"The squirrels are now fully targetable, as intended." -Paper Planes Version 0.1.1 Patch Note
This is one of the most out there patch notes you will see out of a flight game, but that is the type of energy Paper Planes by Creekside Interactive is bringing. This game launched into early access on Steam on January 5th, 2025. Though some of the earliest mentions of the game can be traced back to May 2024 in their Discord server, it has actually been in development in some form years before that. Starting sometime in 2021. Since then, the two-person indie development team has steadily made progress and took a few creative risks until Paper Planes finally reached early access at the start of 2025.
My congratulations to the development team for sticking with a long term project and seeing it through. It really is not as easy as it looks.
We wrote about the demo for this game during Planes, Trains and Automobiles Fest 2024. Shortly before early access release Creekside Interactive reached out to Skyward Flight Media to inform us of their upcoming release and offered Steam keys for review. We had a pretty decent time with the demo for this rather unconventional flight game, so we took the offer to review the game.
This review was written with no communication between Skyward Flight Media and Creekside Interactive about our thoughts on the game. All opinions stated here are unaffected by external sources.
The Vibe
A moderator on our Discord team named 'Prov', who has also been providing feedback on Paper Planes, summed up the feeling of the game pretty well. He expressed that it felt like an early 2000s game. After a brief discussion, a few older games came to mind. The common thread being that they were willing to present an approachable game, not steeped in a complicated story that would just let outlandish scenarios playout with a few questionable jokes or swagger heavy narration. A type of game really anyone could pick up and learn in just a few minutes. Becoming familiar with the controls and game mechanics in just a session or two. Paper Planes is a pure arcade experience built for quick combat, fast flying and few other things to slow the experience down.
The Levels
Each level in Paper Planes is as whacky as you might imagine them to be. With no story having to connect each level together, they are an eclectic mix. The level designs are so unconventional, part of the experience is just taking in the sights. There is a constant level of curiosity about what is around every corner or what is behind each object.
At launch, the levels include Backyard, Bedroom, Mushroom Forest, Plane Park and Volcanic Ruin. Their names are straightforward and describe exactly what to expect. Though Plane Park and Volcanic Ruin have two derivatives specifically made for air racing in the Time Trial game mode.
Each level has built in environmental hazards. Things like backyard grills, model battleships, baseball pitching machines, bubbling lava and medieval trebuchets flinging what seem to be mushrooms that explode in colorful flashes; just to name a few.
In my opinion, the most dangerous "hostile force" in each level is easily the world boundary. It appears with enough warning. However, colliding with it is instant death. Even grazing it. There are times I wish the barrier would cause gradual damage over time for being outside of it, but the barrier itself is not an issue.
Aircraft, Flight
The toy aircraft are made of paper, wood, rubber bands, foam, plastic and maybe a touch of electronics. They can carry rubber band blasters, guided rockets and pick up many other types of weapons and gadgets by picking up power ups. The designs vary from nostalgia familiar to original designs to being slightly IP adjacent. Of course each design has improved flight characteristics that are unique to each aircraft, but I feel as though I did not unlock enough of them to give a decent description of a majority of them. There is a reason for this explained in the "Building, Shopping" section of this review.
What I can discuss is the flight model and controls. If the balsa wood and Styrofoam fighters did not tip you off, this is a pure flight arcade game. Turn rates of aircraft do change depending on air speed and these toy aircraft slowly float down to the earth when the throttle setting is set to zero and the airspeed drops to zero. But do not expect anything more complicated beyond that. Each aircraft has a health bar that decreases as damage is taken with ammunition types able to be replenished by picking up power ups from the map. The one-time use power ups vary. They include items that regain health, improve blasters, force fields, afterburner boosts, etc. My personal favorite is a power up that adds a pair of classic paper planes that rotate around the player's aircraft and multiply its firepower. They are reminiscent of the Gradius series Options or Mobile Suit Gundam series Funnels.
A considerable problem with gameplay is related button mapping and remapping. When discussing gamepad controllers specifically, the configuration of pitch, roll, yaw and throttle functions are a point of contention. Speaking with 'Prov' again he articulated the problem succinctly, though I will expand upon it. Since the 1980s arcade flight games that use gamepads have a universally known control scheme. Pitch and roll controls are always on the left side of the controller, opposite of the face buttons. And for good reason. If the right hand is constantly manipulating flight controls that same hand could not easily interact with the face buttons of the controller without giving up control of the aircraft.
Paper Planes places pitch and yaw controls on the left analog stick X and Y-axis with throttle and roll controls on the right analog stick X and Y-axis. With the throttle inputs requiring to be assigned to an axis with no option to assign them onto a pair of buttons, the result is an odd split thumbstick control scheme where flight controls are split between two thumbsticks. It is a system that can be learned, but for players that may be used to a specific style of control scheme, adapting to this unusual control scheme could be something that bounces them off the game before getting deeper into it.
Fortunately the Creekside Interactive developers are very receptive to feedback on Steam and in their Discord. They know that Paper Planes will need more work over time. Feel free to give them more direct feedback on this and any other improvements.
