I freaking love Shoot ’em Ups (or shumps). They are one of my favorite genres ever, so each time I see a new one getting announced or released on the Nintendo Switch eShop, I get all giddy inside. My expectations are always high of these games, but this is only because I have in high regard this genre in specific. Now we have among us Rogue Aces, a game that feels like a spiritual successor to a game called Wings of Fury. Wings of Fury was released on several platforms, including the Gameboy Color. Now fast forward 30 years, and Rogue Aces feels like the spiritual sequel of aforementioned game, and I am sure glad Infinite State Games brought this to Nintendo Switch.
Immediately as you boot the game, you are taken to the tutorial in which you learn the basics of flight. You use the left stick to throttle your plane. Moving up and down and holding the stick either up or down (depending on your position on the screen) will have you doing a donut-style maneuver, which is useful to avoid enemy fire or to go back to your carrier or enemy landing strip. With the L or ZL button pushes the fuel into the engine to achieve ‘war speed,’ giving you a slight boost at cost of accelerated fuel consumption. R is for shooting your main cannon, and Y and X buttons are used for your limited unguided rockets and free-falling bombs. These are used to destroy enemy structures and heavily-armored ground units (like tanks) and air units (like bombers and airships). You can choose to line up your plane perfectly and deploy in precision strafing runs like a true ace or just suicide dive and drop everything at once, turning whatever was your target into a glorious display of chained explosions. Do whatever you’d like as long as you have the skills to do it. Enemy airfields are very valuable targets, since once you demolish every structure and defiantly land your plane on them, allied bombers will fly overhead and drop friendly paratroopers that will take over the strip. This is not only an excellent way to refuel, repair, and rearm; it effectively extends the range your plane can operate.
The title of Rogue Aces gives a hint of its game play. It actually refers to the procedural-generated islands and missions you will face every time you start a new game. The odds are against you; one single pilot and three planes on your carrier versus a lot of enemy units. The campaign is won by successfully completing 100 randomly-generated missions. These can be as straightforward as taking out a set number of enemy planes, commit war crimes by shooting down paratroopers before they reach the ground, or blow up a certain number of tanks. More complex missions will have you single-handedly sinking enemy battleships and other such seemingly impossible tasks. As expected, your airplane is not a flying fortress and enemy damage will be a reality that quickly sinks in. If you take too much damage, your engine will not be able to achieve war speed. Limited planes and few places to refuel might seem like clearing 100 missions is impossible. However, Rogue Aces has a unlikely ace under its sleeve. When your plane explodes, double-tapping ‘A’ will allow you to eject your pilot out of the cockpit in any situation.
In campaign mode, your pilot is mysteriously blessed with infinite grenades that you can throw in any direction and make sure you leave a last message to your enemies. Considering the limited amount of explosive ammo your plane can carry, this represents a somehow unorthodox but effective strategy to clear out a massive enemy army. Raining down grenades is fun, but it’s not the best way to make the most of your ejection seat. Line up roughly with an enemy plane cockpit, eject towards their direction and bingo: instant enemy plane hijack in mid-air! However, there are some things to take into consideration before using this ace under the sleeve. First, don’t try to hijack an enemy plane that is in worse shape than your own, and secondly, try not to miss the target. If you do, not only will you have ditched your precious plane, but you will also look a bit daft as you slowly fall to earth, surrounded by enemy pilots and just feeling powerless. It’s always a gamble but an essential one.. Not only is it the best way to repair, refuel, and rearm your plane on the spot, it’s the only way to extend your limited air force fleet from three to a theoretically infinite number of planes.
Graphically, Rogue Aces looks so cool. I felt like I was playing an action version of Advance Wars. The enemy vehicles, islands, and buildings are so well detailed that it is a pleasure to look at them. There’s a continuous day-night cycle, which allows for some absolutely gorgeous palette swaps, although with all the action and bullet dodging and whatnot, there is little to no time to admire and enjoy these details. Nevertheless, it is nice to see the developer committed to them. The music is dynamic, and it pumps you up when you are surrounded by enemies, even more so when you accomplish chain explosions. It is ear candy, so to say.
If you manage to clear the normal campaign, you unlock the ultimate challenge, the ‘Veteran Campaign’ with no aids whatsoever, as well as the time-attack variant ‘Frontline Campaign.’ Infinite State has also included a bonus Arcade Mode with a few secret variants to unlock, such as ‘Survival’ where you only get one plane, unlimited fuel, and endless supply of enemy fighters to deal with. There is also the surprising ‘Bomber Defence’ mode, which is hidden in the game’s credits.
Bottom Line: Rogue Aces is one of those surprises you did not expect, but are so happy it happened. With tons of modes, and procedural generated game play, the replay value is sky high. It is such a fun and engaging game. My only hope for a sequel is maybe two player cooperative mode or online since Rogue Aces is single player only. I can only imagine the chaos destruction and fun times. I definitely recommend Rogue Aces.