Aces of the Luftwaffe Quick Review

"Fighters, fighters everywhere and I'm loving every bit of it!", this quote, taken straight from the game, describes Aces of the Luftwaffe perfectly. The title developed by Handy Games gives players fortunate enough to experience it, a nice short burst of action packed entertainment, constantly harassed by an enormous amount of enemy units, the player barely has a chance to take a breather during the game's short stages, making it a very intense and frenetic title.

Aces of the Luftwaffe takes place during World War II, you control three airplane pilots, 2 British, 1 American, only one is available from the get go though, the others you will have to unlock as the game goes on, it serves as a nice incentive for players to keep repeating stages so they can "farm" enough medals (currency dropped by enemies) to unlock them.

Currently the game features four chapters, each with three normal levels and one boss stage, it's definitely not a whole lot, Aces of the Luftwaffe is actually pretty short and not that challenging if you're used to playing shmups, each of the chapters has a few dialogue sequences in-between levels that help set up your hero personality and motivations, they're nothing special, but it's a nice touch that gives the game some charisma.

From the gameplay point of view everything seems to work pretty well, controlling the airplane could feel a bit more responsive maybe, the loose controls make acquiring the movement upgrades a top priority.

The aforementioned upgrades are acquired by spending medals that some enemies airplanes drop during the levels, these can be repeated for more drops so you can actually unlock everything the game has to offer without spending a single dime, is it something that will keep you busy for a long time? Probably not, while the game is interesting to play, repeating the same missions over and over again starts getting pretty boring after a while, so you will probably just unlock what you really want and hope that a few more campaigns are released so you can bring all that firepower with you. (or maybe a sequel)

Firepower is something that you will definitely need in the last campaign, if you don't take the enemies down quickly they will start to gather up and rush you with true suicidal tendencies, making your survival a true challenge, here is where the many power ups - some predetermined enemies drop them - come in handy as well as your super power that (re)charges as you take down other airplanes.

The way damage taken is displayed is actually really interesting, as you get hit a few cracks will start to appear on the screen, it's a nice touch even if at times understanding how much more punishment you can actually take becomes hard to determine.

Graphically Handy Game did a tremendous job, the colorful and detailed graphics fit the game style perfectly, the backgrounds are full of little things like cars and houses, little details that you will miss most of the time thanks to the game's frenetic pace, still, when you get a chance to look at them they really improve the final visual experience.

At the end of the day Aces of the Luftwaffe is a very fun and colorful game, it plays well and looks even better, it won't blow your mind or win any awards, but for a free game (Android version) you can't really ask for much more, here's to hoping that a few more campaigns will become available in the future.

Year of Release: 2013
Platform(s): Android, iOS, Windows Phone
Developer(s): Handy Games