Side-scrolling 2D fighter plane games like Aircraft Evolution aren't exactly a new concept. The game is heavily inspired by retro video games of the past, whether it's through the game's visuals or its simple control scheme. Developer Satur Entertainment even managed to nail the brutal difficulty of games from years past to strong effect. Aircraft Evolution forces the player to do a lot of grinding in order to purchase new weapons and planes though, and the progression system doesn't work as well as it could, resulting in an uneven experience.
Aircraft Evolution looks a lot like an old video game that has been updated for modern consoles. While it does have a retro feel, the game sports fully rendered and detailed vehicles and environments, rather than using pixelated sprites to hit those nostalgic notes. It also performs incredibly well despite hundreds of vehicles and projectiles being able to be on the screen at once, with the frame rate managing to stay very smooth, even while being played on a lower-end PC.
The core gameplay loop remains fairly consistent throughout the entirety of Aircraft Evolution's run., which is a benefit Players are tasked with flying their air plane into enemy territory and destroying either all of the enemy units or all of the buildings in the area. Players will be able to drop bombs or fire a machine gun & rocket combo at their enemies as they try to destroy everything in their path. As players complete levels they will earn currency that can be used to purchase new planes or upgrade the stats of any planes in their inventory.
The controls of Aircraft Evolution take a little bit to get used to, especially when flying some of the earlier planes in the game. Players use the mouse to move their plane around the environment, which means that they have complete 360 degree movement. This doesn't always work very well though, and players can end up accidentally crashing into other planes or the ground. This is improved slightly by purchasing technologically advanced planes, but even these feel a little sluggish to control, so there's never a full improvement in that regard.
Players have a lot of different aircraft to unlock while they play, and they will definitely need them as Aircraft Evolution gets more difficult. Unfortunately, the progression system is severely unbalanced, to the point that players will most likely wind up unlocking the final plane before the halfway point of the game. This may seem like fun at first, but it means that players won't be able to level up any further and there won't be any more content to unlock beyond that point. This takes away a lot of the incentive to continue playing Aircraft Evolution into its later stages.
Levels in Aircraft Evolution can be pretty repetitive too, even when the game gives players different objectives, so variety in both environment and further aircraft unlocks would have been welcome. If a mission asks players to kill all enemy units, they will have to destroy all the buildings first to stop them from respawning, and if players are tasked with destroying buildings they will wind up killing most of the enemy units during this task. Aircraft Evolution attempts to make it look like there are different objectives for missions, but players typically just end up blowing everything up. There is nothing wrong with this, save the fact that there is little strategy other than just repeatedly firing weapons until everything is dead - which is only charming for so long.
Aircraft Evolution has a fun retro style and runs very well for a game that has a lot of explosions and enemies on screen nearly all the time. Sadly, the controls aren't as streamlined as they could be and the progression system falls apart about halfway through the game. Aircraft Evolution has a lot of character, but becomes a repetitive romp through the same kinds of levels too early, making it a game only those interested in air battles should try out.
Aircraft Evolution can be played on Xbox One, PlayStation 4, PC, and Nintendo Switch. A Steam code was provided for the purposes of this review.