I played though this 4 times, how fitting. :)
I really want to like this game, but there are several issues where I just can't.
Let's talk about the good!
HTML5! Really, this is very well made for HTML 5! The animation and voice acting and music all streamed very quickly that it seemed like there was absolutely no loading! I really appreciate that!
The way the plane moves. Not necessarily the controls. The way it reacted to gravity and acting like it would stall if you fly straight up was very realistic for the type of plane modeled. But my favorite aspect was how it bounced on the ground, I loved doing that in the tutorial stage as it didn't kill you! :) I would like to see a reaction/puzzle based game where you have to fly your plane though all sorts of crazy levels and bounce off of walls and other interesting areal maneuvers that are not possible in real life. I didn't have an issue with the controls.
As for the graphical features I liked, I loved the Newgorounds Logo, the forts, and the little puff of smoke your shots made when they impacted the ground. Those were all very cool to look at. I think that the barren sky could have been filled with more interesting details.
Finally, the soundtrack was nice to listen to. The SFX may have been a bit too loud, but that wasn't an issue with me. I really like the Wilhelm scream in one of the endings. The one time I cracked a smile. I also liked the voice that sounded like Markiplier. Was it Markiplier?
Now for the not so good. :(
Again, I really want to like this game, and I would consider all of these things to ultimately detract from the experience.
The intro. Not the length or anything, but the really lack luster content and "humor?" I also figured out how to skip it without reading or looking at anything, but I did watch it twice to make sure that I actually didn't like it. I don't like it.
For being a game about flight, there really isn't too much flight featured. I also don't care about Gunnar, and that is kind of not good as he is the most complex character in the game. I can sympathize with his dreams, and I can understand how he could want to make leisure flying cars as well as war bound aircraft, but I just don't care about him because he cares about soup and a toilet and his car, but mostly his toilet. Honestly the intro wouldn't have been so bad if it wasn't for the ending... But let's talk about the short gameplay!
I can appreciate a short game, but when I played the game I didn't expect there to be a literal fort that I would then fight that would then lead to the ending. I don't count that single tower as a fort personally. I would have also liked to have seen the towers take more damage as they were shot, not just the part that is shooting at you. As they are made out of what looks like 4 blocks, I think that a bit of modular design to animate damage would have been very cool. Again, one of my favorite parts was the look of the forts. I would like to see them take more damage. It would also give me something else to shoot at.
As for the shooting, the machine gun is OP. There is no reason to not use it until you have to shoot the three blue barrels all the way at the end with the rockets. That is pretty much all of the battle strategy in this game.
Now on to a few bugs I encountered. First, I noticed that none of the achievements are unlocking even though I get the animation. That is odd. Second, I died once at 100 health. As in, the health bar read 100% and the plane crashed without any input from me. And when I crashed the plane was still at 100% health. Odd.
I did notice a few blips of nothing between, what I assume are, state changes. Nothing detrimental and I didn't get them on the second third or fourth play though. Probably a streaming thing, but like I said, blips that lasted a few frames.
Ok, now the ending. The worst part of the game. Let me get something clear right now - you broke the first law of giving a player choices. NEVER make the player make a moral choice that they DO NOT want to. You have four options, and they can all be chosen, but only ONE ends the game. Yes, the outcomes are very similar, but the only viable option is the last one. Not to mention that one that is chosen for you if you choose nothing. I kind of expected an indecisive joke.
Yes, there are "Yes and No" choices that end the same way in games, but that is still a choice. There is no choice here.
Anyway, I also don't care about the villain and the girlfriend character. It really only feels like the girlfriend was only tacked on as a last thought. I like the part where she fights back, but then well you don't expand on her character in any relevant way. As for the villain, the only way to really make him better would be to have him look a bit like Thomas Edison for obvious patent stealing reasons.
I wouldn't say anyone in this game was too likable maybe the guy that gives Gunnar an award in the intro? Who knows? He's probably a pedophile anyway, so no reason to like him.
Now the icing on the cake, the car files off and we never see it - or our toilet - again. Then the thing just ends. It just ends! No space level? NO SPACE LEVEL? NO! SPACE! LEVEL!? You have a set up for an epic vengeance quest space level with asteroids and crap and you don't take that opportunity? I mean if not for your GF at least for the soup and your toilet! Come on! How cool would steam punk space forts have been? I really did expect more than one level. I honestly think that is the BIGGEST let down of this game. The story is bad with no pleasant resolution for the player. I guess Gunnar was happy sitting in his chair and holding up a sign at the end as if to say, "Yeah, this meant nothing to me. I'll just build another car, eat some soup and, shit in a brand new golden toilet that I buy with my flying car money."
I think too much time was spent on the intro and outro and not on the game. Let's fix that with some advice! :)
Ok, I like the controls and the plane and I want to see an actual good game with likable characters. So now let's take what you have and rearrange it.
Gunnar wants to build a flying car - that takes cash. He can build other planes that are cheaper. Going back to my acrobatic puzzle suggestion, why not have him build and fly stunt planes to earn cash to build better planes and eventually the flying car?
You want war in you game? NO PROBLEM! Patriotic air shows to drum up support for war are kind of already a thing. You could even have him shooting down some steam punk air blimp for all I care, but make it interesting and relevant to the story at hand. A guy trying to make a flying car.
You want real hardcore war shit with a moral choice that has no good resolution? Have Gunnar take a test flight, and during the flight a weapon/bomb/laser/toilet "accidentally" malfunctions and kills innocent people. This could have been avoided by not taking the warbond money, but as it stands there is no real way to see that coming. However, it is still a choice that could been avoided.
Do I expect you to implement any or all of these suggestions? No. I feel that any of them are better than the story currently presented in the game, and anything even NO STORY would have been more enjoyable.
Again, I really like the plane and the way it controls and I do think that it could be expanded into a far better game.
As far as team work and actual game play execution you get 5 Stars from me. For all of the extra crap that is so bad I am going to take away so many stars that it wraps back around to 4. Not to mention I didn't see a theme of four. There weren't even 4 cans of soup, there were 3 and half, but now I am just getting nit-picky.
Anyway, a solid 4 from me for the gameplay mechanics alone. You have something good here, but it could have been great.