Publisher: The Bearded Ladies Consulting
Developer: The Bearded Ladies Consulting
Genre: Helicopter Sim
ESRB rating: Everyone 10+
Release date: Available now

The Bearded Ladies Consulting is probably not a name you are familiar with. According to their website, they are a video game studio located in Sweden and they currently consist of five ironically beardless guys. They recently released their first game in the form of Landit Bandit for the PlayStation 3. The game features helicopter physics and high-flying taxiing, but is it worth the fare?

Landit Bandit tells the tale of Lander the art thief and Marley the islander. After landing on a seemingly deserted island, Lander meets Marley and using his stolen Davidson plans, they build a pedal-powered helicopter. As they try to make their way to the city, Marley offers various taxi and cargo services to the other islanders.

The game relies heavily on physics, and accompanying those physics are very well managed controls. It took me a while to get used to flying and landing, but once I got the hang of it, it felt very natural. While flying around you can pick up gears to fix up your helicopter and you can briefly boost to increase your speed. Landing must be done carefully to avoid damage, but I found it difficult to land without almost always losing a part of the bamboo and wood aircraft. The game features 20 missions over 6 different areas, as well as a small, local co-op mode.

The game is very bright and colorful. The sky is a vivid blue and the grass and trees are a strong green. The only levels I felt lacked color were the snow levels, for the obvious reason that snow has none. While the game is relatively simple, it is a great pick up and play title that is very easy to kill an hour with. The story advancements are done in a comic style, and they are both interesting and usually pretty funny.

As I mentioned before, the game is fairly simplistic. There are only so many times you can taxi people around before it gets boring. The mission-types vary slightly, but they all feel similar and handle the same way. For those of you who like your games with variety and depth, you may want to look elsewhere.

Landit Bandit is a fairly decent downloadable game. While it isn’t going to win any awards for creativity or gameplay, it handles well and is fun to play (if only for a little while). The game is available via the PlayStation Network for $9.99, but if you are interested, I would wait for a price drop or for it to go on sale.

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