AIRFRAME ULTRA, a gritty futuristic hoverbike battle-racing game from VIDEOCULT, the independent studio behind Rain World, is now available on PC through Steam and GOG. Published by Akupara Games, the new release takes players into the dangerous streets of Megacity West, a sprawling dystopian metropolis where underground racers compete for fame, fortune, and survival. Combining high-speed hoverbike racing, aggressive vehicular combat, extensive racer customization, and multiplayer competition, AIRFRAME ULTRA aims to deliver a chaotic racing experience in which reaching the finish line is only part of the challenge.
Set in a world where technology and poverty exist side by side, AIRFRAME ULTRA places players in the role of underground competitors fighting for recognition in a city dominated by massive infrastructure, industrial environments, and powerful urban districts. The game is built around the idea that racing is more than a sport in Megacity West. It is an opportunity for people living on the margins of society to gain independence, establish a reputation, and escape the limitations imposed by their surroundings.
Welcome to Megacity West: A Futuristic City Without Rules
The setting of AIRFRAME ULTRA is Megacity West, a vast urban environment characterized by extreme social inequality, advanced technology, and a dangerous underground culture. Players take control of racers described as gutterborn individuals, including squatters, smugglers, and thieves. These characters live outside the privileged structures of society, relying on improvised equipment, modified vehicles, and their own abilities to survive.
In this environment, a secondhand Airframe hoverbike can become a ticket to a different life. With a collection of custom modifications and a willingness to take considerable risks, players can enter the underground racing scene and compete against other riders. Success offers the possibility of fame, fortune, and personal freedom in a city populated by billions of people.
Megacity West is divided into several distinct districts, each contributing to the game’s industrial science-fiction atmosphere. Slabtown features rusting shipyards and heavy industrial infrastructure, while Vantac represents the opposite end of the city’s architectural spectrum, with sleek skyscrapers and advanced urban development. The contrast between these environments reinforces the game’s central theme of a society divided between technological sophistication and harsh living conditions.
Other locations include the Ysidro edgelands, where racers navigate dune-filled environments and settlements, and the Texicali ZEGO zone, dominated by enormous arcologies. These locations provide different visual identities and environmental contexts for the racing experience, creating a world that extends beyond conventional racing circuits.
High-Speed Hoverbike Racing and Aggressive Combat
At the center of AIRFRAME ULTRA is a high-speed racing system built around futuristic hoverbikes known as Airframes. Instead of conventional cars or motorcycles, players compete using vehicles that hover approximately three feet above the road surface. This distinctive design gives the game a futuristic racing identity while allowing it to incorporate aggressive combat mechanics directly into its racing gameplay.
The objective is straightforward: reach the finish line ahead of the competition. However, the route to victory is deliberately chaotic. Players can use speed, acceleration, and tactical positioning to move through the field, but they can also attack opponents to disrupt their progress. Rather than treating collisions and physical confrontation as penalties, AIRFRAME ULTRA makes combat an integral part of the competition.
The developers describe a racing environment in which there are no referees and no traditional rulebook. Players can use improvised weapons such as pipes and chains, alongside more technologically advanced equipment such as plasma torches. These weapons introduce another layer of strategy, forcing competitors to balance their attempts to maintain speed with opportunities to interfere with rival racers.
The combat mechanics are designed to make every race unpredictable. A player who establishes an early lead cannot necessarily assume that victory is secured, since opponents can attempt to knock them out of contention. Conversely, racers who fall behind may be able to change the course of a match through aggressive attacks and well-timed maneuvers.
Three Feet Above the Road or Six Feet Underground
AIRFRAME ULTRA uses a deliberately dangerous approach to racing, where the distinction between victory and elimination can be extremely small. Its central gameplay philosophy is reflected in the idea that players can race three feet above the blacktop or end up six feet below it.
This creates an environment in which speed and survival are closely connected. Players must navigate the competition while dealing with aggressive opponents, dangerous situations, and the possibility of being knocked out of a race. The game emphasizes chaotic matches rather than clean, predictable motorsport competitions.
The combination of hoverbike movement and direct combat gives the racing experience a different identity from traditional futuristic racing games. Instead of concentrating exclusively on lap times, racing lines, and vehicle handling, AIRFRAME ULTRA adds an additional layer of confrontation. Players are competing against both the track and the other people trying to prevent them from winning.
Multiplayer Competition: Split-Screen, Online and LAN
Multiplayer is one of the main components of AIRFRAME ULTRA. The game supports both split-screen and online multiplayer, allowing players to compete locally or connect with other racers over the internet.
Split-screen multiplayer is particularly relevant for players who prefer traditional local gaming sessions. Multiple players can share the same screen and compete directly, bringing the experience closer to classic couch multiplayer racing games. The emphasis on aggressive combat should make these matches especially unpredictable, as friends can attack one another while simultaneously attempting to secure the lead.
Online multiplayer expands the competitive environment beyond local sessions. Players can challenge other racers, participate in chaotic matches, and build their reputation within the world of Megacity West. The developers also specifically highlight LAN party support, making the game suitable for local network gaming sessions where players connect their computers and compete together.
The combination of these multiplayer options provides several ways to experience the game. Local split-screen is designed for shared-screen competition, online multiplayer enables remote matches, and LAN support caters to organized gaming sessions. Each format supports the game’s emphasis on direct competition and unpredictable encounters.
Customize Your Racer and Build a Unique Airframe
Customization is another important element of AIRFRAME ULTRA. Players are encouraged to build their own racer and create a character that reflects their preferred identity and visual style.
