Wild Blue Skies

Well.. if you were looking for a modern star fox this is... kinda it. Right off the bat I was hit with a bug where the entire menu was outlined black and could not do anything. ok restart. that's rough but moving forward As far as style goes it feels bright, vibrant, and has its own indie charm. However much of that charm falls away as you come to realize I would be having more fun playing star fox 64. Shooting is subpar compared to a game on the N64. the 3 round burst is odd considering they tell you to hold the fire button down to keep shooting in the tutorial which is just simply wrong. why can I not fire consistently? I don't see any good reason to do that. the barrel roll feels stiff and moving around feels like ice skating. your buddies are fun and I appreciated their charm so that's something. I have put maybe 30 minutes into the game and I'm already a quarter of the way done with the game which is not good I was hoping for more time than that even with the badge collecting which is incredibly easy. first boss was just a straight rip off and incredibly easy. like done in less than a minute easy. No real conversations going on just the random bad guy throwing one liners when you hit them. It just feels underbaked. and no backwards loop? forgive me if I don't know the term for it but man you would expect a modern star fox copy to at least have more maneuvers let alone ones that were actually in star fox to begin with. After the second boss fight which was a cakewalk again I realized this was going to be over sooner than I would like and that it provides no real challenge. I'm not flexing. the game is just easy. all in all it feels like a cheap knockoff of the original while not even meeting its standards, I thought it was cool, it was a little fun but there were too many bad things that outweighed the good. I would not recommend this game sadly.

It's a literal copycat of Starfox 64 without some of the things that made Starfox 64 fun. No somersaults or U-turns, too many enemies and flight hazards, poor flight controls, and dull gameplay. I think the only time I was excited was the first stage, Archipelago, because I didn't know what I was in for. I was immediately bored because it and almost every subsequent stage is a copycat of some Starfox 64 stage. I wanted new levels, new experiences, new characters to enjoy, not a game that already exists five times. Among myriad other issues, like enemies clipping through level geometry, charge shots being a different button from normal fire altogether, weak lasers, and no way to shake enemies off your tail, there are a lot of decisions made during development that I disagree with. If you're going to copy the homework, at least make sure you still get the answers right! Honestly, if I knew that this is what they were building (the demo level, Hurricane, is relatively unique!), I would've passed on it. Spend your money on games that do more with less, like Ex-Zodiac or Whisker Squadron. THOSE are unique and fun experiences that fill the void of "I want more Starfox" without being the same game.

This game could have spent some more time in the oven. Obviously, it takes a lot of inspiration from Star Fox 64, but while it looks the part, the controls really make this an oddity. And it's a shame really, because despite the near parasitic draw it has on Nintendo's franchise, it failed to draw in what makes the game both accessible and fun. The Pros: - it looks great! Very bright and vibrant - while it's a bit less polished in some areas, the various upgrades and pick-ups you're presented are very easy to spot. - The cast is well voiced! The people picked for these roles really hone in on the drama of being shot down, the excitement of success, and every emotion in-between. Kudos to the directors and VAs who made that happen. - The ship controls very well! Banking has an easing to it that makes it feel super natural and the boosts/brakes have a bit of impact to them, giving you a good indicator when it activates. The Cons: - When the controls are bad, they're VERY bad. The game lacks somersaults and manual U-turns, so fights in all-range mode has little flow to them. I also realized that you can't pivot up when you're at the top of the vertical border, leaving enemies out of reach if they go high enough? - Putting the charge and burst shots on different buttons is very weird and clunky. Standard shots only fire in bursts of 3, but holding the button does nothing. Charge shots do nothing until you've waited long enough... All of this happening while enemies are thrown at you at a sometimes blazing pace. Other games put them on one button for a reason. - Speaking of charge shots, the range and distance where they lock-on is very short. This is another problem with all-range mode specifically, as some enemies are very visible, but any attempt to destroy them is a waste of time. - The enemies are invulnerable to level geometry. It was very disappointing to witness several instances of an enemy in all-range mode phase through a massive pillar in the center. It feels untested, cheap, and looks awful. - Weapon downgrades happen in as little as two hits, and can go from the most powerful to the worst as a result. Even with the most powerful lasers, every enemy takes several hits to shoot down, making the game feel more tedious than anything when you're floating around with a pea shooter. - The enemy will NOT miss you. There will be times where you don't even see an enemy, but their fired shot will find you with no problem. - And finally... it's all just so derivative. Character concepts, stage concepts, music, even the spoken lines all take inspiration from Star Fox 64, almost to the point of parody. It gets pretty bad when you find yourself quoting a game that you're on your first run of, almost like its reminding you that a better, more fleshed out version of itself existed 30 years ago. Hopefully, the team is apt to make changes/update this game with more content and options. This would be so much cooler if it chose to be inspired, yet be its own game (and not by making the flying/shooting mechanics worse), but instead it falls flat on the reasons why people like Star Fox 64 in the first place. The spark is definitely there, but flame is not.

