Review: Red Wings: Aces of the Sky – Classic WWI Aerial Warfare

Red Wings Aces of the Sky Release

Red Wings: Aces of Sky is a brand new arcade aerial action game developed and published by All in! Games. Normally, we’ve seen aerial combat games to be focusing on modern planes and even some futuristic ones as well however here we have ourselves a WWI aerial combat shooter which is greatly accessible for players of every skill level. The game is set during the era of WWI and we get to live the life of one of the best fighter pilots to ever live on this planet in this game. This is our review of Red Wings: Aces of the Sky on Nintendo Switch in which we explode some WWI era planes and try to land some bombs on their targets.

The story of Red Wings: Aces of the Sky is told in the form of comic-style cutscenes complete with a narrative. The art style of these comics looks just like any other black and white comics that you might have seen and these cutscenes take up the loading screens. Although I don’t remember the loading screens to be that long so the game was already loaded by the time the cutscene was over. This gave the impression that there are literally no loading screens however if you prefer to skip the cutscene, you will then need to wait for the game loading to be complete. Apart from these comical cutscenes, there is not much of the story while inside the missions. While playing a mission, all you get is objectives and you have to complete them. If a mission has another mission, sometimes the transition is a little bit awkward as you are expecting a menu screen but you are taken back to the game screen without any cutscene for your next objective or mission.

Review Red Wings: Aces of the Sky

At this time, there are around 10 airplanes to choose from depending on the campaign you choose. Each comes with its own unique strengths and weaknesses and you have to unlock them. This is really simple because they are all linked with the story so if you keep playing the main story, you keep unlocking the planes. I did not even notice that I was unlocking more planes because I really loved the initial plane and found it nearly perfect for every scenario. Apart from the planes, the main difference in the game is made by the skills and abilities that you unlock from the Skill Tree. The skills are further distributed into three categories and each category focuses on a particular set of skills. These three categories include Ace Perks, Dogfight Perks, and Mission Perks.

Although there are now specific character builds or airplane builds here. The only way you can go towards specific builds is by choosing different perks and working on them. After acquiring a skill, you can continue to further upgrade them by investing more skill points in them. Each time you level up in the game, you earn skill points which are then used for this Skill Tree. Ace Perks are mostly focused on improving your flying skills, Dogfight Perks improve your combat skills while Mission Perks improve your general flying skills. Since you cannot simply jump into all of these at once, this gives you a chance to focus on traits that really matter to you. For example, I love dogfights so my main focus of upgrading skills was the Dogfight Skills section. Similarly, someone who prefers improved flying can invest in Ace Perks, and so on. It is a really neat addition to the game.

The gameplay of Red Wings – Aces of the Sky is really the point where the game shines. Like I mentioned earlier, it is an arcade aerial shooter so you cannot expect all the Gs to be in action here. The gameplay is arcade but it is really well-made. I hardly enjoy playing aerial combat games because very few have good flight controls that offer precision and control over your plane but Red Wings is extremely easy to play even if you are new to this genre. It is perfect for Nintendo Switch’s tiny joysticks. For survival in missions, apart from your main guns, you have four additional skills that will really save your skin during combat.

These include barrel-roll, quick 180-degree turn, and squadron re-enforcement ability. The Barrel-roll is perhaps the most important mechanic here because if timed-well, you can not only destroy attacking airplanes with it with head-on collisions but also squeeze some health out of them. The 180-degree turn is excellent for quickly facing the other way around and taking down a pursuer or an enemy plane that just strafed you. If you feeling a little overcrowded by the enemy forces, use your third ability and a few friendly warfighters will join in the fun for a short time and take out your targets before disappearing again. All of these require a cooldown period before you can use them again.

Review Red Wings: Aces of the Sky

There is also an ultimate ability that needs to be charged with 20 kills. Land 20 kills and you will be able to quickly execute the pilot of an enemy plane with your pistol. A really cool cutscene plays while this move is active and it looks really dramatic happening high in the air. That being said, some missions are still too difficult to complete within the time limit of three stars. Apart from your health, you also have to take care of your fuel levels. You can get some health back from barrel-roll kills but your fuel can only be replenished by health/fuel balloons in the missions. You only get a certain number of these in a mission so you must use them wisely. The enemies also have their balloons in the air and destroying them will add a few extra enemy planes in your list to shoot down. Overall, I really loved the simple yet solid flying mechanics and combat of Red Wings – Aces of the Sky and I found it perfectly well for Nintendo Switch.

The missions you play during both the campaigns range from a variety of missions. You will play escort missions where you will be required to protect friendly units from enemy fire, some missions will be straight dogfight missions where you will be required to eliminate all enemy air forces. Sometimes you will also get some special missions where time will be of the essence and you will be required to reach certain locations within time while avoiding enemy fire. Some missions will also offer challenges such as reaching the base back with a leaking fuel tank. While you will be playing the game in a third-person perspective, bombing missions turn the game into a top-down game where you control the bomber and use a new marker on the screen to drop bombs on the targets while avoiding enemy fire as well. It is not a very pleasant change of pace but not too bad either. I preferred the normal mission however in their third-person camera glory. However I found the missions where you have to protect allies to be extremely frustrating because the friendly AI is next to useless in the game. You alone have to do the entire job and defending multiple balloons or places becomes extremely frustrating.

Red Wings – Aces of the Sky has two separate campaigns as there are two factions in the game. One of them is called the Triple Alliance while the other one is called Triple Entente. The game is basically centered around Manfred von Richthofen who is also known as the ‘Red Baron’ and is considered as the ace-of-aces of the war. He was a fighter pilot with German Air Force and he has 80 official combat victories credited to himself. Both campaigns allow you to live his life or life against him. The missions are greatly designed as you fly and fight over countrysides, snow-capped areas, wide-open seas, and small towns. Achieving different goals will net you with stars and some milestones will unlock special skins for different warplanes in the game.

Coming to the visuals of Red Wings – Aces of the Sky, they look brilliant and really go well with the overall theme of the game. The WWI era models are brilliantly designed and the explosions and other special effects also look really good. As far as the performance goes, I did not notice any sort of visual hiccups or frame dips while playing the missions even when there plenty of activity involved on the screen. You can use the Joy-Cons for playing the game and since the game comes with local co-op support, you can jump in the campaign missions and survival mode with friends or family members on the same console. This is a really neat feature because you can try out the harder difficulty levels of survival mode with a friend since that is pretty hard for a single player to beat.

Final Verdict:

Red Wings: Aces of the Sky is a great arcade flying shooter based on the WWI theme. While there is not a big variety of airplanes to choose from, the game makes up with its different skins and the amazing levels and missions that you get to fly in. The two campaigns offer plenty of aerial action and explosions. Bored of the missions? Fire up the Survival mode and take on the endless enemy fighters to your very last drop of fuel or health. This is not a simulation aerial combat game so if you are looking for authentic mechanics or Flight Simulator level of detail, you are looking at the wrong place. This is an arcade aerial combat game and it is a great one as well. On Nintendo Switch, I can easily say that this game has certainly filled a major gap in the aerial combat category. If you want a fun little aerial shooter that boasts great mission design, cool graphics, and simple flying mechanics, Red Wings: Aces of the Sky is the game for you. The menu music is extremely catchy as well.

Final Score: 8.5/10

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About the Author: Umair Khalid

Founder of GamesHedge, Umair enjoys a wide variety of video games ranging from RPGs to racing games. Currently busy with The Crew Motorfest and Way of the Hunter.

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