Drone Fighters

The future is here, and I'm wearing a box on my head, running what I'm pretty sure is the same firmware update three times on a stick I keep vaguely waving around my head, muttering incantations that I hope will bring life to its plastic shell. It's not everything I was promised, but it's also not Bladerunner, so I suppose I should be grateful. This game, however, is everything I was promised. I woggle one stick, and the drone zooms off to port and starboard like a spry galleon. I press the circle pad thing down, and my faithful drone sinks into the depths like a rather less spry galleon. I press up, and it ascends, a trick which even the spryest galleon struggles with. If you've ever wanted to move in three dimensions, this is pretty much your chance. As for the fighting part of drone fighter - I grew up playing Specter on an enormous grey Macintosh, so there's something nostalgic about shooting hollow green glowing cubes while shouting obscenities at uncooperative hardware. Maybe you had to be there, but if you were, you can breathe a sigh of relief knowing that the terrifying red pyramids of Specter are nowhere to be seen here. If you've ever wanted to shoot stuff with a laser pointer, well, you didn't need to wait for VR, but this adds another dimension to the experience. It must be said, in fairness, that this game has its moments which make you question the existence of a just and loving God. All the moments in which you have to fly through hoops come exquisitely to mind, as do the periods of mournfully gazing about the ceiling, trying to discern whether my vehicular companion is hovering right above me, or has simply buzzed off to another world where the are neither hoops nor spiky red balls it isn't supposed to shoot no matter how much they deserve it. There's enough in it, and it's competently enough executed, to justify calling it a game, rather than an upsy-downy-vroom-vroom simulator. There's not enough to call it a sensory or narrative extravaganza, but that's why you're buying it, slightly on sale, for ten dollars, instead of pre-ordering Mass Effect Andromeda and then shrieking incoherently for three weeks. Enjoy.