Aces of the Luftwaffe – Squadron

Genre: Bullet Hell Shmup

Players: 1-4 Co-Op (Local)

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Review:

(Note: Included in Best Multiplayer and Co-op 6-in-1 Bundle, along with Giana Sisters: Twisted Dreams – Owltimate Edition, Pile Up! Box by Box, Skydrift Infinity, Spitlings, and Stunt Kite Party)

Aces of the Luftwaffe is a shmup that takes the familiar and brings in some unique ideas to give the genre a twist, such as having you fighting UFO-flying Nazis and commanding not one, but four unique ships at once.

In single-player mode, players take on the role of the lead ship in the formation, with the other 3 flanking you in a diamond formation, and with up to three other players taking the reins of these ships as they join in.

This concept goes beyond just having additional fighters present – each plane has its own separate upgradeable stats, its own pilot with their own personality, and that personality figures into the gameplay as well – one pilot suffers from narcolepsy and occasionally falls asleep in combat, another who gets bouts of uncontrollable rage and breaks formation to chase after enemies, and a third with a fear of heights who will duck out of high-altitude missions.

This is a really cool idea in theory, but in practice it brings with it a lot of issues. First of all, this game’s insistence on pushing its story on players really drags down the action while you sit through the chatter. And it’s not a good story, either – it’s at turns absurd and generic, with some pretty awful voice acting (interestingly, your all-American squad all speaks with really heavy European accents), but you will repeatedly find the action broken up to make you sit through it.

In single-player mode, your wingmen insisting on sticking in formation means that you are collectively a huge target, which makes dodging bullets effectively even more of a chore. They lag behind you was well, meaning that if you navigate around an obstacle, they may very well just plow through it. If one of them gets taken out of action, they’ll come back for a while, but it’s super-frustrating to lose some of your firepower just because the AI is stupid.

If you’re in multiplayer, the game’s story’s insistence on compelling pilots to lose control means that those players will find themselves out of action for seemingly arbitrary reasons, which brings its own kind of frustration.

On top of all of these frustrations, this game is plagued with input lag that makes all of your movements feel loose and sluggish. And out of all the genres you don’t want to have imprecise controls, bullet hell shmups have to be close to the top of the list.

I know this review has been full of complaints, and I want to be clear, I absolutely dig that Aces of the Luftwaffe tried to do something unique and original, and if the ideas present in this game had been worked on a bit more, this could have been something really special. But as it is, this game is a mess of problems.

tl;dr – Aces of the Luftwaffe is a bullet hell shmup that has you controlling a squadron of four wingmen with unique abilities and personalities. This game has some really great and unique ideas, but it’s also plagued with design issues and control issues that keep it from delivering on the game’s potential.

Grade: C-

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