ARE YOU MAN ENOUGH TO RAUSE!?

Have you ever seen The Salton Sea? There's a sequence in it-- this sequence-- that basically sums up the entire experience of Luftrausers.

As a game, it's a madhouse cocktail of Hotline Miami and your best memories of Raiden II. It's everything a videogame should be and shouldn't be. It's fun, addictive, and I walk away from it feeling that my brain is just a little more fried than it should be. It isn't the diversion that Papers, Please or even FTL is.

I'm seeing it when I close my eyes. Just dozens of pixelated planes flying back and forth shooting bullets bigger than their entire ship. I can't remember the last time that I've experienced that from a videogame before. It was maybe with Tetris, but probably with Hotline Miami. Which, you know, makes sense.

That game was like some kind of crack. But not Luftrausers, though. That's pure lady crystal, through and through.

Oh God, I need to rause right now.