Luftrausers

“Vlambeer delivers bullet-hell shmup action with a twist in its sepia-toned Steampunk wargame, Luftrausers.”

It's such a little thing. I have to focus hard to remember it when it's not right there in front of me. It probably doesn't have much staying power. But when it's there, when the sound of machine-marking throbs through my speakers, when I drop like a stone into the ocean then rebound heroically skywards, with smoke pouring out my engines, it's everything that matters.

The easiest way to summarize Luftrausers is to call it the Hotline Miami of dogfighting games. It's incredibly difficult, but it's really good at sinking it's claws into you to keep you launching your planes onto the battlefield. It's a game that's really easy to binge on, but since it naturally comes in bite-sized battles, you might get a bit more staying power if you get it on the Vita and play it a couple hours at a time.

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Luftrausers is a carefully engineered game with finely polished mechanics under its simple graphics. Each round is a breathless rush, every death painless enough to make restarting from scratch absolutely no hardship. Don't expect great depth or long-term thrills, but the action while it lasts is a master of both second-by-second action, and the structures that effortlessly stretch it out into a good few hours without it overstaying its welcome.

World War II was the golden age for aerial warfare. Fighter jets, aircraft carriers, and anti-aircraft guns evolved rapidly, and victory in the sky became as crucial as conquering land and sea. Flying aces emerged from their respective nations, single-handedly gunning down hundreds of enemy planes. Luftrausers is a frantic, sepia-toned 2D shooter by developer Vlambeer (the studio behind the mobile hit Ridiculous Fishing). It places you in the cockpit and makes you feel like one of history’s soaring champions.

Luftrausers is a fast-paced and enjoyable shooter, though doesn't have the lasting appeal to keep you coming back for more.

Dutch developer Vlambeer is known for creating deceptively simple arcade titles that have a worrying tendency to burrow deep under your skin and take hold of your every waking thought. Its latest venture, Luftrausers, sees you seated in the cockpit of a World War II fighter plane, attempting to take out a boundless barrage of enemy pilots. But is the celebrated studio’s newest exercise in addiction an aerial ace, or does it crash and burn?

LUFTRAUSTERS is a great example of using very old ideas and recycling them in very interesting and fun ways

Not so friendly skies.

Lands a little short of brilliance.

There is a thought that this is something which, once upon a time, you could have played on your browser for free. It’s not that I want to detract from the fact that the creators deserve money for their work here, but sometimes one can’t help stop and realise how times have changed. Still, it’s hard to say you don’t get value for your money with this game. Luftrausers is a great a time-waster, a great test of your leet twitch skills, and a game that doesn’t assume too much and just ...