Review of “Air Twister” (Xbox): Yu Suzuki’s Astonishing Connection To The Past

While remakes and remasters have their place in the world, nothing compares to an established formula being given a fresh chance to impress new audiences—especially when a previous master is in charge of the endeavour.

Yu Suzuki, the previous head of Sega AM2, is the director and producer of the newest game, Air Twister. His credits also include Virtua Racing, Hang-On, OutRun, and the Virtua Fighter and Shenmue series.

In addition, he was a major architect of Space Harrier, the classic third-person rail shooter from 1985 that Air Twister aims to bring back to life with a contemporary redesign.

To his credit, Suzuki does a pretty good job of revitalising a format that is almost forty years old. Air Twister is a mobile game that has been available exclusively on iOS and Apple Arcade for almost 18 months.

It is not a deep, complex game, but it manages to wring a surprising amount of fun and strangeness out of a simple genre, making it one of the most unusual but entertaining games of 2023 (nearly following indie GOTY nominee Thirsty Suitors).

In Air Twister, you assume the role of Princess Arch, whose homeworld of AIR—a collection of floating islands—comes under attack from the malevolent Vanguard. Vanguard easily eliminates your country’s defence force, which consists of swan-riding gunners, because the birds are both completely massive and unarmed, and they have the firearm accuracy of Stormtroopers.

Fortunately, technology and accuracy are on the princess’ side. She has a crossbow that can launch missiles and locates objects, as well as a group of four ultimately unnecessary but amusingly armoured flying creatures to ride into more significant conflicts.

That is the whole tale of Air Twister, despite an amazing amount of lore that can be unlocked. Not that the story matters much, for Air Twister is really an arcade game.

You battle waves of foes over the course of 12 stages—well, 10 with a few extra levels—before taking on a boss. The art style, which features luminous mushrooms, vast deserts, lush gardens, and needless tubes, is breathtaking, original, and downright ludicrous. However, its sparse locations lack refinement and in-depth detail, never entirely eschewing their mobile gaming roots.

Nevertheless, Air Twister’s soundtrack helps it get over these visual flaws and feel more opulent than it should. Thanks to the amazing soundtrack by Dutch composer Valensia, which extensively references Queen’s Freddie Mercury era from the outset, the game has all the makings of a rock opera.

The opening track of the first level has a lot of Killer Queen vibes, which makes sense considering Princess Arch’s goal of eliminating both natural and artificial enemies.

Worlds and songs mix flawlessly to produce an almost hallucinogenic experience. To be honest, Yu Suzuki’s design for Air Twister frequently seems more like a fever dream, with bosses that are made of clocks and chandeliers and floating ammonites, mini-Cthulhus, and fat toads with butterfly wings. Air Twister has that “cult Japanese arcade games of the 1980s” weirdness, and I for one don’t mind. These designs certainly had deeper allegories on the drawing board, but you’ll never understand them.

At first, the game seems simple because each stage can be completed in less than three minutes on average, and if you play well, the main game can be finished in thirty minutes. You start off with a good number of hearts, which, based on how well you do at the end of each level, can replenish. Though it begins fairly calmly, some strange challenges soon become apparent.

The third-person viewpoint of Air Twister takes a long time to get used to. You can fire at will, but it’s difficult to determine how far away an enemy is, so lock-on homing attacks are largely what determine how successful you are.

The opposite of framing is equally problematic; enemy attacks frequently blend in with the surreal artwork of the stages you traverse, making it difficult to discern your safe area and allowing incoming projectiles to effectively take over the screen. It’s more of a luck game than a skill game until you figure out patterns.

Bosses are easy to understand at first, but they quickly become difficult to deal with. To counter their screen-swamping offence, you must anticipate their attacks and identify their patterns. It’s likely that you’ll quit your first run by the eighth or ninth stage, as erratic bosses and increasingly ferocious waves of enemies chip away at your health and two continues. It returns you to the main menu, but it’s not the end of the world.

After your first run, you can obtain a variety of items such as costumes, hairstyles, one-use specials, more lock-on targets, and much more by using the stars you collect by eliminating waves—typically 300 or more—on a sizable progression map. In the main game, you can make Princess Arch more formidable and competitive by defeating each wave and attempting to make it through each stage unscathed. It’s similar to Sky Force Anniversary lite.

You can earn stars in additional game modes, such as the traditional Turbo mode, the entertaining (and useful for practise) Boss Rush mode, the strange number-grid mode, and a few other bonus games you’ll probably only play once. You have additional chances to obtain bonuses and in-game currency through time-based challenges.

In terms of format, graphics, and content, Air Twister isn’t particularly modern, but arcade game enthusiasts will find plenty of reasons to keep playing, especially if they’re completionists. Trophy hunters, on the other hand, will probably object to the idea of having to play the game for 50 and 100 hours in order to unlock two of its achievements.

Nevertheless, despite its Queen-like soundtrack, absurd plot, strange level transition, and alluring design choices, it manages to come together as one of the most distinctive and captivating games of 2023. It’s a must-try for ardent enthusiasts of Sega’s coin-op heyday and definitely worth a shot for curious casual gamers.