Red Wings: Aces of the Sky | Switch Review

May 22, 2020 Scott Clark

Ever since I was a kid, I’ve loved flight combat games. I thoroughly enjoyed every one of the Ace Combat games, all the way back to the original PlayStation era to the recently-released Ace Combat 7: Skies Unknown. There’s something incredibly satisfying about taking to the air and blasting targets out of the sky. Red Wings: Aces of the Sky from All In! Games strays from modern combat and focuses instead on World War I. Although I tend to prefer tearing through the skies in an F/A-18, this scratched the itch well enough. It does become repetitious rather quickly, however. Still, it might be worth taking a look, considering there’s a drought in the genre currently.

Scourge of the Skies

There is a story present here, but it boils down to good guys vs. bad guys. It’s told in still frame shots with text every few levels, but I found myself barely paying attention to it. I found myself just preferring to jump back into the cockpit as quickly as possible. You do have the option to choose your side, which is a nice touch. Depending on your choice, you’re either fighting with or against the infamous Red Baron. The nice little touch of history made for an interesting learning opportunity, but I found the plot thin and lackluster.

This is somewhat forgivable considering how tightly the game plays. You control your plane in third-person, and the joystick responds exactly the way you’d expect it to. Since it’s World War I, you won’t have missiles in your arsenal, so you’re relegated to using a machine gun. There’s a bit of management that goes with that, however, as the gun will overheat. Thankfully, the cooldown is very quick, so a light release of the fire button lets you start all over again. This is a very welcome change to most games with this style of gameplay.

Red Wings also lets you perform typical maneuvers with the press of a single button. Barrel rolls protect you from bullet fire, and the quick turn gives you the jump on enemies behind you. Additionally, you can call on your fellow wingmates to attack for you, or even fire a killing shot with a pistol from the cockpit of your plane. That last ability is actually kind of fun, as your pilot actually points his gun at the direction of the enemy pilot.

Where’s the Spice?

As good as the gameplay is, I’m a bit disappointed in the variety of mission types in Red Wings. Almost every sortie is simply “take out all of the enemies” or “defend your team’s balloons.” The levels do get increasingly more difficult, but it feels like that difficulty is accomplished simply by giving the enemy planes extra armor.

There is the occasional bombing mission, where you drop payloads onto stationary targets while dodging shrapnel. But these missions are so short, and quite honestly, very simplistic. You’ll also come across areas where you must fly your plane through a series of fuel rings in a specific amount of time. This brought me flashbacks to Superman 64, which is something I never want to remember. Plus, I simply despise games that put a ticking clock over my head.

To be fair, this game was never designed to be a flight simulator. It’s very much an arcade game over simulation. But I’d much prefer to take my time strategically taking down enemies. Instead, I feel constantly pressured to finish missions as quickly as possible or with as many combos as I can. That’s because your skill tree can only be increased by using stars acquired by finishing missions with a certain score or under a certain time frame. This makes for a frustrating experience, since you really do need those upgrades to be able to get through those tougher stages.

Red Wings: Aces of the Sky Final Verdict

Every once in a while, I come across a game that is designed very well, but just winds up not being for me. Red Wings: Aces of the Sky fits that description perfectly. In the developer’s defense, I think I went into this title with different expectations. It came out the gate strong, but doing the same types of missions over and over again without much of a plot to drive me forward was a bit of a bummer. Again, it controls beautifully and adds a couple of tweaks to the formula that set it apart from other titles. But I need something a bit more to motivate me to want to keep playing.

If you need something to satisfy that desire for flight combat, give Red Wings: Aces of the Sky a try. Just be prepared to play it in occasional chunks. The shine wears off rather quickly when playing for extended periods of time. But the shine that’s there makes it worth a look, especially for its price.

This review is based on a Nintendo Switch copy of Red Wings: Aces of the Sky provided by Evolve PR for coverage purposes. It is also available on PC via Steam with Xbox One and PS4 versions coming in the future.