Review | Jet Lancer
The shoot-em-up is an old genre, certainly older than I am, but there’s a good reason we’re still seeing new releases under the banner today: they’re a kind of timeless, chaotic fun that just never gets boring, and developers are constantly putting their own twists on the formula. Jet Lancer, from Vladimir Fedyushkin and Nicolai Danielsen, slaps a layer of cartoon flair and modern game design leanings on the aerial shoot-em-up to outstanding effect.
Set in a vibrant world of sky pirates and hovering aircraft carriers and talking planes, Jet Lancer follows Ashlyn, a laid back but highly skilled mercenary pilot. She’s fun, headstrong and, thankfully, her jokes don’t grate. The rest of the cast aren’t quite as memorable, and the story generally not as much of a drive as the gameplay, but they don’t get in the way.
There’s something truly horrifying about that cat’s face
If you're familiar with Luftrausers or the more recent Rogue Aces, Jet Lancer will feel familiar, perhaps even a little simple. In some ways, this game is a touch too stripped back over its contemporaries, but its slick style carries it through. Like 17-Bit’s Galak-Z, Jet Lancer calls to mind high-octane anime and western cartoons.
Missions comprise fairly basic objectives: destroy all the enemy ships, capture objectives, protect an ally or take out a boss, among others. They are connected by a 3D overworld map reminiscent of the Final Fantasy games; a strange decision, because the world is largely empty and the art style too simple to provide any real context about the citizens of Jet Lancer. Still, doing donuts in an aircraft carrier off the coast of a city is a ridiculous visual, and I was thankful for the opportunity to pause between missions with some nice music and relaxing landscapes.
Reading the screen is just as important as fine control in Jet Lancer
While there isn’t a massively noticeable variety in the missions or enemy types, the grading system encourages perfection. Time, accuracy, combo points and overall score all contribute to an end-of-mission rating presented in a satisfyingly flashy animation as the bar fills up towards that beautiful (and oh-so difficult to achieve) ACE grade. To get those higher grades, I found myself making constant tweaks to my jet’s loadout. You always have a basic minigun, but special weapons, charge weapons (essentially an ultimate ability) and perks can be customised at any time from the overworld. Between the five specials, five charges, and 18 perks, there’s plenty of possible combinations that alter both your playstyle and score multiplier.
For the most part, Jet Lancer has a finely tuned difficulty curve, but one particular spike totally halted my progress for over a week. I threw everything I had at the mission, tried every loadout combination I had unlocked, but couldn’t even get halfway to the score required to proceed. It was frustrating feeling like I’d missed something in a game with very little tutorialisation, until the devs eventually patched the score requirement down and I was able to progress.
The only one I pulled off
I mentioned the soundtrack earlier, and I would be remiss not to give it the highest recommendation. Some of the tracks would sound right at home on a Chon or And So I Watch You From Afar album, so it’s right up my alley, and the way it seamless shifts into an 8-bit era mix when you pause or get hit is just stellar.
Also worthy of mention is the accessibility menu. The range of options is great, going beyond the usual screen shake and flash reduction to include gameplay accommodations like a wider window for evading projectiles and even invincibility. Controls are fully rebindable, thrust and fire can be set to toggle, and you can even change the deadzone on the sticks (also useful for those unlucky Switch owners contending with drift).
Jet Lancer is a blast to play, nailing the tight controls necessary for this type of game and fleshing them out with a bright art style and simple but fun narrative to weave missions together. There are a few niggles here and there, such as having to travel all the way across the world to reach new levels, but this is a solid package that encourages (and deserves) replays.
Review Round Up:
Pros:
Tight gameplay with satisfying feedback
Plenty of loadout customisation and unlocks
Colourful world and funny characters that don’t break the pace too much
Cons:
Difficulty swings wildly between “a bit too easy” and “I’m bashing my head against a wall”
Scoring isn’t explained well
