FUR Squadron

I would like to make it known this game controls well and plays well. My Negative review is solely on the basis of it lacking checkpoints, If I am on the third stage of a multistage boss at the end of a long on rails level and I die and the game puts me back at the beginning of the stage that really discourages the player.

So I can tell overall this is a labor of love, so I don't want to be too hard on the dev. Take this "negative" review as more of constructive criticism. Overall, it aims to recapture the vibe of Starfox. Although it strives to be more like the SNES version, it feels more like some hybrid of SNES and N64. There are obvious references and allusions to the characters, catchphrases, and other such fan service items - which I don't think is bad necessarily. However, the game really is a shadow of the games it aims to be like. For starters, I could forgive this game if it aimed and controlled better. The sensitivity of your craft while flying, even on the absolute lowest setting, is obnoxiously high. I had to turn down the settings using steam input just to get it to be managable. The aim box also snaps back to center way too fast. It makes it very hard to aim. Particularly in one boss, the camera inverts completely and it was literally impossible to aim properly while flying and avoiding. I almost rage quit here, but I managed to get past it by just firing down the hit areas that were on the periphery first, leaving me the center bits that were easier to aim at. However, I legit feel it may be impossible to hit those periphery areas once that camera inverts. The controls are also severely limited and lacking. There's shoot, missile, and single tap L/R for barrel roll. That's it. Where's the tilt left right? Where's the boost/brake? I can forgive it for not having U-turn/somersault, seeing as how short it is and that there's no all range mode sections, but at the same time, having no other basic additions just made the game feel very boring. Lastly, although I appreciate the synthwave asthetic (its one of my favourites), it needed better distinction for your projectiles and crosshair. I also feel the music in this was sorely lacking and not befitting of the aesthetic - you went for synthwave, where's the synthwave sountrack???? Even one track would be enough. Lastly, I found the powerups in this game to be a bit weird. Since you can't break wings or anything to lose your dual lazers, there's no risk once you get them except for dying. I also think that the powerups seemed to give you a ♥♥♥♥ ton of missiles which aren't very useful because there's never more than a few enemies on screen. I wanted twin lazers out the bat because aiming is so hard, but sometimes you don't get the upgrade until well into a level. My last gripe, and this is a big one, is that the last boss had a really obnoxious last phase. Very hard to hit, not at all indicative of the difficulty of the rest of the game thus far, and when you die? guess what ♥♥♥♥♥, back to the beginning. I just rage quit honestly as the game wasn't really all that enjoyable. Yeah yeah skill issue whatever, I'd rather be playing Starfox 64 decomp. This game really needed a bit more time in the oven. I don't mean because it needs more content or levels - what's there is mostly fine. But what's there just isn't all that enjoyable of an experience because the things that make Starfox great aren't really implemented. If the dev went back and tweaked based on some of my suggestions, I would easily recommend this to people on sale for a few bucks, which is how I got it. But 8.99 CAD full price for what's here is not worth it unfortunately. Look, Star Fox 64 is one of my FAVORITE games of all time, easily. I replay it almost every year. It's almost a flawless game in my opinion. However, this game just really doesn't quite get where it needs to. If you're a fan of Starfox and you squint really really hard and ignore its many, many flaws, you might enjoy the experience. But in all honesty, The 30 mins you'd spend playing this and beating it will just make you wish you were playing Star Fox 64 instead, rather than making you feel like something modern has scratched the Star Fox itch. TL;DR - "We have Starfox at home"