Chasing Aurora

Genre: Arcade / Party Game

Players: 1-5 Competitive (Local)

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Review:

Chasing Aurora is an Arcade-style Party game released on Wii U in 2012 to coincide with that platform’s launch. This is an Arcade-style Party game where players take the roles of birds in various natural 2D levels, competing in various forms of… well, tag, pretty much. Meanwhile, in single-player, players race against a clock to fly as fast as they can through preset paths.

The presentation here is quite nice, making use of stylized 2D graphics that render the birds and environments using mostly geometric shapes with a pleasant, subdued color palette, backed by some pleasant acoustic music and relaxing ambient nature noises that really help to sell the game’s placid nature themes… themes that run counter to the game’s fast-paced competitive gameplay, so… while it is one of the nicer parts of this game, I’m not sure how appropriate the presentation is.

The game’s controls are simple, with players controlling their birds using the analog stick or D-pad combined with rhythmic button presses, with another button to have their bird dive at high speed. The word “rhythmic” is important there – button-mashing will find players struggling to gain altitude, and as a result players who find themselves in a frantic struggle may suffer as they fight against this natural instinct.

The problem that Chasing Aurora faces is that there’s just not very much content here, and what is here doesn’t differ too much. Three different forms of “tag” doesn’t give players too much to work with, and although it is nice that the game incorporates the Wii U gamepad to make two of those three modes asymmetrical, that hardly seems enough to make this a truly essential Wii U experience.

In the end, Chasing Aurora isn’t bad, and what’s here is actually quite nice, if a bit confused in what it’s trying to be. Unfortunately, with little in the way of single-player gameplay, only three versions of tag for multiplayer, and no online play, this game’s simple gameplay is too lacking in content to be diverting for very long. I commend the folks behind this game for dropping the price down to $8 from its original $15 launch price, but even with that discount, Chasing Aurora is still a somewhat lacking experience, even if its core gameplay is decent.

tl;dr – Chasing Aurora is an Arcade-style Party game where players navigate birds while playing different kinds of tag. The presentation in this game is pleasant even if it clashes with the gameplay, and that core gameplay here is good, but there’s just not enough content and variety to keep things interesting. There’s some fun to be had here, but this is far from a standout game, both in its genre and in the Wii U’s library.

Grade: C

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