Who's That Flying?! A PC Review

Hello one and all, after a long time away from the reviewers desk it is time for me to come and return back to the form that I call my bread and butter.  Today we are going to look at a game that was recently released on PC and PSN, Who's that Flying?!

The game at its core is a shoot em up, a genre that normally sends people in a like it or hate it range.  The people who enjoy it really enjoy the challenge of obtaining the highest possible score possible, trying to advance to the next stage, and becoming a master of dodging oncoming bullets.  People who are not fond of the genre point to those exact things and demand something more exciting to play thinking that the formula has reached its peak long ago.

Good news everyone, this game is going to change the shoot em up genre in a good way.  I am being serious.

So first let's talk about the story of the game, you are the defender of Earth and are being placed on trial for allowing doom beasts (black enemies with large teeth) to go and invade your planet.  The various stages of the game is the recounting of you telling the jury of the other defenders how you were styling and profiling as you defended the earth, always acting triumphant at the end.  This reverse story telling allows the game to get away with several game play tweaks that we will get into later, but what shines the most in these scenes is the comedy.

The dialog between you and the other defenders of their planets is a good banter between one another and the designs of each of them bode well and make you want to know more about them trying to uncover these unique defenders as they go and defend their planets.  It does not overstate its welcome, it simply gets to the point, adds a few jokes and gets you right into the action.

The more you play the more you want to get to know about each member

Now as for the action concern it is your typical shoot em up where your goal is to destroy everything on screen, however what WTF does is change the tactics for you killing the doom beasts from wrecking your town.  What this causes is the goal of each level going from surviving the hoards of enemies to holding the enemies from going behind you.  The less you allow to escape your wrath the higher the medal you will receive, which can be used to unlock trophies or magazine pages.

In addition for you not dieing and allowing many mistakes to take place it also adds power-ups which you obtain by killing enemies.  First you get a faster shot, then an energy beam, and finally you get a hyper beam which can literally take down all minor characters with one hit.  The dynamic of chaining the powers together to maximize the use per power is not only essential for a high score but can easily get you past the tricky areas of the game.  In addition to your shot you also can tear enemies apart if you get close to them and provide a small burst to other surrounding enemies or unleash a finishing move to a larger enemy after weakening them to create a medium sized explosion killing the enemies around them.

 Hyper beam on a boss doesn't take him out right away

So you might be asking yourself that this is all well and good but what makes this go from a standard shoot em up to something excellent?  The key is simple, chaining combos.  Part of the strategy of keeping the doom beats at bay is to go and create combos by beating the enemies to earn cheers.  The more the cheers come in the faster your power-ups will become available this will lead you to not randomly shoot enemies that come to you but to actually enable you to time when you enable the death of various enemies to maximize your score and prevent the stray beast from escaping your wrath.

Here is an example of this, first look at the picture above.  Now in this picture you noticed that the defender is about to unleash a hyper beam  to defeat the doom beast behind the two larger enemies.  However notice above the one large enemy you have a choice to use a finishing move on it. If you were to go and do that it would cause an explosion that will take out some of beats behind him.  If you are quick enough you can save your beam for the next wave of enemies who may or may not be clustered like that down the line.

The amount of choices being thrown at you to optimize your killing.  There is no one true method to ensure beating all of the doom beasts which allows the player a certain trial and error on top of their preferred style of beating a level, meaning the player can literally beat the game in their own manner.  The game play to achieve the ideal solution for each stage (defeat all the doom beast and let none escape you) brings an experience that is not memorizing patterns but stringing combinations together to react to each wave.

We have finally moved beyond the memorizing patterns and dodging bullets in the shoot em up genre and focus in on chaining various maneuvers to achieve the ultimate goal.  Overall it is a breath of fresh air that is needed in the genre.

The extras this game features is fantastic, it gives you an infinite enemy mode where the goal is to survive the longest without missing 50 doom beasts and a challenge mode.  These challenges range from a time attack boss rush, a no enemy shall pass run, high score challenges and a hyper speed run of a level.  In short even if you are not good at shoot em ups the challenges will allow you to go toe to toe with gamers savvy of the genre.

Are you up to the task to defeat every challenge?

This game cracks the traditional mode of the shooter and allows it to be accept to both hardcore fans and casual goers of the game and provides enough of story and comedy  to make you want to continue on.  This should be a slam dunk buy for anyone who wants a game that is going to challenge you and will make you want to go and do better to unlock the various bonuses.  So until next time, keep on gaming.