Luftrausers is a shoot 'em upvideo game developed by Netherlands-based indie developer studio Vlambeer and published by Devolver Digital for Microsoft Windows, OS X, Linux, PlayStation 3 and PlayStation Vita. It was released on March 18, 2014 and ported to Android by General Arcade on December 20, 2014. A demake of the game, titled LuftrauserZ, was developed by Paul Koller for Commodore 64, Commodore 128 and Commodore 64 Games System, and released by RGCD and Vlambeer on December 8, 2017.^[1]

For the non-completionist gamers you will find this game very short and entertaining being a good option to play on your PS3 or Vita. Luftrauser is a 2D retro dogfighting arcade game very enjoyable to play with. The controls are some kind different from similar games but after some minutes of gameplay you will take the full control of them. WHAT DOES SFMT STAND FOR? Trophy in Luftrausers: Survive SFMT long enough to hear the end of the air alarm - worth 15 Trophy XP.

Gameplay[edit]

Luftrausers is an airplane-based shoot 'em up. Unlike traditional shoot 'em ups, where the direction of the player craft is fixed, Luftrausers allows 360 degrees of motion, more akin to a multidirectional shooter. However, the player's main weapon can only fire from the front, forcing the player to take into account the position and angle of the airplane. Players must take into account the momentum of their plane while flying, using gravity and drift to maneuver as much as forward propulsion.

There is no health bar: player health is indicated by a circle around the aircraft that shrinks as damage increases and naturally regenerates when not firing the weapon.^[2]

Aircraft can be customized with dozens of combinations of engines, weapons, and hulls^[3] that affect the soundtrack as much as the gameplay.^[2] Each weapon part comes with sets of challenges that give objects to strive for, on top of the arcade nature of the game.

Development[edit]

Jan Willem Nijman of Vlambeer started Luftrausers while on the airplane home from the March 2012 Game Developers Conference (GDC) in San Francisco. Polygon reported that he was inspired by the 'beauty of his view' and did not have on-flight television. At the time, Vlambeer was finishing development on Ridiculous Fishing, a game whose development was marked by a high-profile struggle with a similar, subsequent game known as a clone.^[4]

Luftrausers is an update of Luftrauser, an earlier, free Flash game created by Vlambeer's Rami Ismail, artist Paul Veer, and composer Kozilek in the GameMaker: Studio engine and was ported to pure C++ by Michel Paulissen via his Dex converter tool.^[5][6] Vlambeer originally announced the game for release in Q2 2013 on PlayStation 3 and PlayStation Vita, having chosen those platforms due to their positive working relationship with Sony.^[5] In the weeks before the expected release, the Bangalore-based Rubiq Lab released a similar airplane dogfight game called SkyFar in April 2013 and Vlambeer contacted Apple and Google to intervene so as to avoid 'another clone war'.^[4] Rami Ismail's backpack containing 'everything Vlambeer' including electronics and the game's code was stolen during E3 2013.^[7] Although their work was backed up, Ismail described the theft as 'a giant pain'.^[7]

The game was simultaneously released on Microsoft Windows, OS X, Linux, PlayStation 3, and PlayStation Vita (via Steam and the Humble Store)^[3] on March 18, 2014, being published by Devolver Digital. The game's two-and-a-half-year development cycle was profitable within three days of its release.^[8] On December 20, 2014, the game was ported to Amazon Fire TV by General Arcade.^[9]

Reception[edit]

The game received 'generally favorable' reviews, according to video game review score aggregator Metacritic.^[10]Giant Bomb awarded the game Best Music of 2014.^[18] At the 2014 National Academy of Video Game Trade Reviewers (NAVGTR) awards the game was nominated for Control Precision.^[19]

References[edit]

