Skies of Fury Review

Skies of Fury DX

Skies of Fury on Nintendo Switch has some the best dogfighting I’ve played in awhile but lacks any real depth to want to play it for a long period of time.

Graphics 8

• Cell shaded graphics at their finest. The planes look amazing like they were taken out of a World War One comic book. They are worn and look like they have been through some battles.
• The stages look pretty good, almost like pastel water paintings with beautiful puffy clouds. Unfortunately, each stage is nothing more than a pallet swap, so it really lacks in variety. The ground looks the same other than the colors changing.
• Watching the pilot’s scarf flapping in the wind or the bullets ripping through the sky are great details that really help this game shine graphically
• The game looks good both docked and undocked with no frame rate issues.     

Sound 9

• From the rumble of the engines to the firing of machines guns this game nails it in the sound department.
• The music fits perfectly with dogfights and helps give you that feeling that you are in an epic battle to the death.  

Story 6.0

• The story is told through comic strips at the end of each level. There’s not much here to make you care about the characters or what’s going.
• This is an arcade shooter with minimal story elements sprinkled in, that doesn’t make it bad just don’t expect much from it in the story department.    

Content 5.5

• Looking at this game initially it looks like a buffet of content, but when you get to dig into it you realize it’s missing the main course, like nothing but mashed potatoes with a color palette swap
• Three game modes
  • Campaign:
    • Little to no story
    • 3 recurring missions: Dogfight, escort, and fly the rings.
    • You can level up your pilot, unlock plane skins and loot boxes that unlock more skins and different crosshairs. Having all those unlocks seems like you play forever, but the monotony of the same three missions will wear you out quick.
    • Leveling up your pilot would feel more rewarding if it actually seemed like you were leveling up. After leveling up in the campaign and then jumping into survival nothing seemed to change.
    • All the skins are really cool some have animations like fire coming off of them, but the problem is some skins unlocked from loot boxes still are then locked until reaching 70 or 80 in the campaign.
    • You can add modifiers to make the missions more difficult, but it doesn’t change the fact that repeating the same three missions over and over.
  • Survival
    • This can be solo or split screen.
    • Probably the best mode in the game because you can compete against yourself trying to get the best score and highest wave.
    • You level up as you progress, so it’s a nice touch but again I didn’t really notice any differences in my plane.
  • Versus
    • In tabletop mode, you can share the joy and go head to head with one joy con each
    • In docked mode, you can do up to 4 players
    • Computer players help fill the battle with more players, so it’s fun but gets old pretty quick
    • There’s no online multiplayer for this game and it’s really a shame because it would have really added to the replayability.

  Control 9.0

• Controls are tight and responsive.
• Maneuvering in for the kill or getting a bogey off of your tail was no problem with joycons or the pro controller.
• Using split joycons is a little more tricky. You use the L and R buttons as modifiers for the four face buttons. Pressing the up button will throttle up, but if you’re pressing the trigger the up button will activate your ultimate. It works but I wouldn’t recommend it for long play sessions.

Gameplay 5.5

• Gameplay is where this game is so divided. I feel like it’s all dressed up but has nowhere to go.
• This game absolutely nails being a top-notch arcade shooter, the dogfights are intense and just fun! There’s a little too much auto aim for my liking, but it makes the game more accessible for players of all levels. That is a minor complaint in the otherwise stellar dogfighting mechanics.
• What’s really lacking is variety.
  • You basically play on one level with different colors, give me some canyons or buildings to help mix up the gameplay.
  • Though there are multiple skins, why not create multiple classes of planes? Light, medium and heavy would allow you to choose a play style you like and add variety to the game
  • Three missions repeated again and again isn’t a campaign and why during a war game am I flying through rings as a mission? It’s like doing a continuous tutorial. Let’s take out some ground transports or attack some bases. Let me escort ground troops, or just control the gunner in the backseat, something to break the monotony.
  • If the campaign isn’t the main focus of the game and multiplayer is then why isn’t there an online mode? I feel like this title suffers from an identity crisis and it bums me out because I see so much potential to fill the void in gaming that has been missing since Crimson Skies on the OG Xbox.     

Final Score 7.2