AirAttack HD for Android

Air Attack HD is a vertically scrolling "shmup" (shoot-'em-up game) that pays homage to old-school airplane adventure games like 1942 and Aero Fighters. In it, your mission is to fly through different stages and obliterate hordes of enemies, both in the air and on land.

In Air Attack, you choose one of two unique airplanes and make your way through eight challenging missions. Each airplane is equipped with a different default cannon, and both are capable of dropping crater-making bombs. To upgrade your arsenal, destroy enemies carrying power-ups or purchase add-ons in the shop. These upgrades can alter the strength and spread of your weapons, and they make the game a heck of a lot more fun.

The controls of Air Attack HD are surprisingly easy to grasp. Choose from four different modes: Touch, Relative Touch, Tilt, and Joypad. We found Relative Touch to be the best, while Tilt was rather difficult to use.

As its name suggests, Air Attack HD features a high-quality visual experience with a 3D look and feel. This, coupled with some fantastic orchestral music, makes for a highly immersive environment that really sucks you into the game. That said, such graphics do require your mobile device to do some heavy lifting, which is not so good for your battery life.

Air Attack HD is available in the Android Market in three different forms: Part 1 lets you access the first three stages of the game, and comes free of charge; Part 2 costs $1.95 and opens up the other five stages; and the full version combines both parts into a single download and costs $2.94. If you're into vertically scrolling shooters, or are just a fan of fighter jet warfare in general, we highly recommend Air Attack HD.