Gameplay

The gameplay is straightforward enough and reflects the typical gunner arcade style of fighting: stationary positioning with 360-degree rotation as enemy targets come toward you. Over the course of 99 levels, this basic gameplay doesn’t change, which can get tiring, and the limited set of backdrops doesn’t help with the monotonous feel, even though it includes both daytime and nighttime scenarios.

After every five missions of taking down enemy craft, you can read Air Raid promos to find out about the medals you’ve won. For the younger gamer this might hold some appeal, but frankly, the lack of any storyline and the non-existent fanfare for medals devalues the prize for gamers who are actually paying attention.

Where nobody will have to pay attention, though, is in the controls, which are extremely intuitive and as basic as the overall gameplay. The mouse controls your gun’s position and your shell and missile firing, while the space bar throws out depth charges. These three weapons provide you with the complete arsenal for defending your ship, but they each have limited ammo. Shells and missiles are great for taking down airplanes and, oddly enough, sinking enemy ships. Your depth charges, on the other hand, are used to blow up incoming torpedoes from the torpedo planes, which will continue to come back until you destroy them. This is where the gameplay begins to falter.

Enemy aircraft and ships will continue to attack with their unlimited ammo until you finally kill them, and they always fly the same pattern. It’s a throwback to many early-80s arcade games, but I was honestly hoping for a bit more challenge. As it is, all you need to do is determine the enemies’ flight patterns and pick them all off. In many respects it reminds me of Duck Hunt, but you don’t have the dog for amusement.

Graphics

Air Raid does not contain awe-inspiring graphics; rather, it’s once again consistent with the arcade-gunner genre. The scenery during the game’s main play is decent, and the planes look fairly realistic. With a scroll mouse, you can zoom-in on targets or scenery around the area, and it all looks relatively good. The scoring and between-round loading screens will, however, remind you of the days of Wolfenstein.

Sound

The explosions and gunfire are pretty realistic, and they all contain a sufficient amount of bass to remind you of the gun-themed game you’re playing. My favorite feature of Air Raid, though, is the WWII-era music that plays prior to each air raid. Too bad they didn’t keep it playing while you were shooting enemies. Also, whoever programmed the sound for the opening screen must have watched a few too many Jim Carrey movies. Every time you scroll over a menu item, you’ll hear a sound reminiscent of "ping, ping, ping, ricochet rabbit." It’s just about the most annoying sound in the world ("Dumb and Dumber" still ruling that category). As a result, my best advice to you is to avoid staying on the first menu too long.

Replayability

With its 99 levels, Air Raid has gone for volume to increase the replayability factor, but the developer hasn’t quite succeeded in making me want to replay anything. The levels themselves can be completed relatively quickly, and once you’ve finished them, why go back? They would have achieved a better replay factor by allowing you to change guns in the heat of battle.

Air Raid provides the type of replayability that you often see arcade publishers use to get gamers to keep feeding quarters into a machine. Once the 99 levels are beaten, the only challenge left is to maybe see if you can get a higher score. Air Raid’s only real hope of replayability was LAN play, but this type of LAN Party is bound to run off any friends you may have.

Overall

I’ve spent my share of quarters in the past, and most of them were on gunner arcade games. But I can’t say this would have grabbed more than a dollar from my wallet. While Air Raid is somewhat entertaining, I certainly left wanting more options from a potentially enjoyable game. The $20 price tag may appeal to some arcade lovers, but I would certainly try before you buy. There are $20 games of the same genre that offer more than what Air Raid has brought to the table.