Preview
It's been an interesting first year for the PlayStation minis; it hasn't been without its teething troubles, but among the inevitable App Store refugees and Sudoku-sims there have been enough true gems to suggest that Sony's service has legs. Mediatonic's Monsters (Probably) Stole My Princess is one such standout, a simple game that spun out its platform bounding with a deftness and wry, knowing humour that ensured that it was one of the first must-have minis.
Thankfully for PSP owners Mediatonic is back for another bite of the mini cherry with Who's That Flying?!, a 2D shooter that's delivered with a blend of old-school mechanics and self-referential story that'll be familiar with anyone who played Monsters (Probably) Stole My Princess.
You play the Guardian of Earth, a super-hero who finds himself defending his extravagant methods in a court of law. Thus the game is played in flashback, the action scenes interspersed with some courtroom comedy that carries a touch of the Phoenix Wrights. It's here that Who's That Flying?! belies its diminutive status – the cutscenes are painted with the kind of vibrancy and written with the kind of flair that you'd expect from a much bigger game.
Indeed that's also true of the game itself. The basics are, well, basic; it's a vertical scrolling shooter that's superficially in the classic mould as players control the Guardian of Earth and tear through waves of enemies with his laser arm. But, just like Monsters (Probably) Stole My Princess, it's the little flourishes that make it special; instead of simply staying alive until the level's end, players must stop the enemies from slipping past them, bringing a little of the ethos of the tower defence game to the fold.
Chaining enemy kills tops up a power meter which can be transferred into various specials, be that a super-speedy take on the Guardian of Earth's regular firearm or a hyper-powered laser that slices through the enemy. Some foes are too tough to take down with firepower alone and require a little QTE to dispose of; finish one off and it triggers a smart bomb that clears the whole screen.
These basics are stretched and subverted across five main levels in the campaign, each modelled after an international city and each climaxing with a colossal boss battle. The one we encounter, above the streets of Tokyo, recalls the bullet hell games of Cave – other bosses, we're told, take their inspirations from other classic shooters.
Just like Monsters (Probably) Stole My Princess, finishing the campaign is just the beginning, the real meat of Who's That Flying?! coming in its generous selection of challenges and score attack modes. Some are ingenious, such as a sudden death mode in which you can't let any enemies past that plays out like a single screen puzzle, and some are just downright devilish. Infinite Mode, for example, allows indefinite play, though the odds are soon so stacked that the record at Mediatonic stands at six minutes.
Who's That Flying?! is coming together to become a game that's as bold as it is traditional, and like its predecessor it's set to be another of the minis' standout titles. "I think it does have a bright future," Mediatonic's co-founder Paul Croft tells us of the mini store, "it's really good to see the new things that Sony are doing and the prominence of the minis is really good so I think it does have a bright future." If there's to be more games like this then it most definitely has.
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