The teleportation dagger is ultimately what sets Aeon Drive apart from other speedrunning platformers. It’s a lot to take in, but once each mechanic lands and becomes a simple part of your muscle memory, you’ll be dashing through the stages with ease. There’s a bit of a learning curve at first you’ll need to master jumping, sliding, swinging your sword, and chucking your teleportation dagger at the correct time in order to maintain any semblance of speed and momentum. While the supporting narrative in Aeon Drive is merely a distraction at best, the gameplay showcased here is an absolute joy once you get to grips with everything. Sounds like a small, insignificant boost in theory, but when you’re just a few feet away from your end goal, those extra seconds make all the difference. Thankfully, to offset the countdown, you can pick up egg timers scattered throughout the levels if you’re quick enough and manage to pick up 5 in a row, you can activate their power and immediately add 5 seconds back onto your timer.

If the timer reaches zero, then it’s game over and you’ll need to start over (a trifling inconvenience thanks to the small scale of the levels and the zippy loading speeds). Racing through the levels is quite enough as it is, but the game immediately encourages you to move as quickly as possible by implementing a 30-second timer in each level. Armed with a sword and teleportation dagger, you must guide Jackelyne through a vast variety of levels, all of which sport differing routes with their own advantages and disadvantages. Taking place within the cyberpunk setting of ‘Neo Barcelona’, the game stars Jackelyne, a space ranger who is on a desperate race through the city to find the drive cores to fix her ship. Aeon Drive is all about speedrunning that’s its hook, and it's a good one. People might lean on glitches or exploits to 'break' a game, but often it’s simply a case of learning the mechanics, inside and out, to nail down the most efficient route from A to B. Speedrunning has been an integral part of the gaming community for decades.

Run through time itself! Aeon Drive features a unique time-warping system that saves players the frustration of repetition and keeps the challenge fresh.Captured on Nintendo Switch (Handheld/Undocked).

With the power sword, teleportation dagger and unique skill to control time, Jackelyne has to find all the Drive Cores to fix her ship - and save the city from impending doom. Desperately trying to get home, she crash-lands her spaceship into the middle of a bustling metropolis, Neo Barcelona.

You’ll play as Jackelyne, a young space ranger from another dimension. Set in the neon-colored landscape of Neo Barcelona, Aeon Drive is an action platformer with a speedrunning twist! Rush through the cyberpunk landscapes of Neo Barcelona in Aeon Drive, an action-platformer with a speedrunning twist! Whether solo or with up to 4 friends, sprint and dash through many areas of the neon-infused city - and use your time and space-bending abilities to get ahead.

Aeon drive trophy guide