Air Twister

Air Twister is a game that feels satisfying once mastered. It took me awhile though. I bumbled and got stuck at the first three stages but once I figured out the controls the first six stages became a breeze. You can switch between two types of aiming, lock-on and manual aiming. Each one affects the way you dodge the enemies. Lock-on is done by swiping at the enemies. Manual however is trickier. You have to hold one finger in place to stop moving and tap with the other to shoot. This is how I did it but there are other different ways to aim and shoot. The controls are fun and challenging, it really is! You’ll know you mastered it when you can breeze through the first six stages. But after that the game ramps up and the real game begins.

All the game elements are there. Intuitive UI, solid graphics, multiple modes. Great music. Incoming attacks are near impossible to gauge. You listen for the attack and bait it into a corner. Tracking the attacks with your eyes doesn’t work. The story is in the form of a glossary of lore. Yep, the story is optional and non interactive. Optional is a plus, but non interactive feels like the result of some budget cuts. It’s a grind. If you like Grindy mobile games this game is 10/10. You will have to repeat many of the same missions over and over, because you cannot skip to the end. You need to grind to unlock things like accessories and weapons, but you should be able to choose your grind. So I guess that’s the bad news, you must grind through every mission every time you fall. Its detrimental to motivation, so after about 20 min you’re gonna look for something else. TLDR, game could use a content patch or two in the future. Give it an interactive story, make attacks possible to track with human eyes, make it possible to pick specific missions to repeat. If possible, add additional modes. Thanks, keep up the great work. Hope devs don’t consider this a finished product, cuz its not.

It’s cool to see an “out of left field” game like this on Apple Arcade. Twin-stick shooters aren’t very common in the mobile space, so it’s nice to see one come to the service. I really fell in love with the game from the start because of its bizarre visuals and Queen-inspired soundtrack. I have legitimately never seen anything like it, and I was mesmerized and engaged during my first playthrough. But when you take a game like this outside of an arcade cabinet and put it on mobile, some things just don’t translate well. There are “upgrades” you can earn for the main character to help you survive longer and reach the later levels, but to get these upgrades you are going to have to play through the same set of levels ad infinitum until you’re absolutely sick of seeing them. The endless repetition really kills the sense of wonder you initially get from the game, since you are forced to replay sections you’ve already played over and over again. It’s needlessly archaic in this sense, holding onto an element of older games that makes them frustrating to enjoy in today’s gaming landscape. If there was some kind of save system or level select screen, these problems wouldn’t be so glaring, but as of now, progressing will require a mind-numbing grind that zaps the fun out of an otherwise very interesting game.