Vlambeer has the unfortunate habit of having its greatest ideas poached before they have even reached the market, but as Luftrausers proves, there’s nothing quite like the developer’s inimitable knack for compulsive gameplay experiences. Following from last year’s Ridiculous Fishing, the studio switches the action up to the ocean of clouds, as players jump in the cockpit of a dinky airplane and take on endless waves of enemies in an addictive shoot-‘em-up with an onus on survival.
There’s only one stage, with challenges and enemies evolving the longer you’re able to live, and while we’re yet to discover whether it’s actually possible to reach an end game, the focus is clearly on chaining kills and racking up points.
Doing so rewards you with new parts for your aircraft. Toying with multiple combinations is intrinsic to the experience of Luftrausers’ simplistic conceit and finding the best mishmash of absurd components to suit your playstyle and working through tailored challenges to progress is entirely addictive.
These objectives start of relatively easy, but scale as you rank up and it gives the player something to shoot for outside of a high score, even if the multiplier does cap at a certain point leaving you unable to increase your score significantly.
Matched with an attractive sepia tone and a thumping soundtrack, Luftrausers is an enthralling and time-sapping trial of nerve and persistence. It’s certainly a game much more suited for pocket gaming and the Vita release will likely prove to be the essential version, but whatever your chosen flavour there’s a quality to the design that’ll shine through on any platform.