bf 109, and modern jets like the F-16. Despite their real differences, the planes are balanced to be roughly equal.
There are four courses: Mountain on easy, South City on normal, and Canyon and Snow Land on hard. The PlayStation release was not well reviewed at the time, with critics pointing to heavy pop-up and invisible barriers, but it remains an unusual example of a racing game built entirely around propeller planes and jets.
How it plays in your browser
This page runs the North American disc in a PlayStation emulator, so you can fly without a console. Handling is deliberately simplified: planes do not roll freely and have altitude limits, so you mainly steer along the course, climbing and diving through gaps rather than flying a full simulation.
Assistance options include an autopilot and guide markers that show a good line through the course, which help while you learn the layouts. The game offers a time run mode and two-player racing on a split screen.
Tips worth knowing
- Turn on the guide markers for your first runs on a course; they show the line through turns that pop-up can hide.
- Start on Mountain, the easy course, before moving to South City and then the hard Canyon and Snow Land tracks.
- Since the planes are balanced to be similar, pick one whose look you like and focus on learning the courses instead.
- Ease off on sharp turns in narrow ravines; clipping the invisible edges of the course costs more time than a slightly wider line.
- Use time run mode to practise a single course until you know where each bridge and climb comes.
Frequently asked questions
Who made Bravo Air Race?
It was developed by Xing Entertainment and published by THQ, releasing in Japan in July 1997 and in North America in September 1997.
Does Bravo Air Race have weapons?
No. It is a pure racing game with no combat.
How many planes and courses are there?
There are twelve selectable aircraft and four courses: Mountain, South City, Canyon and Snow Land.
Is Bravo Air Race known by other names?
Yes. It was released as Reciproheat 5000 in Japan and as Air Race in Europe.
More games like this
Project: Horned Owl, Tank Racer, Time Crisis. You can also browse the full games library or read the guides on the blog.