Review: Aces of the Luftwaffe

[EvilSpaghetti]

Aces of the Luftwaffe
Mobile Game Review

Title: Aces of the Luftwaffe
Developer: Handy Games
Publisher: Handy Game
Release Date: 09/08
Format: J2ME
Game Features: Based on WWII air battles.
Reviewed on: SE K800i

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Summary

You're participating in World War II. The Germans invade Britain and try to conquer your homeland! You ascend to the airs, together with your team-mates, to defend your country by all means! Each manoeuvre you've learned in the training camp, will help you to defy your dangerous enemies! Don't get distracted by death and explosions around you, because your final challenge is awaiting you! Once the Aces of the Luftwaffe arrive, you'll need all your courage and skills to survive and win! Fight for England! Fight for the Royal Air Force! Fight for your mates MacMoney, Rat, Freshman and Poison! Fight and win... and become a Fighter Ace yourself!

Review

This week Aces of the Luftwaffe, It was going to be Fifa 09 but I couldn’t cope with its shear lack of quality that the game provided, so I changed my mind and went for this one.
To the game, if you’re wondering what the Luftwaffe is I’ll tell you, it’s the German Air Force, so now you know what it is you can pretty much guess what the game is about, but no you don’t play as the Germans, you play as the British going up against the German invasion, the game solely concentrates on the battles of the skies during WWII, so don’t expect any ground to ground combat.
The game is simple enough, if you ever played 1944 you’ll be familiar with the games concept, a third-person, top-down shooter, the action button (5) allows a few seconds of shooting, whilst left and right moves you left and right, so you could say it’s a game that anyone could play.
However... it doesn’t end there Aces of the Luftwaffe has a lot more to offer than just relentless shooting and enemies.
Let’s start with the power-ups, again if you’re familiar with 1944 you’ll know that in these types of games they’re usually weapon upgrades and repair kits, well in Aces of the Luftwaffe it’s not different, so you can pick up anything from; dual machine gun fire and rockets to a repair kit and a power transmitter which lets you call in supporting wingmen, very handy a times.
Next; Plane manoeuvres, better than any of the normal power-up, why? I hear you ask, I’ll tell you... Because they make the game a lot more fun, diving under enemies and rolling past them it better than just shooting them as they fly towards you, and well it’s a great time saver to, you earn plane manoeuvres by saving up skill points, which you earn through accurate gunning, there are five plane manoeuvres in total, but they’re worth earning.
Let’s talk about some of these manoeuvres; the roll manoeuvre lets you quickly move from left or right to evade that relentless enemy fire, by pressing left or right twice quickly. The nosedive lets you fly low - useful for avoiding enemies and picking up some power-ups, and is very handy in some missions.
The looping manoeuvre meanwhile lets you loop backwards a few seconds, so you can pick off enemies you might have missed first time.
I have to say the first time I played through this game without these upgrades I struggled, so they’re not there just for fun, yes they’re fun to use but they really do help in the later missions. Saying that you have to be strategic in term of how and when you use them in a mission, because you are limited to only a few per mission, but that isn’t where the strategy side of the game ends, yes that’s right the boss battles, which are very fun indeed, although they’re not at the end of every level , shame really, anyway these boss battles offer a variety of huge planes to other huge airborne machines, when I say huge I mean huge, screen-filling bosses, and if you found them as fun as I did you can always go back and fight them again in Dog Fight mode.
There are also various mission types in the main story game. Air Battles are simple shooting fights where you need to take down a certain number of enemies in the level in order to claim victory. But there are more inventive missions - such as Rescue ones where you need to nosedive on pilots to rescue them, and Ground Defence where you shoot down bombers before they reach their ground targets - indicated by red arrows.

Conclusion

So then is this game a game for everyone? Yes, yes it is, and in fact it’s one of the best games I’ve played all year, I like the way it’s not trying to be too serious, I like it’s cartoon style graphics and I love the originality of the game, all I can say is, am I glad I didn’t continue playing Fifa 09.

Screenshots

Aces_of_the_Luftwaffe.jpgAces_of_the_Luftwaffe2.jpgAces_of_the_Luftwaffe3.jpg

Graphics: 9/10
Colourful cartoon style graphics.

Sound: 8/10
Suit the game.

Gameplay: 8.5/10
Original concept with a twist.

Story: 8/10
Everyone likes a WWII game

Overall Score: 9 out of 10

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