Shenmue Creator Announces New Game

Shenmue creator Yu Suzuki and YS Net have announced Air Twister, a new video game coming to Apple Arcade on June 24th. The mobile title is described as a "fantasy endless shooter" where players are tasked with fighting against invaders to save their planet from destruction using homing arrows and a swipe-shooting mechanic. Notably, Suzuki is also known for the classic Sega arcade game Space Harrier, which seems to share a lot of DNA with Air Twister.

"Soar through the sky in this all-new fantasy endless shooter from legendary game creator Yu Suzuki," the official announcement of Air Twister for Apple Arcade reads. "Players will assume the role of Princess Arch fighting back against bizarre invaders to save their planet from destruction. They'll rain down their homing arrows to trace graceful arcs of light across beautiful, artfully crafted stages, before they pierce their foes. With a fun and easy touchscreen swipe-shooting gameplay mechanic, the destiny of the planet is in the player's hands."

While the trailer -- which you can check out embedded at the top of this article -- is certainly reminiscent of certain Space Harrier gameplay elements, Suzuki himself was hesitant to refer to it as a spiritual successor to the game during an Apple Arcade briefing attended by ComicBook.com. It's simply an arcade-style endless shooter in the same vein as Space Harrier with a fantasy bent to it.

Another notable aspect of Air Twister is the soundtrack. During the aforementioned brief, Suzuki revealed that Dutch musician Valensia had made a full soundtrack for Air Twister featuring over a dozen original tracks. When asked how that came about, Suzuki revealed that he was a big fan of progressive rock in general and Valensia specifically and had managed to get in touch with the musician via Facebook in order to get him to do music for the new video game.

As noted above, Air Twister is set to release for the Apple Arcade subscription service on June 24th. You can check out all of our previous coverage of Apple Arcade in general right here.

What do you think about what we have seen of Air Twister so far? Are you excited about a new video game from Yu Suzuki and YS Net? Let us know in the comments, or feel free to reach out and hit me up directly over on Twitter at @rollinbishop in order to talk about all things gaming!