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Sky Force Anniversary (Switch) Review

by Xander Morningstar - November 22, 2018, 5:38 pm PST
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Collect the stars, shoot the planes.

After having spent nearly 30 hours with the 2D shoot-’em-up Sky Force Reloaded (post-review), I was delighted and intrigued when I was provided the chance to check out its successor in the series, Sky Force Anniversary. I wasn’t sure what “anniversary” was being celebrated and wondered if it could mean this was a bigger version of Reloaded (which I had found to already be pretty heavy in the campaign content). So I did some digging. To my absolute horror, I soon discovered that this series reuses its namesake over and over, despite remakes, and sequels. What’s worse is that versions can differ between consoles and mobile. To my knowledge, Sky Force Anniversary is a variation on Sky Force 2014, a remake of the oldest Sky Force game, with all-new graphics. Discrepancy in the title’s lineage aside, Sky Force Anniversary appears to borrow from the remake of Sky Force Reloaded. The UI, 3D polygonal assets, and effects are all shared. Having loved Reloaded, I found the familiarity here to be handy in getting back into the groove of the gameplay, which has not changed in the slightest. That said, there wasn’t much in the way of new content, and there was a lot missing that had been in Reloaded. This was the biggest disappointment for me.

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Sky Force Anniversary lacks the number of levels, the different ships, the temporary boosts, and the level of upgrades that Sky Force Reloaded has. It’s simply inferior. But at the same time, it stands on its own (one wouldn’t know what they are missing) as an excellent entry into what Reloaded offers. I would also even argue that Sky Force Anniversary does a basic amount of streamlining. There is definitely a certain level of grinding, make no mistake. But you can reach maximum level in your various weapons much more quickly. Sky Force Anniversary doesn’t have the power-ups that came with the previous titles (i.e. increasing collectibles in levels, or making you temporarily stronger, etc.). Oddly, there appear to be cards that can be collected, but their purpose remains unknown to me. There aren’t different ships to be unlocked, which is another bummer. Honestly, the experience as a whole was great, but it is constantly haunted by the game that came before it. It simply didn’t have as much content.

Sky Force Anniversary comes equipped with nine stages, each with three levels of difficulty. You have to start on the easy mode, where you are at your weakest.To unlock the harder options, you have to complete the four medal challenges (kill 70% and 100% of all enemies, save all pilots stranded in the level, and complete the level without taking damage). I didn’t find not being able to choose a difficulty from the get-go to be a huge deal, because as you play, you collect stars, which you can trade in for upgrades to your ship. And as you upgrade, that difficulty level will naturally become easier. To progress to new levels, you have to beat the level before it, and you need to have collected a certain number of medals. So, rather than expecting to get through all nine levels right away, you’re probably going to be replaying old levels over and over to grind for upgrades. On paper, this sounds incredibly boring to me. But I will admit that Sky Force Anniversary does a stellar job of making the player feel rewarded. Every upgrade to your weapons immediately makes you feel more powerful. Moving to the next layer of difficulty shows the progression by showering the player in stars. Killing a chain of enemies becomes much quicker. It’s a dopamine-drip that you can easily get hooked on while listening to music or a podcast.

The visuals are beautiful, even if they aren’t really that “new”. I was disappointed to find that most of the levels share the same theme on a level environment. You are more or less flying over the battlefield in a forest, near a bunch of factories, and then over the cloudy-painted ocean. It’s beautiful to look at, and I admire the details that were put in, such as the tire tracks from other battles, small boats with people on them, and machinery attached to the factories. However, a little more variety would have been nice, even if it was just some dynamic lighting. I didn’t really care for the music after awhile. It was serviceable “shump” music that did the job. But I eventually opted to turn down the in-game music and listen to the much more satisfying sound effects with my own music on. Sky Force Anniversary played well in docked and handheld mode; the latter is where I spent more time because it works well on-the-go. There is a tournament mode as well, which runs every few days. The only one I played was a special tournament akin to a level from the main game, in which it is more survival focused and you can’t shoot. It was fun, and a welcome change of pace. Though, with this being a shorter experience, I would hope that there could be a notification system implemented into the Switch news feed to share when tournaments would be. There is also a leaderboard for your Switch friends.

And that’s Sky Force Anniversary. Unfortunately, it’s just “less” of what came before it. It shares so much with Sky Force Reloaded that I didn't mind going back into it. In some ways, it was fine to come back to and relive, albeit as a much shorter experience. But why pay the same price when there is a game identical to it in gameplay with more content?

