Thank you Ratalaika Games for providing us with a review code!

Airborne Justice was released on Steam in 2024 and was received with mixed reviews. In 2025, it was released on modern consoles with a $2 price hike. Airborne Justice is clearly inspired by shoot ‘em up classics like 194X, and those created by Toaplan and Capcom. The visuals are retro-styled and reminiscent of the NES era. The pixel art during the cut scenes is nicely done though.

Upon launching the first mission/level, you’ll be briefed on your mission, which involves eliminating a terrorist group that has occupied a civilian area in the Middle East. To complete your mission, you’ll have a highly advanced attack helicopter at your disposal, two helicopters if you have a friend join you! The two pilots are named Rock and Stan; together they are called Thunderflash. Your goal is to liberate the city by defeating the terrorists.

Your helicopter has an infinite supply of bullets, which are great for taking down jets and helicopters. Tanks and submarines need multiple shots to go away. Missiles are an option, but they’re limited in supply. Bombs are very powerful and will wipe out all of the enemies on the screen (though bosses require more than one attack!). The downsides to the bombs are that they take time to charge up and cool down after use.

The bosses are intimidating, but have patterns you can learn to avoid taking too much damage. Your helicopter has five shield slots, and when they are all destroyed, it’s game over. Thankfully the boss battles often drop power-ups.

The available power-ups include: shield recovery, temporary barrier, double shot (front and rear fire), power shot (wide spray of bullets), and an additional missile. When you get hit you’ll lose any firepower-upgrades you have collected. For each 25,000 points you accumulate, you’ll replenish your armor and receive six additional missiles.

Airborne Justice has four game modes, but the Speed, Remix, and Survival modes unlock after completing the five missions from the main campaign. Speed mode is faster paced without any interruptions. It doesn’t have the opportunity to continue, but I didn’t see that in the main campaign either. Remix mode changes up the levels and includes exclusive features not in the main campaign. It too does not allow you to continue. Survival mode only supports single-player, and your goal is to score as many points as possible.

I experienced a glitch where a second player would join my game despite only one controller being active on my Xbox Series X. My game wasn’t impacted by this, and it’s good to know that the second player has separate resources that doesn’t impact the other player when they die or take damage.

Morally, there’s little to complain about. Combat violence is a given and you have to kill or be killed. Despite the ESRB rating, I don’t recall seeing any blood, just explosions.

All in all, Airborne Justice is a pretty short game and you can see all that it has to offer in a couple of hours. Because it does not have randomized levels, it will be the same every time. Many may find the game too easy, especially if you have a second player with additional missiles at their disposal. Thankfully, this title is reasonably priced and worth considering when it goes on sale.