Tailhook

You command a carrier in the middle of a hostile sea. Drag from the deck to launch a plane, then draw its route with your finger and watch it bank round like the real thing: fighters fire straight down the nose at whatever you point them at, bombers bomb whatever they fly over, and torpedo planes fire when they are lined up on a hull. Patrol boats, destroyers, raiders and enemy carriers close in from every side, wave after wave.

Every plane is burning fuel. When the ring runs low it starts to blink, and you have to draw it back into the lane behind your stern so it can catch the wire, refuel and re-arm. Only one can land at a time, so planes wave off and go round if the deck is busy, and two planes that touch are two planes lost. Run one dry and it ditches in the sea. Juggling the landings while the fight goes on is the whole game.

Tailhook is an Aicade original with a clean, flat look: soft shadows, wakes, smoke and a calm synthesised score. Between waves you choose a refit for the carrier, and new aircraft join the squadron the further you get. It plays with a finger or a mouse, in landscape or portrait.