Red Wings: Aces of the Sky

The real top guns! Imagine flying a WW1 fighter in a sim that was all about flying, with no pesky taking off or landing. A 100% arcade experience, where you only ever play in the skies, with your target straight ahead and enemies on your six. It comes with local two-player as well as a two-player co-op campaign. Great to look at and zero hassle.

Red Wings: Aces of the Sky is a retro aerial combat game set during the First World War in the cockpit of the wooden biplanes that made their ace pilots aviation legends.

It immerses you in the story of Manfred Von Richtofen, known as "Red Wings”. He was a German aviator who became a legend, better known in France and Britain as "the Red Baron".

But instead of the clichéd "Your mission is to shoot down the Red Baron", in Red Wings you can choose to play alongside him as part of his own squadron, or to join the efforts to take him down. The option to play both sides in a conflict isn't anything drastically new when it comes to war games, but it works really well here. For the Allies, the Red Baron was seen as a vicious enemy pilot, but amongst his own he was worshipped as a hero.

The story is revealed in an original way, through comic strips that appear between missions, illustrating the hopes and desperation felt by both sides. But as Red Wings is first and foremost an arcade game, the story is there as a garnish, rather than the main meal.

But what really shines in Red Wings is its playability. The gameplay is as accessible as they come, and there's no need to be a flight simulator expert in order to hit your targets. You'll have mastered the controls of your plane in just a few minutes.

Shooting down enemy planes while others are on your tail, then waiting for your skills to cool down before turning to face them and barrel-rolling by is a real treat!

The game features a solid variety of missions: There are time trials, under the pretext of a fuel leak, as well as bombing missions, but most of the missions task you with shooting down waves of enemy fighters in open-world levels. At the start of the game you'll be facing enemy aircraft that aren't too different to your own, but each mission brings something new, as well as stronger enemies.

Our advice? Always keep an eye on how many enemies are up in the air. This is particularly important as you are almost always under threat. Your only real chance of finding cover is amongst the clouds.

You'll also need to manage your fuel gauge. And remember: the more you accelerate, the faster you run out of fuel. To refuel, you'll need to fly through rings in the sky, often when exposed to enemy fire!

The thing we really loved about this fun arcade title was the two-player mode. Help from a friend will make the missions slightly easier and earn you more stars at the end, which you can then spend on upgrades.

Tow other game modes are also available. The first is a survival mode where you need to survive several waves of enemy attacks within a given time limit. The second is a split-screen dogfight mode. This is quite a rare find in modern games, and will go down well with lots of gamers. Great for a bit of arcade fun with the family, just like in the good old days.