Who's That Flying?!

 
Developer: Mediatonic
Steam Release: Jan 2011
Hours Played: 2.9
Similar To: Procyon / Supercharged Robot Vulkaiser / Zeit Squared  
Rating: 2/5 Parsnips



GAMEPLAY
Who's That Flying is a light-hearted shooter with bullet-hell elements whose tough challenges just might turn a few players off prematurely. It is unique in a few ways and not one of your run-of-the-mill side-scrollers. You travel continually to the right and may move in any direction. Apart from blasting at the enemies, who come at you in various patterns, you'll need to be keeping a close eye on your "health" in the top right-hand corner. This shows how many black blobs have past you by; let 50 pass and it's game over. Only the small black blobs count against you, all others are there as a distraction and to put you off. The main mechanic that sets this game apart is that you are invincible - you can never die. You just have to do everything in your power to stop those blobs passing you and getting to the city!

 
BALANCE & PACE
To help you in your endeavours you have a secondary attack which can be used once your meter in the bottom left corner is filled. This gives you a super-weapon which activates for a short time. Other than getting used to the controls for firing and mastering the game’s unusual melee attack, you’ll also need to get used to the highly sensitive movement your character. As such, the game seems to have been switched to double-speed and is played at a super-quick pace. Additionally, you'll need multiple attempts to get beyond those mean, bullet-hell bosses so be prepared to redo large sections of those Level 3s to get another crack at that bleedin' boss again! What's more, to add an extra layer of difficulty, developers have whacked on a countdown timer for boss battles as well!  


PRESENTATION & DESIGN
To set the tone, the start screen features heroic movie music as the camera pans endlessly to the right and the city whirls past. Besides getting started (the Go Save/Destroy Something option) there are three simple options: mess with options, view extras or exit the game. Clicking through the menus is slick and fast and there is just one load screen to endure as you enter a level. There is a story involved where you are accused of letting the cities get overrun and you are standing trial. Each level, subsequently, operates as a testimony where people watch your performance in saving the city. Defeating tricky enemies or pulling off good moves is greeted with cheers whereas letting the blobs through gets you a chorus of boos! At the level-select screens you are given either a bronze, silver or gold medal according to the health of the city you saved.

PROGRESS SYSTEM
Once you Go Save/Destroy Something you are given the option of trying three modes. Story Mode has five stages with three levels in each. That's 15 levels in all and five tough bosses. When you finish a level you are shown the stage or city you're in and the three levels. For each, you're shown your best score for health, target health (how many you need for the next medal) and your high score. Infinite Mode features four levels of endless waves of monsters where your aim is to achieve the best score before letting 50 blobs pass you by. This comes packaged with a scoreboard that shows the best online score and how it compares with others. Challenge Mode (unlocked after completing the story) presents you with 24 challenges. It's fairly well-done but I would like to have been given a map or chart in Story Mode giving a fuller picture of the campaign.
 

CONCLUSION
Over the years, shoot 'em ups have conditioned us to believe that you die (or at least lose health) if an enemy hits you. In the case of WTF?! "health" refers to the city that you are protecting and you only lose health when a small black blob manages to escape behind you. The main idea, therefore, that drives you in this game is not allowing this to happen. Getting hit is actually just an inconvenience. Once this factor sinks in and your mindset adapts, the game can be a little less stressful - but that’s not to say it still remains a difficult game to master. True, the bosses are tricky and the gameplay may be overly-frantic in parts but rather than reject it as too tough, it is equally capable of reeling you in enough to make you want to come back for more.