Rogue Flight

• Genre: On-Rails Shooter, Shoot 'em up
• Spoiler Free Review: Not much to spoil.
• Time Played: ~4-5 Hours
• Too Short/Long: It's about right, but could feel like if you find the gameplay repetitive.
• Soundtrack: Great soundtrack, I immediately purchased it after finishing the game.
• Pleased/Disappointed: Pretty pleased.
• Why I played: It just really had a kickass trailer.
• Did I cry: No.
• Recommend to others: I would recommend it specific to fans of the genre, maybe Starfox fans.

Despite being behind the ship, and most games of it's ilk being specifically on-rails shooters, I feel like Rogue Flight takes a lot of inspiration from shmups. With it's constant action, dodging waves of enemy fire, shooting everything, it just feels more like a shmup than an on-rails shooter. When I think of an on-rails shooter, I think of a more cinematic experience, something that has you navigate through an environment, albeit on rails. There isn't really any navigation in any of Rogue Flight's stages, it's straight forward and a breakneck speed. There are barely any obstacles, and though while I prefer shmups that have "level design" as opposed to just taking place in a large rectangle, Rogue Flight more or less mimics that more commons shmup design, except from behind.

I'm not complaining, I just want to make it clear the type of experience it is. I don't know my exact time, but estimating at 4-5 hours of playtime, with some messing around with extra modes, it's not very long, but these types of games never really are. In fact, a more or less "full run" barely takes an hour. There are some options for shorter paths, and eventually you unlock a harder version of the "full run", but it's more or less the same stuff, so you kind of have to want to play the game just for the sake of playing it, but I really enjoyed it.

Time Crisis

• Genre: Rail Shooter
• Time Played: <1 Hour
• Partner: Brooke
• Too Short/Long: It's fine for an arcade game. I would likely be a little disappointed if I had a home version. Then again, I would have gotten more play out of it if I wasn't playing with unlimited continues.
• Pleased/Disappointed: It's fine. Pretty standard light gun shooting game.
• Why I played: We were at an Arcade for Brooke's birthday.
• Recommend to others: If you're looking for something to play in an arcade, sure, but not to like, buy, specifically for this.

I'm writing about this way late because I realize I had a draft of it sitting on blogger that was never published. Maybe I debated on including it or not for whatever misc reason but now I'm deciding to, we rolled credits... and the draft sitting here on the back end is annoying me.

There isn't much to say about Time Crisis, it's a fun romp of a rail shooter, if a little short and imperfect. Later Time Crisis are entirely improvements. It's made for arcade though, so what can you expect.

Fur Squadron

• Genre: On-Rails Shooter
• Time Played: Less than an hour to beat? I played more because of other difficulties.
• Too Short/Long: Way too short.
• Pleased/Disappointed: Mildly disappointed, only due to the length.
• Why I played: Because it looked like a cool synthwave Star Fox
• Recommend to others: I would if you really need some Star Fox-esque game to play, and it is only like 6 bucks not on sale, but it's very very short.

I didn't expect this to be as short as it is. I guess Star Fox games aren't super long, but all the levels besides the last one are like 5 minutes tops and the last is like 10. So I would be surprised if my first run took 45 minutes.

It's a short and sweet love letter to Star Fox, but it doesn't even bother trying to play with mechanics. You have your bomb, your "Barrel Roll" (which they even call out as an aileron roll), and you hold the button to lock on. You can "shield" to restore your health and a laser upgrade. That's about it. It's solid. It looks cool, but it's over before you know it.

It does sound like the devs miiight be releasing more content in the future? Might be worth revisiting. At least it's not the only Star Fox inspired game coming out this year.