Are you the kind of person who might have played Space Harrier and thought to yourself? “You know what’s missing here? A Queen soundtrack!” If you are, then I have good news for you! Air Twister* is finally here to fulfill your deepest fantasy! 

If you’re unfamiliar with Space Harrier, it is one of the most original games from legendary video game creator, Yu Suzuki (Shenmue, Virtua Fighter, OutRun, After Burner). Space Harrier starred the titular hero traversing the fantastical and vibrant, Dragon Land, wielding a giant gun, and flying through the air, blasting pretty much everything that stood in his way until he was able to free the world from the tyrannical evil dragon clan… or something like that. None of this really matters since this is about Air Twister, not Space Harrier…  BUT IT IS! Because Air Twister makes no effort in disguising the fact that it is clearly the spiritual successor to Space Harrier, right down to the enemy names! For example, in Space Harrier there are giant dodecahedrons called a “Binzbeans,” and in Air Twister, the same enemy exists, only they are called “Dodecabeans!” I guess if you can’t actually make an official Space Harrier game, Suzuki San at least made it obvious that Air Twister should at least it feel like a true sequel in this classic series. After all, this is the first Space Harrier game since… what? The thinly distributed arcade multi-player, Planet Harriers from 2000? Yeah, Harrier fans have been waiting 23 years for this game!

Before moving on, I should introduce myself! I am the self-proclaimed biggest fan of Space Harrier of all time. Not only is Space Harrier my favorite game of all time… Not only do I have every port of every game in the Space Harrier series… But I also own the original full-sized moving arcade Space Harrier game machine where the magic all began! The first time I played the moving arcade Space Harrier at the State Fair is still remembered as about the most fun I have ever had in gaming! Sadly, I do not have a pair of Planet Harrier arcade cabinets… yet! I’d love to someday, though! I have, however, beaten Planet Harriers with all the characters (including the secret character…  which was also one of my personal favorite Easter Eggs in gaming). At least I am one of the few who got to actually play this arcade rarity. (SEGA – give us a digital release of Planet Harriers, please!) 

Still, I LOVE me some Space Harrier…  And great news…  I LOVE me some Air Twister!

So let’s jump into Air Twister now! The story starts with the player and her squad of soldiers flying in on the backs of giant swans, attempting to defend their world from attacking forces. During the battle, the player is shot down, and *SPOILER ALERT* (See the spoiler at the end of the article) *END SPOILER* after a short recovery, you are back in the air ready to mow down the entire invading fleet single-handedly, just like the bad @$$ warrior you are! There’s actually more depth to the story, and you can unlock the lore and special extended cut scenes and such If you want to really know what all is going on. 

As you progress, you will unlock bonus content and in-game power-ups using the first skill tree in Space Harrier-esque game. You can also find customizations for your character, such as hair, face paint, outfits, and weapons that can be unlocked via the skill tree, so even if your air twisting skills are lacking, you can buy your way to victory just by playing and collecting stars, which is the main currency in the game. Be warned! Some weapons make this game an absolute cake walk! These stars are granted by destroying complete “sets” of enemies, or by playing through bonus stages or completing ever-changing “tasks” that change on a daily and weekly basis. Complete the tasks, get the rewards, and come back tomorrow for more! All the more reason to keep returning to the game… right? Seeing as most classic arcade games Space Harrier and otherwise––are considered to have limited replay value due to their shorter length, I know these kind of features help pad things out to make gamers feel like they are getting more out of it, but I’m old-school enough that I don’t personally need customizations and will still play the same game through hundreds of times and not get tired of it.. if it has solid and fun gameplay, that is. I should say that I did really like the customizations in Air Twister, my favorite probably being a warrior princess wearing face makeup straight out of The Crow and carrying a gun that looked like a witch’s broom! Awesome!

One of the biggest strengths of Air Twister is the fundamental design of the game. Just like Space Harrier before it, you just get such crazy designs in both the stages and the characters. The colors bright and beautiful. The lands you visit are varied and, at times, breathtaking! Enemies are a mix of old and new, with even more zaniness than Space Harrier’s flying mushrooms and one-eyed mammoths. There are no mammoths this time around, but there is a flying elephant. 

If you played far enough into Space Harrier to get to a bonus level, then you’ll probably remember that you get to fly on the back of a friendly dragon *COUGH*ALUCKDRAGON*COUGH* Sorry… Had a little something caught in my throat… that I also had to type out… Air Twister gives you mounts as well, only they are used in the boss battles instead of the bonus stages. Along with the aforementioned giant swan and flying elephant, there is also a giant flying fish and a flying lizard who assist you in your quest. There’s some story behind these guys in those bonus tales, too. Honestly, so for a shooter of this type, there really is a lot of background story tucked into the unlockable content! 

