REVIEW: Red Wings: American Aces on Nintendo Switch

Review by Jon Donnis

Red Wings: American Aces is set in World War 1, and from the moment you start the game you can tell a lot of care has been put into making the game look rather special. 

The game itself is centred around 3D dogfighting, you control a WW1 aircraft, and in pure arcade style you need to take out the enemy. 

There are 3 main modes, Online, Local and Campaign.

Online mode will have you fighting against others (maximum of 9) in pure dogfighting action, Last Man Standing, Score Battle, or Time Battle. You can even pick teams and battle against other teams online.

Local mode has you doing the same as Online mode, but against one other opponent, that being against another human player, or a CPU controlled opponent. 

Now as much fun as those two modes are, they are very much for the long-term interest of the game. But in the short term you need a challenge and this is where the campaign mode comes in. 30 missions to complete, each mission has certain aims. Maybe as simple as taking out a few waves of enemies, or it might be more specific like destroying hidden airships while fighting off the enemy trying to protect them. Bombing runs are fun, as well as the classic game of flying through hoops, (in this game you fly through a hope to refuel).

As you progress through the Campaign you can upgrade your pilot skills through a Skill Tree, as well as improve your special abilities.

For example, if an enemy is charging head on, a carefully timed barrel roll is perfect for not only avoiding their bullets but also destroying them if you make contact. You can also tag an enemy and get friendlies to attack on your command, as well as the quick U-turn manoeuvre.

As you complete each level you aware awarded stars depending on how successful you were and these are what you spend on the skills tree.

With 15 different planes to eventually unlock and use, there is plenty of choice as you progress.

The levels themselves all have different backgrounds and features, including thunderstorms and sandstorms, each creating their own problems for you.

The plane controls are pretty simple, speed up, slow down, barrel roll, quick turn, it all feels very natural, and you always feel very much in control.

Along with the arcade gameplay, there is a story to tell, and WW1 is a serious story, everything is told truthfully, with little sugar coating. You could argue that such a serious story takes away from what is a fun arcade game, however I felt that if you want to deal with a serious subject you have to be serious in telling that story.

The Good

This game really fits well on a Nintendo Switch Lite, which is what I played it on. I have played Red Wings on PC, but on a handheld console I just think the whole experience feels more fun. Everything looks great, and just the feeling or taking down an enemy in a hail of bullets never gets old.

The Bad

Nothing really, the game delivers on what it says it will.

Overall

I really enjoyed playing Red Wings: American Aces, it is a good old fashioned arcade shooter, but with modern graphics.

A fun experience that I can recommend to people of all ages.

I score Red Wings: American Aces a solid 8/10

Out now on Steam and Nintendo Switch

https://www.nintendo.co.uk/Games/Nintendo-Switch-download-software/Red-Wings-American-Aces-2186122.html

REVIEW: Tony and Clyde on PS4

Review by Jon Donnis

"Tony and Clyde" is a simple shooter, you play as either Tony or Clyde, who the game loves to tell you are not simple thugs from the streets but also not highly trained criminals or professionals.

The game is played through chapters, as you play you will learn about Tony and Clyde, who they are what they want, all told through the various hand drawn 2D cutscenes. Basically, they are small time crooks wanting to make it big.

The gameplay itself is from a third perspective top-down viewpoint. You control your characters movement with the left stick, and the direction of fire with the right stick. Frustratingly the bumper button controls the firing and the trigger button controls the changing of weapons. Why they did it this way round is anyone's guess. It is called the TRIGGER button for a reason! Aiming is a bit hit and miss, so you will want to pay attention to your loadout and which weapons you have. Since the aiming is a bit rough, I went for weapons that had large magazines, so that I could spray the area with bullets before the slow process of reloading. 

You can use the dodge button, which will roll you out of the way, and while dodging, you are invulnerable, so you will find yourself doing this a lot if you get caught off guard and surrounded.

Since the viewpoint is fixed, you will often find enemies firing at you off camera, so as you play, you will need to learn the levels and where people are, and plot your route carefully. You can try to avoid the enemies, but they will just keep coming after you, so you might as well take them all out, get close enough to an enemy and you can execute them with a knife shot, but you might want to avoid doing this, as for some bizarre reasons every time you execute someone in this manner, the game goes into slow motion, which just feels like horrible lag, and with enemies approaching, you will find yourself getting frustrated as opposed to what I assume the idea is of giving you more time.

Each chapter finishes with a boss fight, the usual routine here, super tough, takes a lot of bullets. The problem is that if you take a couple of shots, you are dead, and have to restart at the last checkpoint.

Some objects on the levels can be shot at, and then explode, taking out anyone nearby, time this right and you can take out a decent number of enemies, time it wrong and you will take yourself out.

There aren't any collectables, or secrets, the only thing you unlock will be weapons. And you do this by killing the "juice man" which is literally someone dressed in a juice carton costume, I assume this is slang for a loan shark.

The Good

Once you get used to the gameplay, and the fact you will die a lot, there is a lot of fun to be had.

The Bad

The game does get quite repetitive, and there isn't much strategy to be had while playing, Just shoot and kill and hope for the best. And that strange slow motion, lag thing after knifing people is just bizarre.

Overall

Perhaps a little expensive for what it is at £8, but this is a fun game, despite its frustrations.

