El Airplane 1.5

Founded in Russia back in ’99, Alawar Entertainment is a company that specializes in the development, publication and distribution of casual games. To date the company has published more than 200 PC games that reached users in more than 60 countries. Alawar Entertainment’s games can be played on various platforms, including the Windows operating system, Mac OS X, Nintendo DS, Playstation and the iPhone. You may already be familiar with some of the company’s best known titles, such as Farm Frenzy, Craze and The Treasures of Montezuma.

One of the things Alawar Entertainment does best is come up with spoofs of classic computer games – like for example El Airplane, which is a spoof of popular scrolling shooters.

You should be able to download the aproximatly 10MB application and install it on your Windows-powered computer without a hitch. I went for the Custom installation which allowed me to select where the game would be installed and whether I would like shortcuts on the desktop and in the Start menu. Be warned that once the installation process completes, you are presented with three options:

• - Run El Airplane – leave this option checked as you will surely want to play the game ASAP.
• - Run Game Box – I unchecked this option.
• - Install Alawar Toolbar – no thank you, no toolbars for me. So I unchecked this option as well.

In the demo version, you have only about half an hour of play. After that, you must buy the full version. For your hard earned money Alawar Entertainment will offer: "efficient and friendly support team, spectacular graphics, gripping music and sound effects, and unlimited play-time".

The game is simple enough. You pilot a rather wacky airplane and you have to shoot down some interesting looking foes – like aliens and flying toilets. You use the arrow keys to pilot the airplane and Ctrl or Space to shoot. Ctrl fires the airplane’s gun, the space bar drops an anvil on top of the enemy (must position the airplane on top of said enemy). As you shoot down enemies you get to upgrade your main gun from what seems to be a peashooter to a boomerang, darts, flamethrower, and soap bubbles. The soap bubbles don’t sound menacing, but they are deadly.

6 different levels, a wacky airplane, weird weapons and even weirder foes – that’s what the El Airplane has to offer. It is a crazy and attractive game to try out (30 minutes for free).

Pros

• Fun and interesting game
• Amusing weapons

Cons

• 30 minutes of free gameplay
• Nag screen
• Leaves a folder behind after being uninstalled

El Airplane has been reviewed by George Norman on 29 Mar 2010. Based on the user interface, features and complexity, Findmysoft has rated El Airplane 4 out of 5 stars, naming it Excellent