Building, Shopping
The way this game handles building and buying aircraft is something I enjoy seeing. I am very much used to the clinical item selection style screen most flight arcade games use. Paper Planes uses a real world style model shop which players walk through using keyboard and mouse controls. In the early access version of the shop, players can use Coins to purchase raw materials to build a plane on the crafting table (foam, glue, wood, cans, etc.) or buy one preassembled. Alternatively, players can purchase materials from the shop one item at a time or get those items through gameplay. I like this system, but fully admit that it really can only fit in a few specific types of games.
At first the cost of a few of the aircraft or items seems daunting, but as players engage in gameplay the rate at which materials are gathered isn't that terrible. Building or buying one of the high level aircraft made of cans or electronics will certainly take a concerted effort that cannot be interrupted by randomly buying aircraft along the way. Progressively buying aircraft is not something that is a part of game progress in the way that, say, the Ace Combat series does it.
During the review I made it a point to do as much as possible with the starter aircraft and there were not hard limits to prevent a player from being successful. More advanced planes make gameplay more engaging with noticeable performance boosts, but the starter plane is still serviceable throughout the game.
Domination
The primary combat focused game mode available in single player and multiplayer. Each level has a set difficulty with options to adjust the number of enemies fought at a time. The enemies are unique to each level, each with their own means to attack the player. Some are ferocious looking magma creatures that throw balls of magma that can be shot out of their hands. Others are squirrels in miniature hot air balloons throwing nuts. The smaller enemies take an equal amount of damage no matter where they are struck. Besides the default blasters, they can also be hit by missiles. Of note, the blasters have a longer attack range than the missiles. It is possible to get many hits in from a longer distance before gradually entering counterattack range. The missiles are harder hitting than the blasters of course and can be fired slightly off boresight. Meaning they can be utilized while flying evasively.
While the smaller enemies vary in design and type of attack they are not as extravagant as the boss characters players fight if they are successful in fighting surviving the first half of the mission. Very useful when multiple enemies attack a player at once.
The boss battles are legitimate boss battles. They are similar to the types you would expect from a role playing game. Expect them to take a decent amount of time to clear. Of course harder hitting weapons can make it go a bit faster. There are a few phases of the battle that unfold as a boss takes an increasing amount of damage.
Most bosses have specific parts that can be targeted. Some of these spots gradually weaken them or remove specific abilities for them to attack or defend themselves. The bosses are also tailor made per level.
For example, the children's room is overseen by a one eyed Teddy Bear named Mr. Snuffles who throws toys while being escorted by laser packing robots. It occasionally tries to belly flop onto the player. On the more traditional end of the spectrum, there is an oversized flying fortress called the B-19 Hercules. This aircraft is covered in turrets, backed by a rotary-style missile launcher and some type of... object projection system? It is as visually intense as it is complicated to explain.
Time Trial
The air racing portion of the game still includes weapons to complicate things for other players. Players are timed against themselves or other players with speed boosts and power ups spread across the map. Even at the "Normal" airspeed, players have mere seconds to make snap decisions. Squeaking their aircraft between obstacles in the pursuit of staying as fast as possible at all times.
The general airspeed of the aircraft can also be increased before each race, making them more challenging. I did not get too deep into the Time Attack portion of Paper Planes. Not because it is low quality, but because of my own lukewarm interest in game modes like this. I'd say try it yourself and form your own opinion.
Free Roam
The easiest game mode, purpose built for exploring said imaginative levels. Players can take their time to explore every detail of the maps. In my opinion, a flight game's Free Flight mode is one of the least used game modes. Once you've seen the terrain a few times, why go back, right?
The developers of Paper Planes made one of the most forward thinking decisions I have seen in some time. Players are further encouraged to explore every nook and cranny by being able to find Coins and build materials to use in the in-game Shop. These items are just freely floating in the levels. Some of these maps yield decently large amounts of a specific materials or coins, making it worthwhile to revisit these maps outside of the other combat inclusive game modes. To me it is similar to material farming in a different genre of games. Sometimes you do not want to lock in for a long play session where a few boss fights will be inevitable. Slipping in a free flight or two to make progress towards building your next desired aircraft is a nice experience.
Closing
Paper Planes by Creekside Interactive has very few things working against it in terms of gameplay, beyond the current button mapping restrictions. But again, I doubt that will be a permanent issue. Overall my experience was positive with the game. After taking time to learn the control scheme and fly full force into the concept and settings, I do feel like the game somewhat stands on its own among its peers in terms of creativity and willingness to simply try things that would be considered far outside of the box for other flight games. For the cost of $9.99 USD, it is quite a bit of content at launch for a game this size.
The development team is already working on the next wave of content post release, which I do look forward to trying myself.
Paper Planes Links
About the Writer
Co-founder of Skyward Flight Media. After founding Electrosphere.info, the first English Ace Combat database, he has been involved in creating flight game-related websites, communities, and events since 2005. He explores past and present flight games and simulators with his extensive collection of game consoles and computers. Read Staff Profile.
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