Summary

Cons

• Lack of content
• Repetitive environments

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Sky Force Reloaded (Switch) Review

by Xander Morningstar - February 9, 2018, 9:13 am PST
Total comments: 1

Get ready to have fun. Get ready to grind.

I am genuinely surprised how much I enjoyed playing Sky Force Reloaded and how I am anxious to continue playing. Historically, I am not someone to play a game that lacks a deep story. Sky Force Reloaded is simply a top-down shoot-‘em-up, complete with everything I wouldn’t like: auto-scrolling, grinding for upgrades, backtracking through levels. I was totally fine with all of these this time around, because they are built into the structure of the game in a fluid manner. They control the pacing, the progression, the enhancements, and are basically the foundation for advancement.

13 levels are present in the campaign, each with four achievements to collect (beat 70% of the enemies, beat 100% of the enemies, rescue the humans, and take no damage). After completing all four, a new difficulty option opens up for that level. Rinse and repeat for a third difficulty option. Just making it through a stage does not mean that you will be able to progress to the next one. They are all locked, and require a certain number of achievements to be unlocked. Think the Star Doors in Super Mario 64. I spent a lot of time playing through the first three levels over and over again, trying to complete the goals in each difficulty. Across all the difficulties, 156 achievements are there to be collected. With just 13 levels, the content is surprisingly deeper and more involved. Outside of that, an online tournament mode is available periodically. I can’t comment on what that looks like because it was unavailable when I played. I did not see an online leaderboard anywhere, which felt like a missed opportunity because of the nature of the genre focusing so much on scores. With grinding for upgrades being a s trong focus, scores mattered more to me, but because there was not a leaderboard, or even a way to share scores with friends, I ended up ignoring the scores. Again, there could be a bit more elaborate scoring system in the online tournament mode. A two-player option is available at all times, for double the fun. Essentially, this is the same game but with a second ship controlled to increase the available amount of firing. Co-op also makes it easier and quicker to advance onward through levels, and obtain upgrades.

Upgrades are the priority in playing. Earned currency can be used to unlock upgrades, which in turn make the harder levels and difficulties less daunting. The weapons vary, including a fair amount of styles, such as missiles, lasers, blasters, bombs, shields, and magnets. It’s all fairly standard for a top-down shooter, but a lot of slots let you customize your loadout. Various temporary perks in the form of cards show up that can increase the number of stars collected in a level, which are huge moments of being high on the addiction because it’s a chance to score big and then clean house in the shop. New ships can be unlocked, too, complete with different stats and more perks.

I didn’t really mind that cycle of playing. The loop is enjoyable, equal to similar actions in games where a grinding leads to nice rewards – whether it be collecting a Power Moon, trading in treasure for cash, or gathering materials. But it’s still so weird to me that I enjoyed this process, because I usually want to move on and see what the new levels are. Instead, I found myself craving the power of upgrading to the point of being able to obliterate the opponents I had previously just been able to bypass. I enjoyed coming back over and over again, to grow stronger and beat my previous records. I didn’t pay attention to the score, but more of the achievements and the number of stars I collected. The achievements have an addicting quality, but in a way that is a little bit less demanding. I listened to podcasts while playing, and found I was able to multitask well; it’s game designed for that kind of experience. I wish there was an endless horde mode, where I could test my skills in survival. Because of the repetitive nature, I quickly began memorizing the patterns of how the enemies would appear on screen, thus making it much easier to combat them. In an endless mode, I could still grind, but also not fall into the trap of going through the same process, over and over.

I had a great experience playing Sky Force Reloaded, and will keep playing it when I want to be doing something on my Switch that isn’t as big of a commitment of an RPG like Xenoblade. It doesn’t do anything revolutionary for the genre, playing it safe in all regards. It has a lot of content in an enjoyable package. The loop of short, quick play sessions is addicting, and an experience I did not expect to have as much fun with as I did.

Summary

Pros

• Addicting upgrade system
• Co-op play
• Replayable and accessible
• Varied difficulty modes

Talkback

The previous version of this on Wii U last year was one of my favourite games of that year, highly recommended. Can't say for sure but it sounds like 13 levels means this has more stages? With added features like changing the load-out of your ship, having different ships, etc. this sounds like a fine upgrade.

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