I score Tony and Clyde on PS4 a safe 6/10

Out now on PS4 - https://store.playstation.com/en-gb/product/EP3116-CUSA19433_00-TONYECLYDEEUROPE/

MINI REVIEW: Hovercars 3077 Underground Racing on PC (Steam)

 

Make sure to follow me on Twitter where I often post mini reviews.

#REVIEW #Hovercars3077 Underground Racing PC

Flying cars, weapons & apocalyptic tracks!

Good:
Nice graphics & a genuine feel of speed as you play.
Bad:
Awkward controls & you'll crash a lot, with no forgiveness.

Score 6/10 - Out Now #IndieGame #GameDev #IndieDev #IndieGameDev pic.twitter.com/iaSO9GZBvM

— 🍊 The Jon Donnis Show www.jondonnis.com (@JonDonnisShow) May 24, 2022

REVIEW: Golfie on PC (Steam)

Review by Jon Donnis

Another day, and another golf game. People really do like golf at the moment!

The latest Golf based game trying to get your cash is Golfie. Golfie is a mixture of mini golf, deck building and roguelike (procedurally generated levels).

This game releases into Early Access on PC via Steam on 26th May, so please keep that in mind when reading this review, Early Access means the game will have bugs and issues and the developers are still ironing out problems.

Since the levels are procedurally generated, no two are alike, you have to play through 18 holes, but as you will quickly find, your ball won't do much when you hit it at first, you see you will get effect cards to choose from, these cards are randomly drawn from a pack, and include things like "shot power", "curve ball", lob" etc. You can choose which cards you think will help you proceed best, and stack them up, stack up 2 shot power cards and you get extra power on your shot, stack up a shot power card, a lob card and a curve shot card, and well I am sure you can figure out how that might help you.

Throw in unique cards too, like magnetism, where you can select an area that will attract your ball, and that might help you sink that shot in a hard to land place. Also worth a mention are the jetpack, parachute, glider and so on.

You have a certain amount of energy too, if you fall into a trap, or finish a course over par, that will drain your energy, and when that runs out, your run is over, and you have to start from scratch.

Throw in daily challenges and leader boards and the game has a lot more potential for added reasons to play as well as future releases of new cards to enhance the game.

Collect coins, buy upgrades, new cards to unlock, and buy cosmetic changes for your ball.

The Good

As I have mentioned in reviews for other games, outside of a Simulation or basic mini golf, you need a gimmick, and the gimmick for Golfie is an interesting one, and one that in theory has nearly unlimited potential with regards to the cards.

The Bad

Once again, a golf game stuttering due to camera issues. There are two camera modes, fixed or controlled by the mouse, neither are particularly good, and made even worse when you play a course that is inside a building, as the camera can get messed up, and you can't see where you are supposed to go.

I really hope the developers fix the camera issues and really try to learn from what is the biggest mistake in the game.

Overall

Far from perfect, but with a lot of potential.

A long way to go to the finished game, so I won't give a score for now. Also, if that price remains, it will put off a lot of people. Charge no more than £5.

Golfie is available on 26th May via Steam priced at £14.99 / €17.99 / $17.99, with a 20 per cent launch discount. 

It has been developed by Triheart Studio and will be published by Yogscast Games.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1579020/Golfie/

REVIEW: Golf Gang on PC (Steam)

Review by Jon Donnis

I seem to be playing a lot of Golf based games recently, and the latest game to come across my desk is Golf Gang from Lazy Monday Games and published by the great people at Curve Games.

As I am sure you will all know, any game based on Golf that is not either a direct simulation or basic crazy golf, needs to have a gimmick, and with Golf Gang the gimmick is that it is more of a racing game, a game to be played with friends and all at the same time. Up to 8 players at once!

Since this is a racing game, speed is more important than accuracy, which means you can hit the ball while it is moving, and even while it is in the air. Hit a balloon and it gives you an extra boost, and once the time allows you, you can hit it again, allowing for some very nice long range shots.

There are lots of different courses, in different genres, grass, desert, snow etc.

There are in game "mods" that you can purchase with the in game currency, which allows you to get very creative, some of the mods include low gravity, explosions, slowing down time, and so on.

There are a few different modes, and it can be played in single player as well. There are time trials, basic golf, where you are not racing against time, and hybrid modes.

Throw in lots of things you can buy to customise the look of your "ball", purchase new courses, skins, accessories and so on.

There is even a creator mode where the community can create and share their own courses. Although I did not try any of that, so can't speak on it.

The Good

A very colourful game with a simple graphic style, everything moves fast, and in a race, it can get very exciting, and competitive.

The Bad

I hate the controls. You control the camera, the ball, everything with just the mouse, so in a frantic situation it makes it much harder to get your shot right, because you are trying to do three things with just one control method. The same with the gamepad, which you would think would be easier, but no, it is the same system but all mapped onto the right stick. There is a way around things however, you can press the F key on the keyboard and that shoots the ball at maximum speed, which allows you to use the mouse mainly for directional purposes, but obviously when you need a more finesse shot, you have no choice but to use the mouse. I have brought this up with the developers, and hopefully they will add extra methods for controlling your shots.

Overall

This is a fun game, bogged down slightly with a poor control system, don't get me wrong, you will get used to it, but you will throw skill out of the window pretty quick, and just hammer that F button. This is not about wanting to be great at a game from the start, it is about a new player feeling like the controls are intuitive, which they are not. Fix this control system and the game becomes infinitely more enjoyable.

I score Golf Gang in its current state a fair 7/10

Out Now on Steam

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1151050/Golf_Gang/