Sometimes you just see a trailer and think, it’s highly likely no one actually cares about this thing, but I need to make a news post about it just so everyone else can experience what I am experiencing right now. I’m not sure that’s always a good thing, but I do think that thought process definitely applies to Air Twister on Apple Arcade. The game is the first time from Ys Net, veteran Sega developer Yu Suzuki’s studio, since Shenmue 3 in 2019.
I insist, actually absolutely insist, that you watch this trailer with sound on.
So, like, okay. Let’s break this down here. This is clearly Space Harrier. It’s not in any way not trying to be Space Harrier. That makes total sense, as Yu Suzuki’s third game was Space Harrier and the long shadow that game cast probably defined Sega culture for decades.
The trailer begins with the player character’s kingdom seemingly being attacked by Call of Duty people on giant geese. Then it turns out one of the protagonist’s geese was like…hurt? Is sad? Is having just general goose feelings? It’s not super clear. But the trailer snaps from that to gameplay where a song kicks in that is not even that legally distinct from Queen.
If you told me, oh, this is just a Queen song you had never heard, I would believe you. In fact, I’m not entirely convinced it’s not Queen. I could be easily persuaded that Yu Suzuki had somehow visited Freddie Mercury’s estate, found a hidden room behind a bookcase, and discovered a master tape that he decided to save for this moment.
Later in the trailer, we see the protagonist also riding a large goose, so that might imply that the mechanics change up a little bit from Fantasy Zone to Panzer Dragoon. But. With a giant goose instead. Panzer Dragoose.
It’s not clear where the hell this game came from. As far as I can tell, I never received a press release about it. There’s no official release of the trailer, it sort of appeared on a few different YouTube channels today. These channels all list a release date of June 24, so I have to assume that’s true, but I have no idea who I would even ask to confirm this. Apple Arcade games, by definition, are exclusive to iOS.
All I know at this point is Goose.
[Update]: I have been informed these are swans and not geese, but the Panzer Dragoose pun would not work, so I refuse to change it.