The game’s underground setting provides a foundation for a customization system built around individuality and improvised technology. Rather than presenting racers as professional athletes with standardized equipment, AIRFRAME ULTRA portrays them as outsiders who assemble and modify their machines using whatever resources they can obtain.
Custom modifications are also part of the game’s broader approach to vehicle identity. The Airframe is not simply a standardized racing machine; it is a secondhand vehicle that can be adapted to suit its owner’s ambitions. The developers emphasize the freedom to create something distinctive, with the intention that players can build racers that feel personal rather than interchangeable.
Although the announcement does not provide a complete technical breakdown of the customization system, it establishes customization as one of the core features. Players can expect the identity of their racer and the appearance of their equipment to be part of the overall experience, alongside the competitive aspects of racing and combat.
A High-Tech, Low-Life Science-Fiction Atmosphere
One of the defining characteristics of AIRFRAME ULTRA is its combination of advanced technology and low-level urban survival. Megacity West is a place where futuristic infrastructure coexists with poverty, crime, and improvised lifestyles.
This contrast is reflected in the game’s visual and thematic direction. Advanced hoverbikes and plasma-based equipment exist alongside rusting shipyards, makeshift settlements, and underground racing communities. The result is a science-fiction world that avoids presenting the future as an entirely clean and technologically perfect environment.
The developers also highlight an important cultural distinction within the setting: analog over digital. This approach suggests a world in which physical equipment, mechanical modifications, and improvised solutions remain central despite the presence of advanced technology. It also reinforces the gritty identity of the underground racing scene.
The different districts of Megacity West help establish the scale of this fictional environment. From the industrial shipyards of Slabtown to the skyscrapers of Vantac, the desert-like Ysidro edgelands, and the massive structures of Texicali, the setting provides several contrasting environments for the game’s racing culture.
From the Creators of Rain World
AIRFRAME ULTRA is developed by VIDEOCULT, the independent game studio best known for creating Rain World, which originally launched in 2017. The Vancouver-based development team established its reputation through a survival platformer recognized for its distinctive world design and systems-driven gameplay.
Rain World takes place in a hostile ecosystem where environmental systems and creature behavior play major roles in the player’s experience. Its world-building approach emphasizes interconnected systems rather than relying exclusively on conventional scripted encounters. VIDEOCULT describes its development philosophy as focused on deeply realized worlds and original gameplay systems.
With AIRFRAME ULTRA, the studio moves into a very different genre while maintaining an interest in creating distinctive fictional environments. Instead of a survival-focused platforming experience, the new title centers on futuristic racing, combat, customization, and multiplayer competition.
The involvement of VIDEOCULT gives AIRFRAME ULTRA a recognizable development background, particularly for players familiar with Rain World’s unusual approach to world design. The new game also represents an opportunity for the studio to explore a more competitive and action-oriented experience.
Akupara Games Publishes the New Racing Experience
AIRFRAME ULTRA is published by Akupara Games, an independent video game publisher based in Los Angeles, California. The company works with independent developers and provides support throughout the publishing process, including assistance intended to help studios bring their projects to gaming communities.
Akupara Games focuses on supporting distinctive independent titles and developers through a personalized publishing approach. Its portfolio and publishing philosophy are built around helping creative teams deliver original gaming experiences to audiences looking for something beyond mainstream releases.
The partnership with VIDEOCULT brings together an established independent development studio and a publisher focused on supporting original projects. AIRFRAME ULTRA’s unusual combination of hoverbike racing, melee combat, and multiplayer competition gives it a distinctive position within the independent racing game market.
AIRFRAME ULTRA Is Available Now on PC
AIRFRAME ULTRA officially launched on November 5, 2026, and is available now for PC players through two digital distribution platforms: Steam and GOG. The launch announcement from VIDEOCULT and Akupara Games confirms that the game can be purchased through both storefronts.
The release is accompanied by an official launch trailer, providing players with an opportunity to see the game’s futuristic environments, hoverbike racing, and combat-focused gameplay before entering Megacity West themselves.
The developers and publisher have also encouraged players to follow Akupara Games through its official social media channels, including X, Instagram, Facebook, and TikTok, for additional announcements and future updates.
AIRFRAME ULTRA – Key Features
- Developer: VIDEOCULT
- Publisher: Akupara Games
- Release date: November 5, 2026
- Platforms: PC
- Digital stores: Steam and GOG
- Genre: Futuristic hoverbike battle-racing
- Setting: Megacity West
- Racing vehicles: Airframe hoverbikes
- Combat: Melee weapons and futuristic equipment, including pipes, chains, and plasma torches
- Multiplayer: Split-screen and online multiplayer
- Local gaming: LAN party support
- Customization: Racer customization and custom modifications
- Developer’s previous game: Rain World (2017)
Conclusion
AIRFRAME ULTRA brings together futuristic hoverbike racing, aggressive combat, customization, and multiplayer competition in a dystopian science-fiction setting. Developed by VIDEOCULT, the studio behind Rain World, and published by Akupara Games, the game takes a different approach to racing by making direct confrontation an essential part of the competition. Its combination of split-screen, online multiplayer, and LAN support also gives players several ways to compete with friends and other racers. With its distinctive Megacity West setting, improvised weapons, customizable Airframes, and chaotic racing mechanics, AIRFRAME ULTRA offers a gritty alternative to conventional racing games. The game is now available on PC through Steam and GOG.
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