All the reviews calling this a blatant star fox ripoff are pretty accurate. The first level is literally Corneria all the way down to you starting off in open waters, flying into the city, and then you fly through some rings to get to the alternative boss or don't and end up in a wide open field fighting a mech. Level 3 is a Desert variation of Fichina complete with you fighting your 4 rival pilots. But they took all the fun of star fox and removed it for tedious garbage. I got hit by a single bullet and that bullet bounced me into a wall causing me to lose more than half of my health and all of my blaster upgrades. From a single stray bullet knocking me into a wall! And then there's the dog fights. Your team is so horrifically incompetent that they die in 10 seconds on any dog fight map. AND THEY REMOVED THE SUMMERSAULT! The one move that makes it so the dog fights against the rival 4 isn't insanely tedious and they REMOVED IT! If you want to make a blatant star fox rip off, at least figure out the parts that actually make star fox fun! This is just tedious! How can you screw up an on rails shooter this badly!? 100% refunding this.

Lots of love seen put into this. Love the characters, though I wish your companions had a bit more to say. Definitely got my Star Fox kick from this, I just wish it was longer, there are alternate paths but they aren't very obvious how to unlock them. I like it, but it left me wishing there was just more content.

If you're expecting a new StarFox, this isn't it, I found it slow and not very exciting. The good news is there's a demo! Give it a try before you buy.

I try to almost never refund games on Steam (outside of technical issues where I literally can't play) but this is just an almost 1-to-1 at times copy of Star Fox but with the locations of levels shuffled in some cases. The First Level is just Corneria complete with secret boss by way of flying through rock circles (but slightly changed with waterfalls blocking some visually and a few added circles), The Arctic level is mostly just a reskin of the underwater level from 64 but with the usual fighter jet instead of the unique submarine, etc. There's homage and then there's this. I was really hoping for a new game LIKE Star Fox, not just a new worse version of the old game.

A little bit of a disappointment. I believe there is a good game under this but it needed a little more time in-development. First, I think it looks really good, nothing incredible but the art is nice and the characters look cute. Voice acting, on point, even though there isn't that much dialog. And it does simulate an on-rail shooter (with anthropomorphic animals)... serviceably. Unfortunately, the gameplay is lacking. The controls are not very good for this type of game, that you need precision. The enemy variety is also not enough to be a fun challenge. Your companions, which you are incentivized to keep them alive, don't do anything besides being extra targets. They also die extreme fast, way too fast. On top of all of it, the game is really short. I also don't understand why you would put lives in a modern game, let alone not include a “continue” option. I get the idea of being “old school” but it feels like extreme padding (as it was in old school/arcade games) since the game is extremely short. Keeping on that note, if this was an arcade game, and it does have a point system in place for it, you would have that option to keep going but you would strip your player of all their points or rewards as a punishment. It's hard to put too much pressure on an actual indie game but, with what they have here, it can much better with some very small changes. I cannot recommend it as is, for now. Maybe if they change things up I will change my mind.