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If Lightning Fighter 2 is indicative of what aerial combat will be like in the future, you’ll want to get a pair of shades. The game throws seizure-inducing lasers at you at a pace the title suggests. Assuming your eyes are still intact then your experience will be an enjoyable, if slightly shallow, one.
You won’t have to do anything too taxing at first: destroy a few jets here and a few tanks there, avoid any shots that come your way, collect the currency and weapon upgrades, tick all the usual shmup boxes. It’s your first face-off with one of the end-of-stage bosses however that will give you a taste of the real intensity the game can possess. You’ll need to be as alert as a cat fuelled with caffeine as you progress.
Your ship is controlled with one finger, shadowing your every move while shooting automatically. If you’ve been cursed with (medically-inaccurate term ahoy) sausage-finger syndrome you’ll be lucky to see half of the fluorescent projectiles that come flying at you, but responsiveness is reliable enough to help you out of tight spots – even the narrowest of gaps can be squeezed through if you time your movement correctly.
Once you’re past the bronze stages, you’ll have seen everything there is to see, as silver and gold are just amped-up versions of the ‘one ship versus the world’ premise. Don’t be too disheartened if you decide to persevere though. There are ships to unlock, which come with their own snazzy weaponry, although you can of course, use IAP. All the unlocks are achievable without them, but buying overpriced gems allows you to bypass the grind by quite a large margin, and certain buffs are also exclusive to this as well.
A good time-waster, then, but the appeal will probably fizzle out after a couple of hours.
Version Tested: iOS
Played for 3 hours.
