Red Wings: Aces of the Sky

Genre: Combat Flight Simulator

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

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Review:

Red Wings: Aces of the Sky is a Combat Flight Simulator released in 2020 on PC, PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and Nintendo Switch. This game puts players in the role of a German fighter pilot flying missions with The Red Baron during World War I.

Before going on, I should note that this game has strong similarities to 2018’s Skies of Fury DX, and as such I will be copying my review of that game here and editing the details where appropriate.

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. Also, you have flying balloons that repair and refuel your aircraft, special moves that let you bash into enemy aircraft without taking damage, and the requisite “fly through the rings” missions. 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 pretty good, making use of colorful cel-shaded 3D visuals, with nice touches like the sun shimmering off the ocean, or battleships smoking beneath you. 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, as well.

The two areas I really wish this game had worked on was the content and environments. In the content area, you’ll only have a few types of missions you’ll play through – a regular combat mission where you’re dodging bullets and downing enemies, an escort mission where you’re doing that while protecting some friendly blimps from enemy aircraft, the aforementioned rings missions where you’re traveling through a specific course as fast as possible, and top-down bombing missions that are a nice change of pace, but so shallow that you’ll grow bored of them quickly. 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 ‘just kill all the enemies’ mission… and now another bombing 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 (zeppelins are in the game, but they’re fairly small). Just something beyond endless wheat fields below and nothing else.

At the very least, one area where this game separates itself from Skies of Fury DX is its RPG-style skill tree, where you unlock permanent upgrades based on your performance in missions. This is a great addition, though I do wish, if they were going for a lack of realism, they got more outlandish and creative with these upgrades.

On the other hand, this game lacks Skies of Fury DX’s 4-player gameplay, there’s no online play, and the leaderboards aren’t even online. Disappointing.

Still, despite my disappointment that Red Wings: Aces of the Sky 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 – Red Wings: Aces of the Sky is a Combat Flight Simulator where players take the role of a German fighter pilot during World War I. The core gameplay here is good, but the missions are too repetitive, and the environments lack any sort of variety beyond their appearance. This is a decent framework for a Combat Flight Sim, but it needs more work to be a truly great entry in the genre.

Grade: B-

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