Grade: B+
Fwooshy N64-looking air combat
Sky Rogue is a game that grew on me over time. However, I wasn’t having much fun when I first played it. The controls felt laggy, and I wasn’t digging the general flow of air combat.
What changed my mind was playing multi-player local co-op on a split screen with family. Doing the missions with a partner and having each other’s “6” and top gunning together made this game a blast. If you’re going to play this game with a friend, it’s a buy. Solo, it’s a take-it or leave-it recommendation.
How’s this thing work?
Let’s dig in. Sky Rogue starts you off on an airship carrier. You choose your plane and then a variety of weapons in your ship’s loadout, and then begin. The more you play, the more you can unlock planes and different types of weapons. At first, the choices are minimal.
When you choose your loadout, you can select a mix of machine guns, Air to Air, Air to Ground, guided/unguided missiles, flares, drones, and more. It’s a whole bevy of options.
You can load up until you hit your payload and avionics limits for that plane. So big bombers in sky rogue can be loaded with massive weapons. On the other hand, small craft has better speed/maneuverability but fewer armaments they can hold.
Missions themselves are a grabbag of objectives
When you start the game, it’s pretty easy the first few missions. You need to blow up a building while a few drone planes attack you. Or, you need to take out a few slow-moving cargo planes.
It soon ramps up, though. The enemy ships spawn faster, and the objectives are harder to accomplish. My strategy overall was to get in/get out as soon as possible. I made a straight beeline to the objective, destroyed it, and then dodged my way back to the friendly air carrier base while ignoring the enemy fighters.
I don’t think this is optimal since you can upgrade between missions with money based on the number of kills you get in a mission. So you must find a balance between being overwhelmed by enemy waves or ending a mission too early (which leaves you with no upgrade money).
On my best run, I got to around level 9 before crashing and burning. Recognizing and breaking the guided missile locks in time was the pain point that blew me out of the sky. Also, just patience was my killer. You have to patiently wait your moment when circling around and getting behind the other aircraft so that you’re not running head-to-head with enemy planes.
The entire game has 13 levels, so I got about 2/3 of the way through the game on my best run. Here’s a playthrough of the final level if you’re into that sort of thing. It’s 18 minutes of carefully circling and breaking missile locks. It’s not the most exciting final ending I’ve ever seen, but it’s more than I could achieve. Hat tip to this gamer.
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