1. ^'LuftrauserZ Presskit'. RGCD.DEV Press Release. Retrieved January 27, 2020.
2. ^ ^abPodgorski, Daniel (December 16, 2015). '99 Arcade Luftballons: 3 Major Pros and 2 Minor Cons of Vlambeer's Bullet Hell Arcade Dogfighter LUFTRAUSERS'. The Gemsbok. Retrieved January 27, 2020.
3. ^ ^abFarokhmanesh, Megan (February 10, 2014). 'Luftrausers to launch for all five platforms simultaneously'. Polygon. Vox Media. Retrieved February 10, 2014.
4. ^ ^abPitts, Russ (April 24, 2013). 'Cloned at Birth: The Story of Ridiculous Fishing'. Polygon. Vox Media. Retrieved June 12, 2013.
5. ^ ^abMcWhertor, Michael (March 21, 2013). 'Vlambeer's Luftrausers coming to PS3 and PS Vita this spring'. Polygon. Vox Media. Retrieved February 10, 2014.
6. ^Paulissen, Michel (March 4, 2014). 'LUFTRAUSERS - Michel Paulissen's Portfolio'. Archived from the original on November 4, 2014. Retrieved November 4, 2014.
7. ^ ^abCrecente, Brian (June 14, 2013). ''Vlambeer got stolen,' Ridiculous Fishing dev says'. Polygon. Vox Media. Retrieved February 15, 2014.
8. ^Sarkar, Samit (March 21, 2014). 'Vlambeer's Luftrausers became profitable in three days'. Polygon. Vox Media. Retrieved March 22, 2014.
9. ^Devolver Digital (December 20, 2014). 'Devolver Digital on Twitter: 'LUFTRAUSERS from @Vlambeer is now available on @Amazon Fire TV!'. Twitter. Retrieved December 21, 2014.
10. ^ ^ab'Luftrausers Critic Reviews for PC'. Metacritic. CBS Interactive. Retrieved June 7, 2014.
11. ^'Luftrausers Critic Reviews for PlayStation 3'. Metacritic. CBS Interactive. Retrieved March 19, 2014.
12. ^'Luftrausers Critic Reviews for PlayStation Vita'. Metacritic. CBS Interactive. Retrieved June 7, 2014.
13. ^Patterson, Eric L (March 18, 2014). 'EGM Review: Luftrausers'. Electronic Gaming Monthly. EGM Media. Archived from the original on August 16, 2017. Retrieved June 7, 2014.
14. ^Turi, Tim (March 18, 2014). 'Luftrausers - Aerial Supremacy'. Game Informer. GameStop. Retrieved June 7, 2014.
15. ^Peele, Britton (March 18, 2014). 'Luftrausers Review'. GameSpot. CBS Interactive. Retrieved June 7, 2014.
16. ^Richard, Cobbett (March 21, 2014). 'Luftrausers Review'. IGN. IGN Entertainment. Retrieved June 7, 2014.
17. ^Gies, Arthur (March 24, 2014). 'Luftrausers Review: Vintage Bomber'. Polygon. Vox Media. Retrieved June 7, 2014.
18. ^Staff, Giant Bomb (December 27, 2014). 'Giant Bomb's 2014 Game of the Year Awards: Day Two Text Recap'. Giant Bomb. CBS Interactive. Retrieved December 27, 2014.
19. ^'NAVGTR Awards (2014)'. National Academy of Video Game Trade Reviewers. Archived from the original on March 22, 2017. Retrieved February 17, 2017.

External links[edit]

Title: LUFTRAUSERSFormat: (311 MB) / PS3 (258 MB) & PS Vita (61 MB)Release Date: March 18, 2014Publisher: Devolver DigitalDeveloper: VlambeerOriginal MSRP: $9.99 (Cross-Buy)ESRB Rating: ELUFTRAUSERS is available on PlayStation 3, PlayStation Vita, and PC. It is a Cross-Buy title.The PlayStation Network versions for each platform were used for this review.Copies of this game were provided by the publisher for review purposes.Gameplay:The arcade-style, score-chasing shoot-em up that is LUFTRAUSERS features the sort of split second respawning that can keep players entranced for hours on end. After a very brief tutorial where you’re quickly taken through the game’s few simple features, it’s time to ‘raus’. Characterized by WWII era German parody, LUFTRAUSERS oozes fun, lighthearted charm, and addictive gameplay.

The aircraft carrier that houses your ‘rauser’ floats along the calm sea until you’re ready to press ‘up’ on the d-pad or left analog stick and quickly unleash chaotic mayhem upon your first thrust. Before long, you’re dodging cannons from battleships, being chased by legions of fighter jets, and screaming “mayday” at your TV or Vita.Remember the days before the left and right analog sticks so inherently controlled your character’s and the camera’s movement respectively?

