Wild Blue Skies

OK, to begin with, I'm a huge arcade shooter Star Fox fan. I have been with the series since I was a kid. Favorite game in the series is 64 and has always been that way. However, just please, just go play Star Fox 64 instead, or SNES, or Assault, or Zero, or the Switch 2 remake of 64 depending on which one you like best. Go even play the other indie Star Fox games like Ex-Zodiac or something since that's a good game. I don't care, just save your money on this. But back to the topic at hand, this game was just disappointing from a gameplay standpoint. The graphics are good, the characters are likable, the music's nice and all. However, if you're looking for something from a Star Fox indie like game like you initially would after seeing how awesome this game looks from the trailers and demo and things like that, look elsewhere. To begin with, this game does not control like Star Fox 64 at all, and you're probably thinking like me "How can they screw up controls in a Star Fox like game?" Let me explain: You cannot do a somersault or a U-turn at all this game so that already cancels everything I was excited for in this game, and this game features all-range mode missions so how do you maneuver and dodge from incoming enemy fire from behind or from SIDEWAYS? Well there's no way currently so that's just great. If you're not going to have somersault or a U-turn then why have all-range mode segments? Another thing I really hate is the charge shot and the rapid laser are two different buttons in this game. And those two being the same button is important because me personally, I do not want two different fire buttons to swap between, especially if you don't have a way to remap buttons which this game does not have at all. The controls are abysmal to the point where I am just gonna go back to Star Fox 64. That being said, I do not recommend this game in the state that it's in. Either save your money or try out the demo first to see if you like the controls first. Me personally, I cannot play a Star Fox like that doesn't have the basic maneuver mechanics the series was known for.

I love Starfox games, and I was expecting something that would give me that jolt of excitement, but I personally feel like it missed the mark. Hoping that it gets more polished in the future.

[b]TL;DR - This is a bad Star Fox 64 clone. I don't mean that as a bad rail shooter (although it is), but specifically a bad imitation of the '97 masterpiece. The game is almost completely bereft of creativity. Go play Ex-Zodiac, it's in Early Access, but that dev actually polishes to masterpiece quality BEFORE releasing to the public and has its own clear identity to boot.[/b] I've been playing shmups for 35 years, scored 2k+ in SF64, including 595 in Area 6. I bought the '26 remake and am loving it. Wild Blue Skies feels like an early beta version of 64 before any of the polish was done. Controls are tight, but they also feel stiff. Bugs and bad game design galore. It's so bad, I had intended to go through at least one full route, but the poor gameplay killed my motivation in the middle of stage 4. From what little I played, it is imitating SF64 in bad ways, almost like they were trying to do it from memory. Stage 1 feels like a reimagining of Corneria, right down to a wingman being downed by three enemies while another wingman tells you to boost to chase them. The boss puts you into all range, but at least it's not a bipedal machine with breakable legs (it's a spider with weak points where the legs meet the body), so there's that, I guess. In the second stage, Hurricane, your team is talking about the enemy hiding in this storm (Meteo, sound familiar?) and you fight a boss that is basically a mechanical octopus. First real divergence from SF64, but this is such an underwhelming boss and it's mostly because once you kill all of its tentacles, only its head remains. Its head is also where you'll deal 95% of the damage. In both the demo that I played many months ago and in the full release now, I killed all the tentacles before attacking the head. While the tentacles are still up, the head will attack by shooting water geysers. This is very important because once all the tentacles are gone, the head will just sit there AFK as if the boss ragequit. I literally sat there shooting for about 30 seconds without being attacked, barely moving the stick to aim. I could understand this maybe happening during development many months ago, but not after release! Third stage is Fichina/Fortuna (it's mistranslated as Fortuna on N64), except you are planting a bomb. [strike]Star Wolf[/strike] I mean The Prowlers will even come to try to stop you midway through and the cutscene is even nearly identical to 64's. The only real divergence here is the Prowlers don't chase any of you for some inexplicable reason. Instead, they all just fly around like regular CPU ships, but I think they'll shoot at you if you're in their sights. Your wingmen will also just fly around like regular CPU ships and avoid chasing the enemy squadron. I also saw one of them fly into the giant drill thing in the center, but seemingly did not get damaged because I never saw the ship react. The stage ended when the time bomb reached zero, but there was no warning ahead of time other than a small countdown timer in the corner of the screen. Fourth mission is where I stopped, this is Poor Man's Zoness. The intro implies I'm supposed to be sneaking through, but I missed at least one light (at least it looked like a searchlight), but nothing bad happened??? I quit midway through after another Poor Man's "Falco gets chased by three ships" scenario. It all just felt very rushed. Enemies feel like sponges overall. Things that should take no more than two hits maximum end up taking at least three (searchlights take three!). Barrel rolling prevents you from shooting during the barrel roll. Braking causes you to descend (okay I get it, it's a jet fighter, but still doesn't feel good). Locking on feels like it takes a few frames too long (in 64, you can spam charged shots, harder to do here). Taking damage while you have any laser upgrade will inevitably cause you to LOSE that upgrade, again, this does not feel good, not in an arcade style setting. Uninstalling. Hopefully the devs get their act together and find an ounce of creativity so they can call this game their own one day.

