Furious Angels doesn't waste any time dropping you into its intense dogfights. The main menu itself looks out over the low-poly desert wastes, rugged carrier and fighter jet waiting for your input to launch into action. One mouse click or button press, and the chaos begins. It's a simple shooter, with no skills to unlock or multiple battlefields to conquer, but that simplicity only helps to enhance the distilled thrills of Furious Angels' combat.

Survival and high scores are your only goals here, the impetus behind your agile weaving and onslaught of bullets and missiles. Enemy fighters, bombers, and carriers encroach from all angles, the armada growing larger and more difficult as you reduce them to plummeting debris. Skillful evasion is your most powerful weapon, letting you circle-strafe and chase down foes before they can even attack; when to dodge and when to shoot is the most crucial lesson to learn in Furious Angels, since your jet heals when not firing.
Kill enough enemies, and your jet will be upgraded, from plain fighter to ramming variant to the massive tank behemoth, each form affecting handling and offensive options. Reaching those moments in a fight are consistently satisfying, both visually as new parts fly in from off-screen and attach themselves to your chassis and as a reminder of how long you've survived. Overall, Furious Angels is a visual treat. While the low-poly aesthetic is subdued, combat is rife with vibrant explosions, destroyed vesse...