Luftrausers is a thoroughly satisfying arcade-style shoot 'em up. The general art style smacks of old German and even Prussian aesthetics. I would describe the general look of the game as Gameboy HD(original Gameboy) which I, in this case at least, really like and, while there are a lot of bad games trying to get by on 8-bit looks, this game is not one of them. The mechanics of the game are quite enjoyable with the amount of control you have of your plane and the manouvres you can pull off. The game challenges you to become better and better and soon I felt myself going "just one more game". For several days I have been meaning to play other games, but end up playing Luftrausers. I have put 13 hours into the game thus far and still want to go back for more. The music is interesting and changes depending on your parts as each type of part is tied to a piece of the music so when you change a part you change either the lead, drums or bass line. It's a pretty good dynamic soundtrack. Negatives: It lacks a "Default Controls" reset option. The Gog version seems to have an issue with not going to fullscreen even though it is set to fullscreen. It is a very minor issue and all you have to do is press F11 or Alt+Return and it goes fullscreen. I hope this issue will be fixed though.
I think this is a great game. The mechanics are interesting and can, at certain points, be really frustrating, but it feels like the game rewards your efforts. The game is a bit short and some people will hold that against the game, but I don't think it detracts from it at all. The humour is good and there are some really funny jokes and some fairly funny references here and there. I feel the story is pretty well written in all it's glorious absurdity. I really like the family, especially the little girl which I think is just hilarious and adorable. Overall I found it a great experience. There are some bits that will tug on your heartstrings and some bits will make you laugh. I would warmly recommend it if you are looking for an adventure game with humour and heart(and a bit of frustration that is totally worth it).
