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Shoot-em-up top-down airplane games are some of the most classic gaming experiences in history. A simple formula that can be built upon in so many ways to produce a variety of challenges. Usually, this format is used to shoot bullets at armies of enemies whilst dodging a hellstorm of bullets. Air Hares puts a swerve in the expected style by having you be a bunny in the skies equipped with seeds and water shots, charged with defending and replanting their vital crops for the cities below. It’s a solo or co-op retro arcade treat that doesn’t have too much in the way of content, but doesn’t try to be too grand in scope to where it forgets its charming identity.
Hop to It
Each of the stages in Air Hares involves you trying to plant crops from the sky by shooting a seed pod and a water droplet into each empty spot in a plot of rows of crops. There are 3 plots per stage and the goal is to fill in as many, or at best all, of the empty spaces as you continuously fly forward towards the end of the level. You are able to adjust your speed and do a back flip to move back a tad if you need some extra time on a row of crops, but otherwise the challenge here is aiming your plane and shooting amidst obstacles such as charging enemy birds, oppressive wind gusts, and lightning bolts. It serves as the optimal mix of a simple objective with growing challenges that have you consistently building upon your execution of the gameplay loop. There’s limited instruction on the intricacies of aiming your ship using your shadow or actual plane, depending on your focus of attack (crops or enemies) but in the end I actually appreciated the trust in the player that they would figure it out with an “ah-ha!” moment. One gripe I had before getting the hang of things was how the game prioritized aiming at enemies, aiming at the crops, and aiming at the end of the level “extra points” target. It can get a bit chaotic during the time you’re trying to aim at the crops. Having to treasure your limited number of seed pods and aim with precision also took some practice, but once you got the hang of it, it was quite simple to perform consistently, even as a solo player. You’re able to play split-screen offline co-op here, which is a great feature for these types of top-down plane games, but I didn’t get the chance to try it.
The Meat and Potatoes
There’s a scoring system here, too, but I never quite understood it, myself, and if you’re playing this with young ones or as a tandem activity (as intended) the scores are cooperative and you can work to try and improve your playthroughs of the levels in the arcade game mode, which allows you to replay levels at your leisure. There’s also a story mode, with saving enabled, in which you have a set of lives and attempt to play through the entirety of the game. With 16 stages, that’s a nice little set to enjoy. After three levels, the stage ends with a boss fight, each with its own big, colorful bird antagonist that you’ve got to fight off. One of the encounters was particularly complicated to figure out, but each one did put a nice end-cap on the obstacles established in the previous stages.
Speaking of bosses and characters themselves, I enjoyed each of their unique, sorta retro designs and unique sprites within the game, and especially loved the beautiful story snippets that played after each stage’s completion. Each of the four stages has their own hand-crafted design, even if it’s not overloaded with details. It allows you to focus on the gameplay with a touch of variety. You can tell the world behind the game is very well fleshed out, and I can’t wait to check out the first issue of the comic that is releasing alongside the game, which will have 50 pages that will give us further insight into the world of these hares and birds and their conflict. It feels like a game that was crafted and lives within a bygone era, but is fun to revisit in this fashion.
Sound in the Sky
As for audio presence within the game, it’s a very appropriate soundtrack of arcadey ditties, which manage to not get too repetitive and keep things moving. The sound effects and little flourishes harken back to games like this from the past, and nothing feels out of place. Of course, it’s not going to redefine the music genre for this type of game, but you can tell even here there was care taken. I would’ve liked maybe a few more tracks, but otherwise, it’s totally fine. The soundtrack is also available to listen to outside of the game, which is a nice plus if you want to feel like you're flying over Winrose Warren any time you want.
In Conclusion
Air Hares feels like I’m booting the game up on a CRT TV early in the morning to try and get a new high score. Maybe even having my brother team up with me if he’s keen on it. It’s a nice slice of a world that we get to play within, even if it may be a bit basic of a gameplay design for some people. Not everything needs to be incredibly complex or have 200 levels, and I think the small indie team behind Air Hares understood that. They also have an incredible story behind the development of the game, and I wish them nothing but the best in the future, as this is their first game. Air Hares is a fun first foray for Wondoro, and could be a great way to experience a new game with a buddy.
Thanks to the developer/publisher for a key for unbiased review purposes. Air Hares is available on Steam
