I’m going to commit a bit of a cardinal sin in talking about Liberation Maiden, which is that I’m going to assume that you’ve played either Panzer Dragoon or Rez or preferably both.

If you haven’t, go get on that now.

If you have, and you have liked them, you would likely enjoy Liberation Maiden as well, because it copies the core mechanic of those games – hold a button and drag a targeting reticule around the screen to highlight stuff you are displeased with, release the button to unleash Macross-level missile spam, repeat.

Honestly, for a Suda51 game, it’s surprisingly, um,   normal. The plot is a little wacky – you play the teenage President of New Japan, tasked with flying into battle to save her country from alien invaders – but there are none of the truly bizarre moments I’ve come to expect from anything with a Grasshopper logo.

It’s a satisfying few levels of flying around and blowing stuff up, with some fantastic boss fights. It’s hindered a bit by being on a tiny screen – some of these visuals really deserve a better presentation, and it IS super short, but for 8 bucks on the eShop, I don’t see how you can go wrong.

I played it on the 3DS but it’s also been released for iOS. I will have to try it on the iPad to see the improved visuals and to see if the touch controls are better suited for it – the 3DS controls have you manipulating the left thumbstick and using the stylus AND using the shoulder buttons all at the same time and I wound up with a fantastic pain in my left wrist for most of the next day after playing for an hour.