Skies of Fury DX

Genre: Combat Flight Simulator

Players: 1-4 Team Competitive (Local Split-Screen)

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Review:

Skies of Fury DX is a combat flight sim where you take the controls of one of any number of World War I era fighter planes and fight it out with multiple enemies.

It takes a bit of adjustment to get used to the controls in this game, particularly making use of the “lock on” command, which is more like a “look in the direction of the enemy so you know where to point yourself” command. However, once you get a feel for how the game works, it becomes second nature, and you’ll find yourself quickly responding to situations as they arise.

The gameplay here is firmly of the “arcadey” variety – gravity isn’t really a consideration and you won’t be stalling out no matter which way you’re flying. In a sense, this plays almost more like a space shooter with a World War I biplanes theme, but as long as you aren’t expecting realism, the gameplay here is pretty top-notch.

Graphically, this game looks… actually really good for an indie title. Everything has a stylized, slightly cartoony look that works well for the game, and helps to keep the focus on the action. And the framerates remain consistently good, at least until you go into 4-player split-screen, which is okay – a small price to pay for an excellent 2 v 2 dogfight sim.

The two areas I really wish this game had worked on was the content and environments. In the content area, you’ll basically be looking at three types of missions – a regular combat mission where you’re dodging bullets and downing enemies, an escort mission where you’re doing that while protecting some non-combat planes as they travel to a destination, and rings/targets missions where you’re traveling through a specific course as fast as possible. Suffice it to say, this gets repetitive really quickly, and while the aerial combat in this game is certainly good, I was really wanting for something more substantial to apply my ace flying skills toward beyond “oh, here’s another escort mission… and now another rings/targets mission…”

The lack of variety in locales is another issue. Oh, don’t get me wrong, they look good enough, but beyond occasional clouds and different lighting conditions, they are, again, all the same. What I wouldn’t give for a fight in a mountainous valley, or amidst city skyscrapers! Or, if the game wanted to keep everything aerial, at least have stages fighting around a giant zeppelin or struggling with high winds and heavy weather as you seek out your enemies. Just something beyond endless wheat fields below and nothing else.

Still, despite my disappointment that Skies of Fury DX could have been so much more, what’s here is still quite excellent. As a pure combat flight sim, the gameplay works well, there’s good potential for multiplayer fun, and the visuals are solid. If only this game managed to fix its terrible lack of variety, it could have been something truly special on the Switch.

tl;dr – Skies of Fury DX is a WWI-era Combat Flight Sim, and what it does, it does well. The gameplay is solid, the graphics are good, and four players can have a blast in the 2v2 multiplayer mode. It’s just a shame the game is so lacking when it comes to the variety department, because it could have been even better.

Grade: B-

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