Jet Raiders Review

I like to play a good shoot-‘em-up arcade game every now and then. There’s just something about having no boundaries in a game and seeking out objects to destroy. Jet Raiders is a good example of such a game. Players take off in one of several planes in this top-down shooter to destroy enemies and take out anything that dares stand in the way.

Jet Raiders is a simple yet well made little game. The gameplay consists of flying around and shooting down enemy aircrafts that get in the way. The aircraft comes standard with only a few missiles but the ammo replenishes automatically. Many power ups float around that give players heat-seeking missiles, additional missiles, shields others to help players navigate the airspace safely. Points are awarded as players gun down enemies and progress through checkpoints. Each checkpoint is marked with a bridge that needs to be destroyed before the plane crashes into it. Like real planes, the planes in Jet Raiders will eventually run out of gas. Luckily there are large, floating blimps scattered throughout the game where the planes can refuel to continue on their mission.

The game has three different modes: classic, time attach and infinity. The classic mode consists of completing a variety of missions and making it to the finish line. It’s not very difficult to simply make it to the finish line, but it can be challenging to accomplish all the missions. The time attack mode is pretty self-explanatory. The object here is to race the clock to set new records without crashing. Last but not least, infinity mode gives players a chance to go as long as they can before their device runs out of battery.

The control layout comes in tilt and touch varieties. I personally don’t like tilt controls so I opted to use the touch controls. Touching the screen on either side will cause the plane to steer left or right. A quick swipe will send the plane into a quick roll. The graphics are very well done and look great on any device. I didn’t come across any glitches or lag and it performed well on my iPad mini. One negative aspect is that the gameplay is a little slow and repetitive. While the missions can be challenging I had a hard time getting hooked and wanting more.

All in all Jet Raiders is a high quality shooter. There is no nonsense and it’s all about making things explode. It has nice graphics and simple controls that don’t require much thinking for all those casual gamers out there. Despite the repetitive gameplay, I think the game still has a lot to offer and has plenty of playable content to enjoy.