Review: Paper Plane Arena – Shamans

Call me old-fashioned, but gaming is supposed to be fun, captivating, and worthy of your time. Unfortunately, EpiXR Games missed the memo with their latest game. Paper Plane Arena – Shamans follows in the footsteps of the well-loved Aery series. However, unlike that enjoyable and relaxing endeavour, this was just a little rubbish. Not only is there no story, but the gameplay is tedious, and the visuals leave a lot to be desired. As such, it falls flat almost immediately.

Paper Plane Arena – Shamans is a “relaxing” flying adventure where popping balloons and exorcising demonic balloons are the name of the game. It is a single-player third-person arena experience set across 10 unique worlds. Each stage has 3 waves to complete and there are no monsters and no violence. Instead, there are balloons, balloons, and plenty more balloons to pop. The lack of depth, focus, and drive makes this a sluggish and painful game to play.

Come for the balloons and stay for the tedium.

Paper Plane Arena – Shamans moves away from the narrative focus of the Aery gaming series. This was a mistake as this makes that franchise particularly captivating. Unfortunately, a paper plane flying into demons for no sound reason is simply absurd. Furthermore, once you’ve popped one balloon, you’ve popped them all.

The lack of any story, focus, or goals makes this a particularly hard sell. Though the stage design varies and there are some obstacles to avoid, I’ve had more fun watching paint dry. Had the developers created a reason to destroy the army of demons, I’d have been more inclined to pay attention. However, I wanted to turn it off almost immediately as every level and task blurs into one miserable entity.

A turning circle of a tanker.

The developer describes the plane as a nimble and fast machine. I can’t say I agree as you crash into the scenery and miss your intended targets. For reasons unknown, depth perception is a real problem. I missed the “normal” balloons repeatedly as I couldn’t judge my distance or direction correctly. This was pretty annoying as I had to circle back around over and over and over again.

This was problematic as you needed the “normal” balloons to pop the demonic ones. If you fail to power your plane with enough boost energy, you simply bounce off of the demon balloons and the whole arduous process of lining up and completing each wave starts again. Moreover, there is no hand holding and you’ll spend what feels like an eternity searching for any outstanding balloons. This was painful, unfair, and totally unnecessary.

Paper Plane Arena – Shamans has the render distance of a person with cataracts.

I don’t mind poor graphics, but Paper Plane Arena – Shamans takes the biscuit and the whole biscuit barrel. In fact, it is so poorly executed that it is a nightmare to play. The surrounding world slowly fades into perspective as you move towards unknown areas. Additionally, the balloons lack a sense of depth and everything feels flat. This isn’t helped by the lack of guidance and the use of vibrant colours. I couldn’t pick out certain details as the backdrop and foreground were closely matched. This was a mistake as it prevented you from successfully searching your surroundings.

Paper Plane Arena – Shamans fails in many aspects. However, the audio is extremely good. This is penned as a relaxing game to play. Thankfully, the music is great to listen to and I loved the selection of tracks on offer. The same cannot be said for the annoying sound effects, however. The random noise of the demon once it was popped was stupid and unnecessary. I sighed every time I heard it and wondered what was going through the developer’s mind.

Paper Plane Arena – Shamans should be missed.

I had high expectations when I installed this game. I was looking forward to an epic, albeit strange story about demons and a fight of good vs evil. Unfortunately, this wasn’t to be and the result was a disappointing damp squib. The audio is good, but the rest of the game is flawed, boring, and instantly forgettable. Consequently, I wouldn’t recommend investing your hard-earned cash, but you can find more details here if you so wish.