Skies of Fury DX | Nintendo Switch | Review

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Having started life as a free-to-play mobile title under the guise of Ace Academy: Skies of Fury, Illumination Games and Seed Interactive’s WW1 air combat game recently made its console debut on the Nintendo Switch.

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​by Liam
​Andrews

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​@liam_andrews5

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​Developer: ​Seed Interactive
Publisher: Illumination Games
Platforms: Switch
​Players: ​1-4

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Now sporting a price tag and a new name - Skies of Fury DX – the game is loosely based on the Battle of Arras, in which British and German aircraft duked it out in what became known as Bloody April.

​Despite the historical influence, the game’s action is very much arcade focused, with players able to dodge enemy attacks with the press of a button and upgrade their aircraft through perks (more on them in a bit).

Skies of Fury features the same comic book-style as its mobile sibling, coupling chunky black outlines with a vibrant colour scheme. The bold visuals help give the game plenty of character as you dogfight over the patchwork fields below and fly through giant, marshmallow clouds so thick you could seemingly hop out and walk on them.

The simplistic graphics look relatively sharp in both handheld and docked mode, though in terms of performance the latter option is perhaps where the game is best enjoyed thanks to the greater level of control afforded when using a more traditional gamepad setup.

Acceleration and yaw are assigned to the left stick, while the right handles pitch/roll. The controls take some getting used to, particularly as the Joy-Cons’ relatively small sticks don’t lend themselves well to the tight turns that frequent dogfights. While a Pro Controller’s larger sticks help to alleviate this issue, the general lack of customisation options is disappointing.

​As a lefty, I found using the right stick for manoeuvring unnatural and difficult, but with no alternative control scheme available (the only customisation options are to invert Y axis and turn the rumble off) I was forced to make do. That said, due to the relatively easy nature of the campaign, adjusting wasn’t too much hassle.​

The bold visuals help give the game plenty of character as you dogfight over the patchwork fields below and fly through giant, marshmallow clouds so thick you could seemingly hop out and walk on them.

There are optional challenges similar to the Halo series’ skulls that can be applied pre-mission to help add some level of difficulty to proceedings, without proving insurmountable, whilst the only significant downside is that you’re less likely to earn loot boxes that contain new plane skins and alternate reticule designs as you won’t be earning EXP as quickly.

Skies of Fury’s campaign is broken up into five chapters, with missions split between German and British forces. Completing all of the missions in a chapter sees you rewarded with a fresh set of comic strips that convey the game’s narrative.

​As you progress, you’re also given skill points to pick out new passive abilities to mitigate/increase incoming/outgoing damage such as faster health regeneration, larger magazines and a deadlier special attack. Another cool feature is the ability to snap up your AI allies as wingmen, adding their firepower to yours for greater damage whilst simultaneously acting as shields against incoming attacks.

​Despite the sheer number of missions available, it becomes obvious very early on that there’s a distinct lack of variety between them, with the game recycling the same dogfight, escort missions and bizarre time trials that require you to fly through a series of hoops over and over again. In addition to the lack of objective variety, no voice acting means there’s no real difference when playing as either a German or British pilot, save for the names and livery of the planes.​

Given the nature of its setting, it would have been nice to see some sort of trench-based reconnaissance or attack missions included, which the narrative suggests played an important role in the build up to the Battle of Arras. It feels like a missed opportunity considering this is supposed to be a more substantial offering than the mobile original.

Yes, there’s local multiplayer and a new survival mode which can be played cooperatively (also only locally), but the overall lack of extra polish when it comes to the game’s focal point - the campaign - drags Skies of Fury DX’s otherwise fairly enjoyable arcade action back down to Earth.

​Pros

• Simple, pretty visuals
• Comic strips are a nicely implemented idea
• Add wingmen on the fly

Cons

• Recycled mission objectives
• Campaign is too easy
• Lack of control customisation options

5/10​