Aeromachina: Test-Flight Demo Review
Every year when the Steam Nextfest rolls around, I scroll over to the filter and search for the “Flight” tag. Frequently I am disappointed, but rare is it that I am so surprised and delighted.
Aeromachina is an upcoming PS1 styled 3D metroidvania platformer developed by a 3 ship formation under the designation Meteor Magic Games. While the game itself may still be on approach, the developers have provided a generous demo for us to get to grips with their take on the genre.
The demo straps you into the mechanical boots of Bogey, a sentient android seemingly built of spare aircraft parts. After a quick briefing from their handlers, you are thrust into the demo, a diagnostic training mission to assess Bogey’s capabilities.
Movement
From the moment you touch start moving it’s clear that, like any classic platformer, the controls have been rigorously assessed and tested before being declared airworthy (even for this refined test flight). Movement is tuned to be smooth, fluid, free, and, fast as is befitting such an advanced airframe as Bogey. The wide range of abilities you unlock over the course of the demo can be keenly chained together to shoot high and fast across the terrain and the camera is right there with every soar and swoop, gliding behind Bogey amplifying the sense of speed and power.
Combat
Accompanying these refined platforming mechanics is the deceptively simple hack and slash combat. While it starts off seemingly plain, a simple 4 hit combo, it soon reveals that the challenge is less in memorising fighting game style attack combos, and more in manoeuvring both yourself and your enemies into the optimal position and timing the perfect attack. Just as a dogfight should, which is a breeze when combined with the game’s snappy and responsive controls. Judicious use oyour movement abilities to avoid and reposition, aiming your weapon’s knockback, and sprinkling in some of your unlockable abilities to juggle and interrupt enemies, turn the battlefield into a joyous playground for a clever and creative player to dominate.
Enemy composition also plays a part in shaping fights. The demo has 3 main enemy types, dashing melee attackers, pesky hovering chip damagers, and slow but devastating backliners. It’s clear that the developers have taken a tactical, deliberate, and intelligent approach to considering how these enemy types work together and with the level, and have used this analytical design to engineer combat encounters that feel challenging and tactical and unique each time. Just as in the Arkham games, you’ll approach each fight, your mind firing on all cylinders, picking your line and shaping your strategy.
Level Design
To support the sky high movement and flowing tactical combat, the developers have crafted a completely wonderful environment for you pit your skills against. The lovingly and logically constructed map sprawls out as you progress, teasing new and exciting routes to take, all hiding new challenges, upgrades, and abilities. Every room has some sort of seemingly inaccessible platform or door, or an upgrade that’s just out of reach, teasing the player’s brain into considering their movement options in new and exciting ways. As the player’s toolkit expands, the map starts to introduce long stretches and deep drops to really let the player flex their mobility and sate their need for speed. The result is a completely wonderful 3D metroidvania platformer map that reinforces and celebrates its mechanics and invites players to achieve not just mechanical competency, but domination.
Style
The game also boasts strong aesthetic chops. I know I’m not the first person to compare the demo’s meandering military base to Metal Gear’s Shadow Moses from all those years ago. The PS1 era jagged polygons and stark military blacksite facade make the comparison unavoidable. The game’s HUD is a true treat as well, with the stark green readouts evoking the HUDs of real life fighters that would be familiar to any Ace Combat fan. The velocity and altitude readouts are even functional, allowing the players to put numbers to their breakneck pace. This sort of retrofuturistic high tech military aesthetic extends right through the demo, even showing the wireframe of Bogey’s model when obscured, turning an inspired quality of life feature into a memorable and thematic statement which reinforces the game’s identity.
Character Design
The character designs are also instantly identifiable, memorable, and charming. The artstyle prioritises strong vibrant colours and striking shapes and silhouettes reminiscent of the best mascot platformers of the era. I am particularly reminded of the designs from Sly Cooper or Mega Man Legends or Battle Network. Bright stunning colour palates coupled with clear and unforgettable designs.
The Details
The thing that makes me particularly excited for a full release though is that this demo has what separates a merely good game from a memorable one: A resolute identity displayed through the details.
Firstly, Aviation. Bogey’s character design is full of them. The WWII era fur lined leather jacket, the military crash helmet with the hornet style fins, the main weapon being a propeller, hell, Bogey’s tail is a carrier arresting hook! The save points are windsocks, the HUD is straight out of an F-16, the gun is called “the Vulcan”. If you have any affection for Aviation, you will find some detail in this game to delight you just as much as it did me.
But besides that, and possibly more importantly, these developers have an unmistakable sense for “cool”. When you come to a landing at high speed, bogey slides to a stop with an accompanying tire screech sound. When realising the heavy tank enemies exploded and dealt damage to me when defeated, I engineered my next combat encounter to use this to take out several weaker enemies, At one part of the demo I was in a room with a glass floor. Having just unlocked the stomp ability, my course of action was inevitable. A lesser team may have just moved on, not taking any notice of the opportunity here, or not taking care to engineer it in the first place, but Meteor Magic understood the assignment and I sent Bogey crashing down to the level below in an awesome shower of glass.
These developers clearly love all aspects of aviation and are keen and devoted acolytes of the rule of cool, and they pour this love, care and passion into the game to bring it to life wish a strong, razor sharp identity.
Verdict
This game may wear the facade of a retro 3D metroidvania platformer but it has the soul of a white knuckle fighter jet canyon run. This demo has displayed some of the best 3D platforming out there in the indie space, frenetic, fast, free flowing combat, great character designs and a definite commitment to fresh, striking, and just plain cool identity. I know this is a demo so it only gives us a limited snapshot of what the full release could be but honestly, that only excites me more. I want to see these characters shine in a full release. I want to explore the mysteries of this world. I want to take on more platforming bosses and challenges that make you feel like a top gun fighter pilot, expertly and effortlessly, manoeuvring around obstacles and skimming certain death by a mechanical hair. I want to see the clear joy, talent, and deliberate intent that went into this snapshot spread over a larger canvas. And if this demo is anything to go by, then these devs can deliver.
This game makes me feel like a finely tuned, graceful and deadly anthropomorphic piece of military hardware just as promised. I look forward to the full release.
https://store.steampowered.com/app/3744860/AEROMACHINA_TestFlight/
https://meteormagic.itch.io/aeromachina-test-flight