Air Twister

Whilst I absolutely adore rails shooters, I can’t say I’m a huge fan of Space Harrier. I don’t think it’s necessarily a bad game, and the psychedelic visuals combined with the excellent music really are great for their time, but it has a real issue with depth perception that makes it hard to see what’s coming until it slaps you in the face. That, for me, sapped most of my enjoyment thus making me unlikely to revisit it anytime in the near future.

So, when it was announced that the legendary arcade developer Yu Suzuki was trying his hand at a spiritual successor, I was only mildly curious. Sure, the depth perception issues should now be no longer a problem, but would he really be able to capture that old magic? It has been a long time since Space Harrier released, after all.

I was absolutely not prepared for the nonsensical thrill ride that is Air Twister.

Many thanks to the publisher for the review code.

GOING ‘ROUND THE TWIST
Normally, I would open up a review by going into details about the story before I delve further into the ins and outs of the gameplay, but to be quite honest I have no clue what the hell was going on during my time with Air Twister. From the game’s ‘World Guide’ I managed to ascertain that there’s some kind of invasion going on and you play as a princess intent on saving it, but intricacies beyond that were hard to grasp.

Part of that is due to the game’s inherent weirdness, but a larger part is down to how clunky the World Guide is to navigate. It also has so much information about everything that it’s hard to really get information about anything. This is made worse by having sections of the guide only accessible after you encounter it in-game, meaning that you then have to dive in and specifically find it afterwards – which takes more time than the payoff is worth. All you really need to know is that there’s a floating girl shooting at an assortment of creatures and triangular thing until there’s no more of them.

Of course, regardless of the lore that the game fails to really establish, the core gameplay loop is the main reason why you’d play this game and in that respect Air Twister plays very as you’d expect; it has the obvious similarities to Space Harrier, as you’d expect, but it also takes influences from other rails shooters too – particularly Panzer Dragoon.

The princess doesn’t need any kind of transport to stay airborne (except when she does for boss fights, for some reason) so all you need to really focus on is her positioning and gunshots. Enemies can be locked on by centering them in your viewpoint, allowing you to fire a homing laser at groups of incoming foes with ease. Stronger single shots can also be fired if you shoot without the lock-on, which is great for meatier opponents and bosses but is also harder to aim.

It’s a rather straightforward system and there’s not a huge amount of depth when compared to other games in the genre. There’s no deflection button, no power-ups, no 360 degree movement, just avoid stuff and shoot back. It’s a little disappointing at first due to how easy the initial stages are, but as the difficulty ramps up things get far more interesting: with enemy attacks to dodge, obstacles to navigate, and some great bosses, you soon start to appreciate that you don’t have to worry about lots of different systems. It makes the experience quite relaxing, even when things start to get tough. The unusual enemy shots can be quite difficult to avoid at first, but it’s something you adapt to surprisingly quickly making you feel like a pro in no time.

That’s not to say that the game doesn’t have any additional components to help make it stand out (although if you’re playing the arcade mode of the game then that is all you’re limited to) as the main game has an unusual approach that not only helps to vary up the gameplay, but also vastly increases replayability too. This main mode will start you off with a measly few pink hearts and the regular gun, but as you play and earn star points by destroying foes, you can unlock more things in the adventure map. This map has you following a chain of unlocks around many different islands, and there are hundreds of things you can spend your stars on. Extra hearts are obviously the most important upgrades to help you get further, but you can also acquire assist items that allow you to slow-time or shield certain enemy attacks too, as well as new weapons to play around with an an ungodly amount of cosmetics to customise your princess. 

It all works well to ensure that the main game, that lacks no difficulty options, is accessible to all levels of player. Hardened veterans will no doubt find the initial low heart number to be quite liberating, and may not even need to use up any of the game’s continues in order to see the end; those with a decent amount of experience will probably wish to acquire another few hears via the upgrade map in order to see the end; and more novice shooting fans will need to acquire many more hearts and abilities in order to get to the end. Regardless, you’ll probably have to replay the game multiple times in order to gain enough stars (although they are very generously doled out) but in never really seems like much of a grind. Considering how much there is to unlock, including stages for the bonus game modes, there always seems to be continual progression.

Replays fail to become too much of an issue due to the game’s short length. As is common with the genre, a full successful playthrough will take less than an hour to get through. There are twelve stages in total, with two of them being bonus stages, and they’re all relatively short in length. Their distinct visual themes are a delight to look at and help create stave off the feeling of repetition, as you could be navigated a huge garden one minute, and then a giant aquarium or a floating city on fire the next. All of the environments are rooted in fantasy, and every single one is beautiful to look at. The art direction of the game is incredible, and even the simpler polygonal enemies are still quite aesthetically pleasing to look at. Of course, the bosses are where the game truly shines and there are some really cool designs on show here. Each of these gargantuan creatures are a lot of fun to fight, even if some of them can be a little bit too simple for their own good; of course, these are balanced out by some tougher fights that can be extremely punishing until you get to grips with their attack. My particular favourite is either the giant octopus that squirts out devastatingly powerful jets of ink or the almost indescribable final boss, but I have to say that I loved taking every single one down.

The visuals design, as great as it is, is still nothing when compared to the game’s soundtracks, which seems to take a leaf from Sonic R‘s book due to the implementation of a vocal sound track that simultaneously fails to match up with the actual gameplay and yet somehow enhances the whole experience tenfold. Composed by the Dutch artist Velensia, it takes clear inspiration from the likes of Queen and I quite frankly couldn’t get enough of it. It’s energetic, it’s catchy, and is absolutely perfect in every way. Sure, some people may not care much for the style (my wife thought it was weird), but it’s an OST that is hard to hate if you just roll with it.

As briefly alluded to before, the main game is far from all that Air Twister has to offer. As you play the game more and work your way through the Adventure Map, you’ll be able to unlock levels for the game’s bonus game modes – although quite frankly they are somewhat of a mixed bag.

You will have access to the Arcade Mode from the offset, that contains a few different difficulty modes for those looking for a more traditional experience, but there are some wildly different ones too. There’s a game mode that has you selecting cubes in numerical order that could have been fun if it actually implemented the game’s movement and shooting system, but actually plays out more like a Brain Academy mini-game; there’s also a side-scrolling version of the game where you’re tasked with avoiding enemies and obstacles as you pick up stars, which is frustratingly bad to control; and a handful of other game modes that riff off the primary gameplay style. They’re not that bad as a brief diversion from the main game, but I found that I only really wanted to play them once after unlocking a new stage before I forgot about them completely.

VERDICT
Air Twister is a great new rail shooter that takes inspiration from older games in the genre and revitalises it with a fantastic and rewarding unlock system. The bonus game modes may be a bit of a flop, but the main game is more than enough to justify a purchase for genre fans.