Air Hares

I have a soft spot for small studios swinging for something genuinely different, and Air Hares earns that affection almost immediately. Wondoro LLC is a first-time developer, and the game wears that origin with pride rather than apology. The core idea is quietly radical for its genre: you pilot Captain Rabbo Sunskipper in a top-down, on-rails shmup where your primary ammunition is seeds and water droplets, not bullets. The Gale Gang bird goons are real threats, demanding the evasive barrel rolls and sharp turns the genre demands, but every frantic weave is in service of reaching the next row of empty soil in time. Completing a row of carrot fields in Tetris-like fashion, earning points as each section fills, is a surprisingly satisfying rhythm that feels nothing like any other shooter I can recall. The structure is compact and deliberate: sixteen levels spread across four stages, each capped by a boss fight against Twin Horn's avian lieutenants. Seeds and water are limited mid-run, which forces real positional thinking rather than spray-and-pray flying. You can slow the plane to aim more carefully at ground plots, and backtracking is allowed if you miss spots, which lowers frustration without removing the tension of managing resources under fire. The story mode can be replayed in Arcade mode after completion, giving score-chasers a clean loop to master. An endless mode is notably absent, and players hungry for that kind of ceiling will feel the gap. The pixel art is bright and readable, enemies telegraph their patterns clearly, and the soundtrack leans into a dustbowl-meets-arcade register that reviewer outlets described as appropriately arcadey without overstaying its welcome. The setting itself, a myth-tinged riff on the American Dust Bowl era filtered through Saturday-morning-cartoon sensibility, gives the world a personality that a lot of budget shooters simply never bother developing. A companion digital comic book and a separate OST release alongside the game, signaling that Wondoro built a world first and a game second. That order of priorities shows in how cohesive everything feels. Where Air Hares genuinely shines is local co-op. Dirk Doggo joins Captain Rabbo as a second pilot, and the split focus between dodging and precision planting maps well onto two people dividing duties on a couch. It is also, without question, one of the friendlier bullet hells available for younger players or genre newcomers: the non-violent win condition, the colorful clarity of the visuals, and the forgiving backtrack mechanic all smooth the difficulty curve. Solo runs are fun, but this game seems to know where its best moments live. Players expecting deep progression systems, a wide ability roster, or a brutal difficulty ceiling will find the scope modest. That is not a defect so much as a deliberate identity, and the small studio behind it understood exactly how much game they were making.

Kai · Scout Team

Indie & narrative

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