Given that I’ve been playing shooters since the earliest days, playing great ones in the arcades, and sometimes suffering through pretty awful ones on early consoles, I’ve gone through a ton of them. One thing that playing so many of them has absolutely taught me as well is that making them well is actually quite an undertaking. Throwing a bunch of ships, a few guns, pew pew noises, and some bosses into the mix and calling it a day simply doesn’t cut it.

Unfortunately, to a great degree, that’s how Airborne Justice feels. Yes, it checks the boxes for being an arcade shooter, with formations of enemies flying through, you needing to dodge while trying to grab pick-ups, and needing to stay in motion to avoid everything the game throws at you. The problem is that the people who are really good at what they do make this feel like a dance, and sometimes just shy of being art, both in terms of visuals and sometimes the sound as well. That has little to do with the resolution of the graphics even, it’s all about smart formations that feel intentional and are designed to be a challenge but also appreciated.

Sadly, this really fails to feel that way. The most bizarre aspect of play is that right out of the gate the first thing you’ll need to deal with is a pretty massive swarm of small orbs moving in all directions. Rather than getting you to warm up, get used to the controls, or just feel comfortable with everything, it throws you in the deep end. Where it gets weird is then once you get past that section the game dials back the challenge pretty substantially, not really being easy, but absolutely more traditional in its style and far less difficult. I suppose you could say the developer was looking to take you by surprise and buck normal expectations, but it’s a really odd flex when the game has barely started. I think the main takeaway from this is just how forgettable it will be though, failing to impress visually, with well-designed stages or formations, and simply going through the motions for the most part.