Sky Rogue

Developed and published by Fractal Phase, Sky Rogue is a fantastic rogue-lite action arcade flight simulator that sees you work your way through twelve missions. There’s not really much of a story to be had, but that’s not a negative here. You can choose from a few different aircrafts to pilot, and before long you’ll be taking to the skies to wipe out enemies. As well as playing in single player, a local co-op option is available, giving you the ability to play with friends, which is a terrific inclusion - don’t get me wrong, the game feels great playing solo, but playing with a friend is a lot of fun.

Being a rogue-lite, you’ve of course got the permanent aspect of death, and what it brings. Credits and tech points become available to spend upon death, in order to improve yourself for any future runs - so death is just as crucial as anything else. You can upgrade your planes, purchase new ones and even choose from a wide variety of colourways for your aircrafts.

Done in a style reminiscent of Nintendo 64 era 3D titles, with simple blocky structures and a gorgeously bright colour palette, Sky Rogue is a joy to look at. Procedurally generated levels keep things feeling fresh, with a variety of missions to keep you entertained. Objectives get progressively more challenging, and this keeps you focused and prevents things from feeling stale; you’ve always got that increasing difficulty to keep the feeling of risk high, so that it feels extra satisfying. The soundtrack is fantastic too, and feels really enjoyable to listen to - Phonetic Hero did a great job with it.

It feels really well-controlled, and satisfying to boot. Whipping through the sky is fantastic, and it’s a lot of fun to play and just totally lose yourself in for hours on end. Available for £16.74 on the Xbox Store, Sky Rogue will give you a decent amount of playtime, with the randomised nature of levels being ideal for diving in whenever you’ve got some free time. Overall, we both really enjoyed it and would highly recommend it.

In the end, we decided to give Sky Rogue the Collecting Asylum rating of 9/10.

Have you played Sky Rogue yet? What did you think of it?
Let us know in the comments below!

- V x

Thank you to Fractal Phase for the Sky Rogue Xbox review code!