Cuphead was a run and gun action platformer with unique visuals in that everything looked like a cartoon from the 1930s. It was actually pretty amazing looking, and the only reason why I didn’t play it was it was too darn hard! But it was pretty popular and even got an animated series on Netflix. And a few imitators, too. Here’s one of those. Acecraft is a top down 2D vertically scrolling shooter where you play as cute animals in airplanes shooting down all sorts of cartoony baddies. It’s available on mobile devices but reviewed on iPad here.
There is a story here, but it doesn’t seem that important. The text was too hard to read and scrolled by too fast anyway. All you need to know is that you control a cute 1930s toon animal in an airplane and shoot down anything that moves. Since it’s on mobile you control things a little differently. To move your plane, just guide it with the touch screen. You’ll automatically shoot when you do this. Just like how in Cuphead you could counter pink bullets, you can do that here by releasing your finger from the touch screen. Doing this will make your plane suck in any pink projectiles, and then you can fire them back as super powerful homing fireballs. Power-ups work similarly to how they do in Vampire Survivor style games. When you shoot down a certain number of enemies, a meter will fill and when it’s full, you can choose from one of three power-ups that’ll increase the strengths of your shots or give you new ones.
As a free-to-play game, I figured I’d have lots of problems with this game. And I was right. As said earlier, the text is too small and like other free-to-play games, you can upgrade your character through fiddly and hard to understand menus. Which is a shame because I read this game has two player support and as of this writing they have a collab with Tom & Jerry. But I couldn’t figure it out due to the confusing menus. And the game gets way too hard way too quickly. And since you control the action with your finger on the touch screen, any time a bullet or enemy came from behind, it’s hard to see because your hand or wrist is in the way. The game gets way too hard way too quickly and while I like the 1930s cartoon aesthetic, I think it takes way too much inspiration from Cuphead. I wish this would’ve been on consoles instead without the free-to-play stuff and more balanced difficulty.
Kid Factor:
You can shoot down cartoony enemies with silly weapons, but they just explode when defeated and look all dizzy. No more violent than Looney Tunes. Reading skill is needed for the text, and younger gamers may find it too difficult. Parental supervision is also recommended for the in-game ads and purchases.
