You do not need ultra-realistic graphics or extreme cut scenes to make a fun game. Sometimes all you need to do is go back to some good old retro arcade fighter jet experience.
Sky Rogue is low poly, arcade-style fighter jet game. Playing Sky Rogue brings you back to playing at an arcade center with your friends. Especially when you set up split-screen co-op mode with a friend and try your best not to be blown out of the sky by the enemy drones, this game is all about to seek and destroy missions. Whether you are taking out a flying aircraft carrier like the ones from the Avengers movie or taking down specific buildings on an island, you can decide only to take down the primary mission target and land back at base. But if you do, you will not rack up the rewards that allow you to upgrade your ship so that you can better take out the increasingly more complicated missions that are presented before you. Your plane starts simple enough with a loadout that can get you by. You will then have to decide what is essential. I would recommend prioritizing your ship’s health before upgrading the weapons. Your ammo reloads on its own, well except for the flares. But your health does not. I do not know how many times the AAA or SAM or Drone enemies got a lucky shot on me, and it made me lose all that hard work I put into the ship. Oh, and one more thing, if you die, you lose all your upgrades. So those awesome weapons will do you no good if you are unable to take on the barrage of threats barreling towards you.
This game has many features that bring back that excellent arcade flight sim experience. Even better yet, you can play this title on multiple platforms such as the switch, Xbox, and PC, allowing it to be played just about anywhere. This mobility is excellent because this creates visibility and helps bring indie games to more and more people showing that you do not have to be AAA studio to create a fun and engaging experience.
Quick Join and Fast-Paced
Sky Rogue has many things going for it. One of the best parts of this game is that it doesn’t take long to get into the game and start taking down ships. Downtime is reserved for post-mission upgrading or when you fail to dodge that rocket coming at you. Otherwise, you are flying around to avoid missiles firing flares and taking down strategic mission targets. This game does an excellent job keeping you engaged and moving on to the next part of the mission. No long loading screens keeping you from the action or complicated menu systems preventing you from figuring out your next move.
As you start flying around, it might take a moment to get the controls and objective figured out, but it certainly feels like you are doing your best not to be shot down. Focusing on attaining all that extra coin for each of the buildings you can take out. Continually playing the game of how much risk should you take to get that upgrade you want and what you have to do to feel like you could even survive the next round.
Awesome Weapons
There are multiple weapon types you can use in this game. It starts with weapons that are typical in these games. The arms initially being rockets and guns. But they do start to get much more powerful and fancier as you progress through the research of weapons and increasing their effectiveness against your foes. It becomes super satisfying to throw a barrage of missiles at your target or getting in a high angle, taking them down with some cannon lasers. There are many weapons the game that can feel similar, but each has its pros and cons.
Something you will catch on quick if your aim is not high is there a flag for whether or not the weapon is guided. If a weapon is guided, you can lock on, and unless the enemy uses flares or pull a bank move, they are not likely to avoid your attack and be destroyed. You also need to earn money by taking out those installations so that your weapons can be upgraded that would update the statistics such as speed, reload speed, and damage. Taking down enemy drones does not earn you money, but you do get a tech point per drone that lets you research new ship bodies and weapons so you can try out new ways to clear out a mission 100%.
Missions that Get Harder
Each time you complete a mission, a day passes in-game. Between days you update your loadout for what you will take into battle. Or the Aerolab for researching those new ships and armaments. But be warned for each day that passes the mission gets harder and harder, given that this game plays like a hardcore character in other games. You have to be very picky about how you approach each level and how comfortable you feel with your plane.
The missions are never the same. Just because you cleared day seven last time because you had to take that carrier out of the sky does not mean that is what the next day 7 has in store for you. Also, being greedy for those upgrade dollars will bring in reinforcements that will do their best to take you down. Having a clump of drones that are trying to take you down can get tricky. The trickiness is especially apparent if you already have been damaged from the cutter cruise boats and missile towers on the island shooting at you, and the drones flying around at the start. Be prepared and hone your skills to survive the missions after day ten.
Retro Arcade Experience
Sky Rogue brings about nostalgia but without the complaints of taking the cartridge out and having to blow on it to get it to work. It is the modern expectation that it just works. Combined with the retro feel that has you telling your friends stories about the arcade center or old school console games you grew up playing. Even though it has that retro feel to it. Sky Rogue also has its style that keeps this game from being left in the dust by keeping you engaged and wanting just to hit that next mission.
The user interface is created in such a manner that it does not feel overwhelming for players. It is clean and straightforward, focusing on what matters more than the gameplay. It fits with what you would think with old arcade-style games. The interface is designed with a throwback gradient button and labels with simple stroke borders around menu items. It feels as though the developer created a constraint to limit the color palette to ensure they kept the game right to the vision of retro.
Ship Statistics
For each ship you unlock and start with, you can look at their statistics and decide for yourself how you want to go about your mission. Are you the kind of person that likes to tank the damage because you have not quite got the flares and proper barrel roll timing to avoid that incoming missile. Or are you the kind of person that likes to show off how fast they can go and avoid all those incoming missiles and pull an inverted move like in Top Gun against those enemy drones. It is up to you to play the way you want and see how far your skills take you.
Replayability
An aspect of this game that I did not expect was how badly I wanted to get further in each run that I played. I originally only got to day three before I died. Then shamefully only day two on the second playthrough, as you see below. But then I played again and again and learned from my mistakes learned how to dodge the missiles when I ran out of flares, which was annoying that my rockets and other offensive weapons reloaded infinity, but my defensive capabilities never did. I got much further after a few hours of grinding the game. The best part was I never even realized how much time passed.
This game has you wanting to play it more and more. If you lose, the only thing has you demotivated is the big You Died message. But it tells you what you achieved and how far you got. Which is just enough for you to say, “Oh, I can beat that.” So then you click the restart button, and before you know it you have spent way more time than you expected.
In Summary
This game is excellent if you enjoy arcade-like flight sims. It has fast-paced elements and can be a lot of fun. But not every game is for everyone, so check out the trailer and see if it appeals to you. The controls are easy to learn, the experience is fun, and the game is built in a quality manner that will have you jumping into your first mission faster than most splash screens in your standard AAA video game.
Support Fractal Phase and purchase this game on itch.io today, it’s on sale for 60%! for $7.98 instead of the usual $19.99. Itch.io also pays more directly to the developer. Support them and other great indie developers to show the world their incredible vision and experiences in ways that even AAA games fail to provide. Oh, and if you do purchase it on itch.io, you will receive a steam key as well, so you don’t have to worry about having games outside of one area if that is a concern.
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