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The Daily Click ::. Downloads ::. Review Review: To Air Is Human
For the presentation, it's nothing that I haven't seen before as it's just a simple title screen, though the effect with only some clouds going behind the logo is really cool. The controls are explained well, so I'll give it a perfect score. Simple, yet effective. As for the gameplay, I'm even more surprised. It's very straightforward. The hot air balloon you control only advances by autoscrolling to the right so you have to land yourself on a marked spot, and you have to either rise or descend to catch the air currents (in other words white arrows that either point to the west or the east, but you're focusing on the east). There's a GUI showing you what level you're on, your current score (that you can get less of depending on the damage you've taken or not landing your hot air balloon before the time runs out), a distance bar showing you how close you are to the landing spot, time running out for extra challenge, three heart-shaped lives and fuel that can be used up but can never be refilled ever again, so you got to make sure to use the fuel economically otherwise you're doomed. The obstacles you can find in all 5 levels are the following; an ordinary mountain that you have to avoid by going over it, other hot air balloons (with a different color variation) that have no mind of their own except being controlled by the air currents and can crash spontaneously on airplanes and mountains, airplanes that are the easiest obstacles to avoid as they only move horizontally to the left and never go crazy beyond that point, guys shooting their firearms vertically after a certain amount of time while driving a vehicle on land going YEEHAW to announce themselves before using their firearm (that's one of the game's greatest highlights and one way to give it personality), spaceships that can teleport you back if they manage to zorch you with their ring shaped projectiles (which means they knock you back by increasing your distance and you have to waste more fuel to get back on track as a result of their fanfare), angry gray clouds shooting max ranged lightning and tornadoes that change directions faster than you may think (though I haven't seen what it's like to get hurt by one in the game). The first level has the least obstacles and is ultimately the tamest, with the only obstacles being the other hot air balloons and the airplanes I mentioned. Nothing here that is too troublesome as this is an introduction level, unless you're annoyed by the RNG and not catching the air currents smoothly. I was annoyed by that, on my very first attempts, while also wasting more fuel than I should have, until I realized I just have to wait a little longer so the game can change to the general opposite direction, to the one that makes progress for you. Not to worry, this was all just a big trial and error session for me. The second level gives you the vehicle people with firearms, and things start to get slightly tricky. For these guys shooting their guns, you want to catch the fastest air current that you see on your screen, and to try making them shoot before you're vertically lined up with them, otherwise they'll straight up hit you. In one of my runs, I got so lucky to have the other hot air balloon get shot instead, protecting me in a way. Though despite me knowing all this, I was a little bit annoyed by these guys giving me damage penalties, but once I realized your health can only be refilled by one upon entering a new level, I figured there's actually fairness to the game. The third level includes the angry gray clouds which I wasn't sure what to think of. Sometimes when I'm below, I only get one of my hearts depleted, but when I'm closer to the cloud, I get insta killed, but if this isn't the case, you're free to correct me. Not only are these angry gray clouds a new addition to the overall challenge, but I'm also handling the timer really poorly (I don't really make it on time) so I always get lateness penalties. Whoever can get a perfect score in this game, you're my hero. I saw that the author got it once, and that sounds like a massive achievement on its own. Level 4 has spaceships, and I did mention that they can knock you back/increase your distance from the landing spot, however I didn't test if you can collide with them (I assume that you can, after all their gimmick is pretty diverse from everything seen so far). And finally, level 5 gives you tornadoes, and now that all the obstacles are in one basket, your heart beats even faster, but you can't say the difficulty spike is absurd, can you? You're at the very last level, and the game kept building up. Like I said, with the health being increased by one after beating a level (if you lose one or two hearts), and the penalties not taking away so much of the score you can earn, I think the game is treating you well! As I got to try the extra mode, I realized how easy it is when you enable it (and I want anyone reading this review to get it themselves for fairness sake), although when I just recently opened the game, I noticed that it doesn't tell me I can turn it on again. So to the author, my question is the following; once this extra mode is used, does this event only happen once and then goes away until you manage to get it again or has something happened with my game that screams unusual behavior? If you could answer this, that'll be much appreciated. In the comments of the game page, I already described this game as an arcade experience, and for that reason, I'll give it the highest score. Even the fact it's based on how hot air balloons actually function in real life is sweet. The graphics are charming, and make the game look like it was released in the 2000s. I'm a sucker for that era. However I do think when it comes to different levels showing you new obstacles, you could've had a slightly bigger landscape variation in terms of backgrounds, so it's not just the obstacles that make the levels memorable. For that, I'll give it an 8. Sounds and music are fine. The YEEHAW soundbyte still makes up for a good highlight and the rest of the stock(?) sounds fit the theme well. Now some of the MIDIs I might've heard before (they don't seem to be from other videogames, some might be from classical music), especially the title screen song that you also hear in Migami's game Lost Valley (I learned it belongs to some archived MIDI library and it's labeled as 'snow'). I really like the epic sounding song in level 4, it gave me a lot of hope. I'll give it a 9 Now comes the lastability. Evidently it's five levels long, and the pacing doesn't kill you from boredom. Given how RNG dependent it is, I wouldn't want a longer game unless there's more ideas for different challenges. Before I decided on writing this review, I got an idea in the shower. Perhaps this game can have kaizo levels that have highly increased difficulty, not seen before. An example being the air currents packed with even bigger speed, not changing directions as often and, get this, a few more airplanes appearing from the right (with some moving faster than others) while you have to either go below or above them. Maybe this one example can be a nod to the original Turbo Tunnel from Battletoads on the NES, giving you a sense of rhythm. Anyone can come up with their own ideas or discuss what I had in mind wherever they want. Anyway, I think the lastability is pretty good, so it gets a perfect score. Yeah, it's no secret that I really like this game, despite me not being very good at it. Even though this very first review of the game might not be the most eloquent out there, I still believe I covered the important aspects with my own thoughts. Thank you infinite more times, Play Journal, for a refreshing arcade experience, and I wish to see more great games from you in the future!
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