Flight high and get into the fight! Aces of the Luftwaffe will swoop you in for a great time!
Are you ready to fight to make it right? I hope you're good and pumped up because Aces of the Luftwaffe Squadron flies into action taking you through a retro-inspired journey as the war in Europe rages across the land!
Play as any one of four fighter pilots, all with cheeky personalities and quirks. One of the coolest things about Aces of the Luftwaffe Squadron is the skill trees and upgrades. To upgrade your crew, each member has their own tree which effects gameplay in the addition of Co-op or simply having them fight by your side as a CPU partner. In this, you unlock various upgrades through skill points earned in game with bonus missions, bonuses for damage reduced and other multipliers that really tend to make the player feel good at the end of the level when all the numbers rack up.
The bonus missions in each of the main missions are pretty fun, with a nice throwback to some arcade classics. You can save people on the ground, fight to destroy individual targets, or protect a sleeping team member. Spicing up the original gameplay, these bonus missions are something you're bound to go back in and have a fun time trying to complete!
Co-Op is brilliantly done with no messing around for another player (up to four) to pop in. Simply grab a controller, press A and that's it--you're in! Nothing with pulling up Xbox IDs, no nonsense with having to have a paying account to play locally. It's brilliant, and not to mention so much more fun with an actual person on your team. The CPUs are not bad at all fighting along side, but it's no match to having a friend or family member help you out.
It does eventually get quite difficult though. Even playing co-op as two average gamers, the train boss was our brick wall. Now, I believe it's totally possible to beat, but in our case we had to set out to grind for upgrades before diving back in with any raw skill we could muster. It's a neat idea that you have it in your reach to get stronger without dying harder--but the rate at which you get skill points to level is a slow going process. Going back in and playing previous missions isn't really that big of a deal, but when you have to do it twenty or thirty times to buffer yourself for the big fight--well, it might feel a bit much. Still, the bullethell-y nature of the game makes it so even when fighting the same formations over and over, outcomes can change.
My biggest (and only) gripe about Aces is the voice acting. It's stilted, poorly delivered and just plain feels awkward. It's a shame too, because of how all the different characters could really have some life breathed into them. Fortunately, the game takes over and the personalities are fleshed out with actions, not words with instances such as the sleeping bonus mission. I don't think the overall game suffers from this hiccup though--the voice acting feels like a VERY minor part of the whole picture and something I don't think anyone picking up this game to play casually would dwell on in the slightest. After all, it's all about shooting up the baddies and saving the land!
If you enjoy arcade shooters, especially retro quarter eaters, you'll absolutely fall for Aces of the Luftwaffe Squadron without fail. It's colourful, responsive, great to play with someone else and most importantly: FUN.