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The PS1 iterations of games like Tomb Raider and Resident Evil for example used the right and left d-pad buttons to slowly spin your character and the ‘up’ button would then allow you to walk in the direction you were facing. Ancient, right? The same sort of control scheme is used to control your ship in LUFTRAUSERS and although it takes some readjusting, I think it works well contextually. The ‘shoot’ button is the only other command used during gameplay but letting go of ‘up’ and thus laying off the thrusters is very much a part of the technique. The ship will enter a gliding state necessary for mastery of movement.While it may not be as visually appealing or impressive as Resogun, the gameplay in LUFTRAUSERS reminded me of Housmarque’s PS4 launch title.

The 2D plane is infinite from left to right while the clouds and ocean mark the vertical boundaries of the play space. Flying into either of these extremes will cause your airship some melee damage and you’ll be thrown back into the carnage. The regenerating health model can have some of its characteristics tweaked by plane modifications but it fits well within the overall style.As you reach higher scores and complete more objectives, new weapons and features will become unlocked. With each upgrade comes a well-balanced and sometimes experience-altering tradeoff in firepower and/or movement. Players can opt to equip their plane with a high-powered laser beam at the expense of turn radius versatility.

Exploding upon death can be sweet revenge against those pesky tailing bogeys – but is it worth taking more damage upon melee strikes? The beauty of LUFTRAUSERS is that the choice is yours and players can spend countless hours experimenting with the different combinations.The objectives in the game borrow some nominal ideas from mobile titles and encourage continued retries. Some of the objectives feature a running count that carries over between rounds.

When you know that destroying just one more battleship will unlock that next upgrade, the game becomes that much harder to put down. Score-based objectives foster a spirit of satisfying, combo-chaining enemy destruction.Visuals:LUFTRAUSERS uses a sepia-toned color palette with a minimalistic art style for its gameplay, menus, and everything in between. Ships and planes consist of dark, cut-out style shapes with little detail while bullets, missiles, and cannon balls are represented by pixilated dots and/or white, outlined balls. The visual style accents the time period from which the game is loosely based and the lack of particle effects allows for easier movement tracking amongst the chaos.If there is anything that can detract from the LUFTRAUSERS experience, it is the visual laziness in the technical sense. Screen tearing is the most obvious when an enemy projectile follows your ship across the screen and seems to continuously break, and then mend itself. Noticeable visual hiccups occur with less frequency on Vita because of the smaller, high quality screen but the PS3 version isn’t even optimized for HD.

The left and right sides of the screen are cut off and the vehicles lose their smooth textures when enlarged.Audio:The music in a score-chaser can be critical considering that players can and will engage in lengthy sessions, all in one locale, without any dialogue, story, or cutscene to break up the monotony. If a single looping track is going to be utilized, it better be good and at the very least it must not be an annoyance. In LUFTRAUSERS, the musical score mimics the epic, thrilling melodies of old war movies and compliments the endless action. Heroic nostalgia and patriotic righteousness come to life through the soundtrack.A game like this, optimally enjoyed on the Vita in my opinion, should have audio that can also be considered optional. If most of your playtime is done in 10-minute bursts throughout your commute or on your lunch break, having forgotten your headphones isn’t a problem. The quick and fun gameplay, not particularly meant for complete immersion, does not need the audio assistance all of the time.Online/Multiplayer:This game is single player only but the leaderboard integration is seamless. Players can see how they rank against friends and against the world.

LUFTRAUSERS is a Cross-Buy title but I did not see a readily available Cross-Save option.Conclusion:LUFTRAUSERS has graced the floors of video game trade shows for much longer than the 2-man independent studio would have liked. Although it has received praise everywhere it’s been shown and played, the road to release has been a long and tough one.

The result is a super addictive, highly accessible, authentic arcade experience that follows the formula of the other Vlambeer title I’m familiar with – Super Crate Box for PlayStation Mobile. The instant retry approach makes for a quick and painless route back into the action that anyone can enjoy.Score:. All screenshots used in this review were taken directly from the game using the Vita’s built in screen capture feature.