AirBlade is a three-dimensional shooter whose goal is to mimic a two-dimensional arcade shooter. There is a ton of potential in this game, but it definitely falls short in its execution.

To start off, the game’s mission is what you’d expect from the genre: mindless shooting down of spaceships and intermittent stationary gunners based atop city buildings. Of course, you’ll accomplish this using your trusty machine gun, missiles, and rockets.

The one major shortcoming in this game is the poor control scheme. An undersized joystick in the lower left-hand corner governs your movements, which tend to be shaky and unnatural. It’s hard enough to grab ahold of this control during a moment of desperation, let alone maneuver your ship out of danger. The three buttons for firing are also ridiculously small and often difficult to activate.

A positive factor of this game is its staggering graphics. Although the animation is sometimes less than perfect, the design of the city map is gorgeous and is incredible to see in such a low-cost application.

The cliché arcade-style music and cheesy sound effects add a nostalgic feel for those of us who grew up with Galaga, Asteroids, and Space Invaders. It lends a nice ambiance to the game.

Now, back to the negatives. The game is short. Only one mission is currently available, and it doesn’t take more than a half-hour to beat. You can choose from three difficulty levels, which might add a few hours to the game, but most people will find this game too short to justify keeping it on their device.

I did, however, find the game to be reasonably fun. Something about flying around and shooting airborne enemies has always been appealing to gamers for whatever reason. The boss, unfortunately the only one, is impressively well done and you’ll have fun killing it after you gawk at the stunning architecture of the robotic beast.

If the controls and content could be mended in a future update, then this would definitely be worth your dollar. As for now, the only driving factors behind this game are the crisp graphics and somewhat entertaining game-play, but both are currently held down by the clumsy controls and short adventure. I don’t recommend buying this game at its present stage, but be sure to look for updates, because it has significant potential.