QCF - Sky Rogue

he Ace Combat series has provided decades of great aerial combat action since the first game in the series was ported to the original Playstation in 1995. Since then, other franchises have strived to bring that same magic to the home market, including Konami's Air Force Delta, Sega's Aero Dancing and Aero Elite and Ubisoft's H.A.W.X.

But what if players wanted an air combat game with fictional aircraft, roguelite mechanics, and original Virtua Fighter style visuals? Well, Fractal Phase Games' Sky Rogue has you covered. Sky Rogue was released on the Nintendo Switch on April 26, 2018, and it basically ticks off all of those boxes. Featuring cool aircraft design and a fantastic retro-3D aesthetic – not to mention a hefty amount of action – Sky Rogue fills a niche on the Nintendo Switch that we can only hope to see more titles of in the future.

The idea of Sky Rogue, like most other roguelites, is to progress through a set of progressively more difficult, randomized missions. Each mission will have players square off against various air and land targets marked in red while contending with increased enemy resistance and reinforcements indicated in white. Anyone mission can go on as long as the player has fuel to do it, meaning they can get extra experience for taking out more enemies in addition to their main targets. When players get their fill, they must land on their base by approaching and pressing the B-button. Equipped with various weapons including guided and unguided missiles, rockets, bombs, and guns, Sky Rogue offers quite a bit of content for players that enjoy the roguelite experience, especially with a wealth of unlockables.

Players take control of aircraft known as Aeros to take on their missions. Flying the Aero is easy, and there are three control schemes that should allow any player to jump right into the action. Normal controls are actually pretty advanced; players roll their Aero by tilting the left analog stick left or right while pulling down on the stick ascends and pushing up descends. R2 and L2 control the amount of thrust the Aero put out.

Too little and it will stall and too much will make for super wide turns and shallow climbs and dives, which don't work well for dogfights. Meanwhile, the L and R buttons control the Aero's yaw, allowing for lateral movement without the user left or right roll. Pairing them allows for a true barrel roll, just like a real plane. This setup allows for a full range of 3-D control, allowing for fancy, tactical flying.

Toggling on “arcade” controls simplifies everything though; players turn left or right without active roll, and ascension/descent are controlled as normal, but only to a certain angle. No Aileron rolls or Emmelmans here, allowing for simple control anyone can get used to.

Finally, Danger Zone controls can be activated with Arcade control toggled either on or off. Danger zone uses the motion controls in the Switch's Joycons to replicate the feeling of flying with a control yoke and throttle; the left Joycon is held laterally and works like the throttle on a motorbike while the right Joycon is held vertically like a control stick. Tapping the ZR button also allows for a quick aileron roll. In all cases, Inverted controls for the X and Y-axes are also available for the weirdos that like playing stuff like this backwards, regardless of control type.

Each Aero has its own individual speed, maneuverability, weapon capacity and endurance to enemy fire. Some are better suited for hit-and-run ground attacks while others are great for aerial dogfights against multiple targets. While only one balanced Aero is available to start, others can be unlocked by collecting experience from combat points and raising the player's level. At level-up, a number of new weapons and aircraft can be unlocked, which makes repeat play more appealing.

Selecting weapons can be done by tapping the X-button or by holding it and selecting the desired weapon with the left stick. The Y-button fires the weapon and the A-button deploys countermeasure to throw off locked enemy weapons. This control setup works very well for normal and arcade controls, but the Danger Zone Controls aren't very well laid out; even though it's super satisfying to shoot missiles with the R or SR-buttons, selecting other ordinance is super awkward.

Even with a bitchin' Aero bristling with a heavy-duty ordinance, Sky Rogue can get pretty challenging, as is typically the case with this style of game, across all genres. The Aerolab helps with this; using credits obtained through enemy kills, players can upgrade their Aeros and weapons into more powerful versions. This means that players should do their best to take on as many enemy units as possible to enhance their Aero to better deal with later stages. However, in true roguelite fashion, these enhancements disappear when the player is destroyed. With practice – and some extra powerful unlocked weapons – players should still make some decent progress.

All the while, Sky Rogue's low-poly yet super-sharp visuals make for a visually interesting time. Billowing clouds obscure enemy units while landscaped pop out of a plainly textured ocean. Enemies and player aircraft sport cool Japanese-style sci-fi designs and subtle textures. There's even a ton of color schemes to customize your planes and base with, including a cool one that I use (for obvious reasons) called “True North”. With a clean, easy-to understand UI and highly visible elements even at distance, Sky Rogue looks pretty darn neat. Same goes for Sky Rogue's sound. Punchy tunes are appropriate; not too sluggish, not to over-driven. Likewise, the sound effects and alerts are all fitting for their applied use.

Perhaps best of all though, Sky Rogue features a split-screen multiplayer mode, allowing for two players to take on the campaign in a cooperative fashion at home or on the go!

I love me an air combat game from time to time, and while it's definitely nowhere near what Ace Combat has been even on the PlayStation 2, Sky Rogue has its own unique takes on the genre that make it pretty fun to play in my downtime. Especially with the vast wealth of Aeros and high-tension action – in the danger zone or otherwise – Sky Rogue is one you'll want to lock onto and won't want to miss.