Luftrausers and Rival Stars Horse Racing

Games that start strong.

Luftrausers

In this beautiful artistic sepia arcade bullet hell shooter, you fly your plane on a 2D plane to blast enemy air and sea craft to smithereens while also trying to evade their fire ALL to some super epic music which really gets the blood pumping. This is very much an achievement based game, as getting those goals unlocks more plane parts that give more goals - and despite the seemingly simplistic three part modular plane chassis,  you can get a ton of variety from the bits available. Very cool, but even with the epic handling and music the gameplay loop gets repetitive a few hours in. Still one of the better bullet hell things I've played for a while.

Rival Stars Horse Racing

After inheriting a run down homestead it's up to you to restore it and regain its status by winning horse races! This super chillaxing game has two main sections - the racing and the upgrading bit. Racing is simpler so we'll start there: with minimalistic controls of left, right and sprint you really are at the mercy of your horses stats as an untrained one will simply have no chance on the harder tracks. Sprint is interesting in how it recharges: your horse has a preferred position and to regain sprint power faster you need to stay in that position - which can be a tricky proposition!

Upgrading the homestead simply requires resources you win or buy from gold (and also costs gold on top) which can let you keep more horses, foal more horses (breed champions bro), and improve training facilities to let you improve your animals even more. The part I don't like is that participating in races costs money, and if you are out of it you need to wait for your timed income to drop. Yep, its the "waiting to have fun" section of the game and that's what kills it for me. A simple fix is letting you race for free but alas, that was a lost opportunity. Otherwise, a pretty decent game for city bound horse lovers. You can even do free rides around your ranch just for fun.