Luftrausers: Or Why My Tin Man Heart Denies Me the Pleasures of Little Indie Gems

If Luftrausers is evidence of one thing, it’s that I am a man saddled by deeply flawed, irrational thinking. As I’ve previously wrote, I often seek out reasons to idolize my Vita. Beyond this point, I’ve held a passing interest toward playing Luftrausers since its release on the Vita back in 2014. You’d think that when given the option to download the game for free in November, I would have been elated, or even mildly content.

And I thought I was, for the better part of a week. I would commit myself to 20-minutes sessions near every day, either while waiting for dinner, or just before bed. Luftrausers’ game sessions typically lasted about 60 seconds, and were often packed with simple but enjoyable combat (which I’ll be sure to cover in a little bit). Honestly though, I’m convinced that I can’t shake the stigma that most indie games are focused, aesthetically artistic and simple game experiences that lack longstanding appeal to be worth my attention for very long.

As mentioned, each play session of Luftrausers is meant to take up no more than 5 minutes of your time. In that span, your objective is to navigate a customized aircraft along a 2D plane as you dodge gunfire and destroy air- and seacraft of various sizes and magnitudes of danger. It’s all decidedly straightforward stuff that isn’t immediately appealing if not for two factors.

First, the game’s controls make controlling your craft enjoyable. Using the left analog stick you both turn and accelerate, with former being accomplished by moving the stick left and right and the latter by holding it up. What results is the feeling that the player has perfect control over his/her craft.

The second great feature about Luftrausers is that its relatively short play sessions ensure that the player is constantly tinkering with his craft. Prior to launch, the player chooses from over 125 combinations of weapons, bodies and propulsion systems. Each combination is given an often humorous name, personalizing the experience further.

What helps to elevate this experience is that each piece gains experience for utilizing its unique property in battle. For instance, the “spread” weapon (which operates as a shotgun of sorts) gains one level for killing 3 boats while undamaged. Once you level up said piece, you unlock a more challenging objective, unlocking new equipment in the process. It’s a neat feedback system, encouraging the player to mix up his/her play style constantly.

It’s just too bad Luftrausers is very little more than this core function. I suppose that it shouldn’t come as much of surprise that my pension for RPGs (whose very nature often results in convoluted core mechanics overlayed by obtuse peripheral ones) has warped my appreciation for simple and straightforward gaming experiences. Perhaps for this reason alone I may never become enamoured by the idea of playing an indie game. In case it matters, Luftrausers’ would have been a better game if it was crammed to the teeth with too much boring stuff in it, unpolished graphics, long load times and 100 hours of seemingly similar gameplay…And it was called Dragon Age: Inquisition.