I should mention that when you transition from flying solo to on the back of one of your trusty steeds for the boss fights, I initially had difficulty adjusting my control mindset. You see, I’m one of those weirdos who has to play most games with an inverted Y-Axis when I’m “piloting” anything… even if it is a flying elephant! However, with something like Space Harrier where I just control the direction I’m moving a character around, then normal non-inverted controls work fine. While there is an option to play with inverted controls, it changes the control for the entire game, not just the mounted sessions. This makes sense, and I’m probably one of a very few to have this quirk, but thought I’d mention it for any other members of my inverted-camera-in-gaming support group.

At just twelve stages, Air Twister isn’t very long. The stages feel feel slightly bigger than Space Harrier’s, so the length of the two games feels about the same: Roughly twenty minutes or so to finish a game, which is far more preferable to me than 60 hours to complete the tutorial. There are 2 bonus levels in the main game, and each one plays like sort of a mix between the challenge stages in Galaga and––you guess it––Space Harrier (I only keep mentioning it because of how relevant it is!). I appreciate the bonus levels being there, but they weren’t quite as impressive as I expected given Air Twister’s pedigree. There are some unlockable modes that extend things a bit, such as boss rush(es) and an unforgiving classic “Arcade Mode” which negates power-ups and limits your hearts for that true, old-school challenge! To me, the fun is in the replay, and having a few minutes here and there to play most days, games like Air Twister are like manna from heaven to me!

So, what else is there that I haven’t already gone over? Let’s see… Main point… I LOVE AIR TWISTER! Check. Ties to Space Harrier… Lots of checks. Great atmosphere, weapons, customizations, extras, and music? Check, check, check, check and…  oooohh right. The Queen soundtrack! Well, kind of. It’s a Queen sound-alike band named Valensia. But yeah, they sound just like Queen! So much so that my wife actually walked into the room wondering why I had Queen blaring over our speaker system. Why would my wife would be wondering why I was blaring Queen? Because… I HATE Queen! So massively overplayed, and Freddie Mercury’s falsetto hits my ears like nails on a chalkboard! On all my streaming stations, I have only two bands blocked because they play them so much that I can’t get away from them without to blocking them… One is Queen! (You can guess the other one yourself)

So, I loathe Queen, and playing a Space Harrier type game to a Queen soundtrack is gut wrenching to me. Space Harrier had such a classic soundtrack: catchy, energizing, and a perfect fit with the feel of the game, one that instantly sends me back to 1985 every time I hear it. Nothing against Valensia, but when I first heard their music accompanying the game I had been waiting 23 years for, I cried… in a bad way. It just feels so out of place to me. 

For the sake of this review, I did play through the entirety of Air Twister multiple times with the music cranked just to make sure I got a good feel for the complete package. And while I like how in the lyrics of the main song refer to “a Harrier leaping into the night” (capitalized just like that), I just really dislike the music in this game. Now, there is some good news about this! And that is unless you’re a weirdo about it like me, this Queen thing is this is probably a non-problem for 99% of the world! Y’all do you, and I’ll switch the in-game music off and play all of the versions of my Space Harrier theme on repeat.

There are a few other things worth mentioning for the Space Harrier fans specifically. First of all, there is no running in Air Twister as there was in Space Harrier. Seamlessly transitioning from running to flying was part of the fun in Space Harrier. Also, there isn’t the same sense of speed in Air Twister, either. The pacing felt more like Panzer Dragoon. Actually, a lot of Air Twister reminds me of Panzer Dragoon! The pacing, the dual weapon system, the story, the mounts. Perhaps some of this was intentional as tribute to the Panzer series?

The first time I flew through the land of the giant mushrooms in Air Twister, I was giddy! When one of the bosses turned out to be multiple skeleton dragons, I was smiling from ear to ear! There are so many little things like this that made this long-time Space Harrier fan VERY happy! I noticed little things… Like how your character screams when she dies! Very nice touch! Thank you to Yu Suzuki and his team for all that attention to the small details! You did that for me, and I noticed! THANK YOU for Air Twister! I LOVE it! Just not the soundtrack!

*Disclosure: A copy of Air Twisterfor Nintendo Switch was provided to The Splintering for the purposes of this review.

***SPOILER ALERT***The swan dies***END SPOILER*** Sorry. I just know I like to be warned of these kinds of things in advance myself.

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