I had been eagerly looking forward to this game, and it was worth the wait, in my opinion. So...okay, let's get the obvious out of the way, first. Yes, this is very similar in style to Star Fox 64 (and you might pick up on a few shared motifs from that game), however it is quite different (story-wise) and has a steeper learning curve. No space fighters here, this is all on one planet, with jet fighters. Some wonder about the shooting and charge shot buttons being different, but the games makes it clear these are both for different tactics. You'll be switching between outright shooting and firing a charge shot, depending on the type of foes ahead of you. Things like dodge rolls and brakes/boost will matter, as the enemies aren't going to just fly around blindly for you to shoot at. They will try to fight you. In the 360 arenas (all-range mode?), you actually will get foes on your back, hitting you. Some enemies will even try to ram you. Plus, your teammates aren't going to be just yelling for you to save them every 10 seconds, you have to actually pay attention to the battlefield and them. Many stages have odd requirements for changing paths, and it's not going to be announced. They expect gamers to be gamers and learn. And that's a key word for this game: Learning. This game has a learning curve, and you're going to stink at first, quite a bit. But over time, you'll start getting better and better, until you're actually nailing certain courses. ------- Now for the harsh words. Why does this game have mixed reviews (as of this review), you ask? Part of it is players struggling with difficulty and controls. I highly recommend changing your settings to make the "ship's responsiveness, set to High", which tightens steering. And trust me, you're going to need tight steering in some later stages (*cough* Grotto *cough*). And definitely turn On "Continuous Fire", meaning instead of mashing the fire button, you just hold it down, and focus on aiming. But the other issue, are fans of Star Fox 64 and Nintendo, who... really seem to have a unbridled hatred for this game. I suspect this is more due to hatred of indie games in general competing with Nintendo (see Palworld vs Pokemon fandom), than any issues with this game. You would be well-advised to ignore such nonsense, and judge the game for yourselves. Do I recommend the game? If you like rail shooters like Star Fox, then yeah, you'll be at home. Do you like a tough challenge that makes you get better gradually? Then yeah, you'll like it. Above all... it's only $15, and well worth the price.

I just didn't have fun. It tries to rip off Star Fox 64 in the worst ways. My achievements were bugged. And the game crashed on the boss fight at the end. I would rather play a 30th remake of Star Fox 64, and I hate to say that. Example: I beat the hard path before the "easy" path. The achievement didn't unlock. Probably because the "flag" to beat the hard path had to be obtained *after* doing the easy path. But the game doesn't tell you this. So, no achievement for me, I guess. I beat the whole game. Got ribbons on most of them. Did all the paths. Restarted multiple times to try to grind out the stupid tokens. I felt like I was in the game for a short eternity. Imagine my surprise that it was only 4 hours. Uninstalled immediately

so far my biggest annoyance with the game mostly stems from not being able to easily reset at all. You cant restart from checkpoint in a mission which is annoying, your teammates wont tell you when someone is chasing them or they are low which means i have to baby sit them in certain missions to try and keep them alive. (which feels impossible sometimes). Finally, i dont understand why i cant skip the intro cutscene when i start a new adventure, even after beating one of the games endings. If most of these get changed id be willing to say this is a pretty decent game, but until then its kind of annoying to play when i want to try and get the harder routes but i cant even reset the game at the beginning without having to watch the story cutscene every time.

When I played the Demo I told myself I was buying this game DAY 1... if it had a good price, of course. The game finally got released and it has a good price.. but Mixed Reviews. I thought this game was going to be a winner for sure but it looked like maybe the Development team screwed up. Even though I didn't like what I was seeing in the reviews... I bought the game anyway. I finally played the game for myself... and I feel like I don't have any choice but to recommend this game. It's great! I got to the 3rd level I was completely sold. This game just kept getting better from the moment I started playing it... and the game is much better than the Demo. They really polished it up. The graphics are nice. The gameplay is awesome. The characters are charming. The voice acting is above average. The controls are sweet and the sound/music isn't too bad either. For $14.99 (Reg Price).. This game is a winner IMO. Most other Devs would've charged you double for this kind of quality. No.. it's not Star Fox but it's FUN and that's all that matters. If I wanted a game like this I would have to either get a Switch 2 or play some retro games. I think this game offers something special in this space even though it's a clone. The price is great too! I really appreciate the Development team, these guys will only get better. I hope we get a Wild Blue Skies II with Online Co-op some day. I play some of it here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-jWKCOxkxKs

I had high hopes for this game and was left very disappointed. The controls overall do not feel smooth or controlled as its reference material (no U-Turns, no somersaults, breaking doesn't feel good and has a weird drift to it). Shooting lasers and charged shots are two different buttons, which I don't exactly hate, but there should definitely be an easier option to just have it as one button. Lasers don't even feel that great compared to charge shots. Visuals are almost too much at times, but I don't hate them. However, the view distance could definitely be better, especially without older hardware limitations. Level design is pretty rough. I only got through most of the "Easy Path" before realizing the level were pretty identical to Star Fox 64, from how the level is themed, to dialogue, to special encounters, mission briefings, to even the rival team and when they appear. There is SO much room to add to the format and create something more unique to this game, but unfortunately the game is tied back by simply following the original formula too closely, while still failing to capture what made Star Fox 64 such a beloved game. I hate to say that I am very disappointed with how the game came out, as it simply just feels like a rip at Star Fox 64 than exploring beyond that title.

Movement and shooting feel off. I expected this to copy a fair bit from Star Fox but I didn't think it would be quite this shameless, the opening level even does a similar trick to Corneria for unlocking the harder route. I refunded because this just isn't it for me