Rogue Flight review

When was the last time there was a proper aerobatic rail shooter that made you want to climb into an actual cockpit, or on top of a crazy flying creature and pretend to be a pilot? Back in the day, SEGA was the most prolific with their super scaler era, the Panzer Dragoon series, and the outrageous After Burner Climax. Nintendo raised the bar for gamers at home with the anthropomorphic animal-led StarFox franchise.

Truant Pixel are the latest team to have a crack at this normally hugely enjoyably style of game, with Rogue Flight, an entertaining, if flawed anime-inspired tear-up through the skies. Immediately you can see the rich influence of the aforementioned movie genre, most specifically 80s sci-fi-tinged efforts, with a top drawer, cinematic, fully voiced introductory sequence that outlines the post-apocalyptic story.

It is a tale as old as time, folks. An AI-managed missile control system has of course gone tits-up, leading to the destruction of society. Judging by the terrifying AI shenanigans that I see on my social media feed, this scenario is not only a ripe science fiction cliché straight out of the Terminator playbook, but also eerily prescient. The other day I saw a table for sale that could literally walk around the room on its own. Its only a matter of time before we ourselves are facing down robotic threats like Rogue Flight’s ARGUS.

Luckily for humanity, a surviving resistance organisation, ensconced in a secret military base called BOW have decided to mount a comeback using their whizzy jet-like craft, named ARROW – you can see what they did there. And this is where you come in – taking the role of plucky pilot Nadia, you take to the skies over three set pathways of incremental difficulty, engaging in some old-school on-rails dogfighting just like times of yore. A tutorial sets up the gameplay style in swift fashion. This plays very much like a lot of the titles I have mentioned earlier.

Your ship flies a predetermined route, and you can move freely, execute a barrel roll that doubles up as a parry, and use the right stick to pull off some nifty trick flying, such as leaning into a drift, thrusting forward, or slowing down to collect dropped items from destroyed foes by pulling back. You have a lock-on function with a limited clutch of missiles and a standard machine gun to begin with, but new weaponry can be unlocked and collected along the route and you can cycle through them in real-time. Along your playthrough you also unlock upgrades for your ship, which boost shields and improve speed and aerial fluidity.

There is a combo meter in play which serves not only to rack up your score, but also to recover shield when you get hit, which is highly likely given the hectic pace and busy nature of all of the courses. And there lies the main issue I had with Rogue Flight. At its core it is a fun, exhilarating experience. Headphones in, blazing through the cloudy skies and ripping through squadrons of enemies is satisfying. But because of some palette clashes with projectiles, and a lack of clear and present on-screen guidance during some of the boss encounters, it is pretty confusing at times.

That said, I would urge arcade fans to give this one a go, as it really does evoke feelings of a bygone era, and has enough jet fuel in the tank to keep you wanting to come back. Beating it unlocks some pretty cool new modes including a procedurally generated sortie where you try and get as far as you possibly can on just one life, and there are a nice bunch of unlockable skins and aesthetic bits and bobs to tinker with.

If you could somehow put Rogue Flight in a hydraulic all-singing, all dancing arcade cabinet then it would feel right at home, and is short and snappy enough to be a coin op. As it stands, Rogue Flight is a good entry into the genre and one that is enjoyable but has a feeling something is slightly missing.