Taking to the skies top-down in „Airheart: Tales of Broken Wings“

No, not the „Broken Wings“ that Toto sang about… This game is named (kind of) after the legendary female aviator Amelia Earhart. You might assume then, that this would just be a flying game, but at its (air)heart, this is a classic twin stick shooter!

By Tom Middler

Your job is to go fishing in the sky… as you do. There’s not really much more of a story than something about a mega valuable sky whale that your dad never managed to catch, but generally in each level you’ll want to net some flying fish, sell them and use the cash to bolt on some bits to personalize your own mean ass flying machine!

It will need to be mean, too, because there are plenty of sky pirates who want to send you hurtling down to earth. Luckily it’s good fun retreating to your workshop and adding a whole range of new guns and new designs to your cute little flyer, before you head out for another beating.

The controls take a bit of getting used to - handling a plane and a gun from top-down just isn’t that intuitive - but the cool thing is that all the levels are literally, levels. Fly up higher, and you’ll see new fish and new pirate planes, and the other levels will be visible down below you, nice touch!

When your heap of metal has absorbed enough bullets, you’ll be sent back down through those levels in flames, and you’ll need to crash land accurately at home or it’s a proper game over. Like for real, start again!

This is a bit of a harsh lesson at first, as the art style and pacing don’t generate much urgency until BAM! There’s a boss fight against a massively well-armed pirate ship/plane thing and you’re nothing more than a fireball.

If you’re patient, there’s enjoyment in crafting a stronger plane and coming back, and there’s plenty of fun to be had fishing and fighting too, but the controls can be a bit fiddly, and the underdeveloped story doesn’t really propel you to reach great heights. The tough bosses also mean that progress can get a bit bumpy at times. Still, Airheart is fun while it lasts, and if you have a PS4 or a Steam account, it might well be worth taking it for a ride.