Planes, Bullets and Vodka

I have a soft spot for the kind of game that knows exactly what it is and refuses to apologize for its scope. Planes, Bullets and Vodka is that game. It is a tiny, relentless shoot-em-up tunnel runner that plants its flag in the golden age of arcade shmups, draws a line, and says: if you like River Raid, 1942, or Galaga, step right up. If you need story beats and unlock trees, step away. The core loop is ruthlessly simple. Your plane scrolls forward automatically through procedurally generated tunnels, and your only jobs are: don't hit the walls, shoot everything that moves, and do not let a single enemy slip past you. That last rule is where the teeth are. The scoring system builds a multiplier for every ten consecutive kills, and one missed enemy resets it to zero. That single mechanic transforms what looks like a casual shooter into a twitchy score-attack puzzle. You are always negotiating: rush ahead to catch a straggler, or hold position and risk a wall clip? The tension is genuine, and it escalates steadily as bullet density and enemy aggression compound with each passing minute. Power-ups drop from downed enemies - armor pickups, health restores, fire-rate boosts, damage upgrades, and a spread shot that fans out to five bullets at max level. There is also the vodka bottle, which causes the screen to shake and blur in a wink at the theme. These pickups feel satisfying to chase without tipping the balance too far, though the community is right to note there is no plane variety, no weapon unlocking system, and no progression layer underneath the score loop. What you see in minute one is what you get in minute forty. If you need a meta-game pulling you forward, this will feel hollow. Aesthetically, the game leans into a distinctly Soviet-flavored red-and-black palette. The graphics are deliberately minimal - simpler than contemporaries that inspired it - but they serve readability well. Enemies, bullets, and walls are always legible even when the screen fills up, which matters a lot in a bullet-heavy game. The soundtrack is atmospheric enough to carry a session without grating; it loops on a single track, which some players find meditative and others find maddening. On Steam Deck it runs clean and responsive at 60 FPS, and the default controller layout needs no adjustment. Honestly, the ceiling here is achievement hunting and leaderboard climbing, and both are thin by design. The achievement list can be cleared in a single sitting, though one kill-count grind stretches that for completionists. The global leaderboard is the real replayability hook for anyone competitive. For everyone else, this is a ten-to-twenty minute palette cleanser between longer sessions, a queue filler, a "I have five minutes and want something with a heartbeat" game. That is a legitimate use case, and NukGames fills it with a steady hand. Just do not come looking for depth that was never promised.

Kai · Scout Team

Indie & narrative

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