Sky Rogue

Genre: Combat Flight Simulator

Players: 1-2 Co-Op (Local Split-Screen)

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Review:

Sky Rogue is a combat flight sim with a low-poly old-fashioned look to it, with graphics that seem decades out of date… or look delightfully quaint, depending on your point of view.

Despite its extreme old-school look, Sky Rogue does have a lot of very modern stuff here as well. For starters, the game has solid resolutions and framerates even in 2-player split-screen co-op mode. And then there’s the game’s controls, which give you a lot of options, including the “Danger Zone” control scheme, which uses motion control to have one Joycon emulate a throttle, and the other one emulate a flight stick. This control scheme works surprisingly well, although I very much suck at controlling the game this way. The folks behind this game deserve all sorts of credit for coming up with such a unique approach to game controls.

However, while the game goes all-out in some places, in others it regrettably skimps. Man, what I wouldn’t give for the ability to play this game with a perspective in the cockpit. Given the pseudo-realistic control options, you can only ever view the game from an arcadey third-person view, which is disappointing. In addition to this, there doesn’t seem to be any rhyme or reason to the missions you get sent on, nor much variety – Go out to some island chain, destroy either a ground target, a large aircraft, or multiple smaller aircraft (while dodging fire from those and other enemies), and return to your wannabe SHIELD helicarrier. Rinse, repeat. Also, while I very much appreciate the opportunity to play the game in splitscreen co-op, I wish there were an option here for competitive play – either racing to down the most targets, or actually getting into a dogfight. Alas, no such luck.

Because of this, Sky Rogue feels oddly incomplete and even a bit experimental. The game does some really inventive stuff and actually makes for a fun experience, but it also feels like it could have been developed into something much more rich and cohesive. As it is, it’s still a good time for one or two players, but with more work, it could have been something more.

tl;dr – Sky Rogue is a Combat Flight Sim with extremely old-school low-poly graphics. Its gameplay is surprisingly solid, with very stable 2-player splitscreen co-op, and the “Danger Zone” motion-sensing control option is absolutely inspired, but the lack of variety and polish makes the game feel incomplete.

Grade: B-

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