Flying Girl Striker

Genre: On-Rails Shooter

Players: 1

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Review:

Flying Girl Striker, released on Nintendo Switch in 2019, is an On-Rails Shooter in the vein of Panzer Dragoon or, to a lesser extent, Star Fox. Players take the role of a girl riding on an armed glider shooting enemies and evading gunfire herself.

The presentation in Flying Girl Striker isn’t horrible, but it definitely has its flaws. The character models for the girl, her aircraft, and enemy aircraft are generally pretty good, but the environments are somewhat sparse, and there’s some atrocious pop-in. The sound effects work well enough, but seem a bit detached from the action and don’t carry much weight. And the metal rock-inspired soundtrack works well enough for the game, but is largely generic and forgettable. In terms of presentation, the only thing you’re likely to remember about this game is that it’s “like Star Fox, but with a girl riding on top of the ship”. Oh, and on that note, that can be a problem, since the girl can obscure the action, making it harder to see, particularly in the area you’re aiming at.

I wish the presentation was the only issue here. Unfortunately, Flying Girl Striker has worse problems in its gameplay. The core mechanics here are fairly simple – you can steer, use a laser, or use one of a finite number of missiles after locking on to a target, much in the same way Panzer Dragoon works. Unfortunately, aiming in this game is a nightmare. You can have your aiming reticule right on your target or lead them a bit, it doesn’t matter – you will almost always miss with your shots. The missiles take a good long while to hit their target, but they are at least reasonably reliable, even if you second-guess using them due to their limited supply. Unfortunately, doing so doesn’t feel like it takes any skill. So you’re basically deciding between taking shots that almost always miss, or shots that never miss. Neither makes for very good gameplay.

I suppose I could detail the between-stages upgrades you can purchase using in-game points, but I don’t really see a need to bother with that. Quite simply, Flying Girl Striker is a terrible take on the Star Fox/Panzer Dragoon formula, one with graphical issues and where you’re guaranteed to miss unless you use missiles that can’t miss, taking the skill out of everything. The Nintendo Switch may not have a plethora of games in this genre, but even what few games there are here offer better options than this.

tl;dr – Flying Girl Striker is a Panzer Dragoon/Star Fox-style On-Rails Shooter where you control a girl riding on an armed glider. Unfortunately, the graphics are underwhelming and the gameplay forces players to choose between a weapon that almost always misses or a weapon that virtually never misses, with neither one being fun to use. Skip this game.

Grade: D

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