by Vlambeer specializes in twitchy, arcade-style games that get really hairy (while remaining plenty fun) in a hurry—like iOS greats Super Crate Box and Ridiculous Fishing—and its latest Mac entry, Luftrausers, certainly maintains that philosophy. You’ll pilot a tiny plane as enemy craft and carriers launch a barrage of gunfire, zipping about and laying waste to foes while trying to maintain a score-boosting combo streak. And much as the combat itself proves entertaining, it’s matched well by an awesome customization system that allows you to swap various parts to create the fighter of your dreams.
Luftrauser’s sepia-drenched 2D backdrops are minimal but effective, with attractive details like your ship’s propulsion kicking up pixelated water right below—but you’ll rarely linger in a play session for long. Lasting a few minutes amidst the mayhem of encircling fighters and missile barrages from below is a pretty serious accomplishment, and it’s unlikely that you’ll have more than a moment or two to take in the scenery along the way. The key to extending each attempt by seconds or even minutes is finding the right arrangement of parts to create a plane that fits your own tendencies and play style.
Ship parts unlock as you complete bite-sized missions (like killing a certain number of fighters, reaching a noted score, etc.) and level up your profile with continued play, and they often vary wildly in purpose. For example, do you want a standard machinegun, a spread shot, homing missiles, or an ever-firing laser? Would you rather be swift and light, or heavy and well armored? It’s possible to make a ship that can bash through foes with ease and still survive, dive underwater without taking damage, or even defy gravity and float freely amidst the fracas. But every positive quality seems to have some opposing drawback, and with 125+ total combinations (each given a unique name), it’ll take a lot of trial and error to create an ideal, balanced option.
Luckily, you’ll learn quickly whether a plane is for you, and with what are usually just couple-minute play sessions, you can mix and match and experiment freely. Controlling a plane in 2D proves a bit fumbly, but that seems intentional; Vlambeer could have made another rote, precision-minded dual-analog shooter where you’d easily blast through scads of ships, but instead opted to make something charmingly awkward and oddly gripping. Cheers for that.
The bottom line. Luftrausers soars thanks to compelling customization and simple, entertaining blast-’em-all action.
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