Sunday, April 21, 2019

[Switch] Sky Gamblers Afterburner

If it were the only game you had and you were about 12 to 15 AND bored you'd likely grow up having fond memories of this replay friendly (if grindy) title.
But only if you could justify spending the 20 dollars for a copy.
TL:DR; On a platform with Warframe, Fortnite and Tetris 99 available for free the only reason to buy Sky Gamblers Afterburner is for the offline replayability. It doesn't even do that particularly well. It looks dated. It plays dated. You're better off buying something else.

Imagine, just for a moment, it's the mid 1990s. Gaming on personal computers has hit its stride and Windows 95 is actually a viable option for gamers thanks to Direct X. The games being made are good but you're very aware you are playing a game. You can't tell if its the flat textures or the bad voice acting or maybe something about the UI just breaks the immersion... but something about the gaming scene at the time seems off. It's as if games are trying to be interactive movies and can't decide whether the user is actually in the cast list or not.

Welcome to Sky Gamblers Afterburner.
     Relive the glory of the 32-64 bit gaming console era through the eyes of the superior PC master race. The game is solid. Really. Very serviceable. In 1996 if this was the only game I had a CD-ROM for in my collection I'd prolly put up with having the 56x CD drive whirring up every 2 minutes. But this is back when the base-line voice acting and goofy visual elements were revolutionary and experimental at the time. However by today's standards Sky Gamblers feels like a Proof of Concept or a Digi-pen final project. You know, the final grade before being allowed to graduate. This is a praise tbh. Digi-pen graduates have given us classics like Portal and Distance. Both projects (especially Distance) bare a close resemblance to the projects their creators used as their final project. We also have to keep in mind that a similar quality asset flip could be achieve easily today with Unity store assets and a working credit card. Sometimes not even that if the 'creator' doesn't mind pop-up ads on torrent sites. Sky Gamblers Afterburner looks good but not particularly distinct. It plays more like a VR experiment than a fully fleshed out game. That's not to say Sky Gamblers is BAD. It's playable. But if you had any other option you'd likely go play that instead. Considering this is a Switch title and the platform has several Free to Play and a few Free to Start games (not to mention bucket loads of demos) you might find it hard to find time to give Sky Gamblers a fair shake. It's particularly hard to give this game your time when titles like Air Conflict Collection and intentionally low poly and colorful bliss that is Sky Rogue are available for the same price. You can't get Falcon 4.0 on the Switch but Sky Gamblers Afterburner comes close.

Well... it plays offline..
     Given time and nothing better to do Sky Gamblers is a solid performer as indie games go. That's on any platform. Although it lacks visual distinction, suffers from  Portrait Dialog and not entirely intuitive controls it is A game and very playable. It has a high replay value too; As you can (and will need to) upgrade your fighters to best the single player campaign, Superior fighters are also available for purchase (with in-game credits) which can cancel out a modestly modified fighter but only just enough to justify the price tag. In-game credits are easy enough to come by and from what I've seen there's no micro-transactions or loot box chicanery. A lack of premium currency shops is a much appreciated feature today but was par-for-course in the late 90s and early aughts. The game features three play modes right away. First is the Campaign which plays like a mid 1990s action/adventure coupled with a simulation. Think Pilotwings. There's a story there with twists and the like but you're mostly there for the flying. Then there's Multi-player which I did not delve into though I suspect plays a lot like Starfox Command. Finally there's support for custom game modes which promise more replayability bang for the buck. If you're online. The Campaign plays well enough offline for your combat flight sim fix.

Mobility and great justice!
     We finally come to the end. This is where we lay all the cards out on the table. The Sky Gamblers series (it is a series!) was developed for mobile hardware on iOS. Thus explaining the graphics and UI quirks. This also explains why the fighter upgrades feel so micro-transacty. It was designed for them. This is why you NEED to upgrade your planes to beat the campaign. The game series as a bundle retails on the Apple Appstore for around 5 dollars. I didn't see how much it was for Afterburner alone but I don't care. All we need to know is that the game is designed to nickel and dime you for upgrades and progression. Knowing this the multi-player aspect of the game takes a decidedly Pay-to-Win downward spiral with no ejection on iOS and becomes a time wasting grind on Switch. On Nintendo's hardware the in-game currency is the only way to upgrade your assets SO to compensate for this the cost goes from 5 dollars on iOS to 20 dollars on Switch and introduces GRIND. I mentioned earlier how the Switch platform has a lot of free to play games and demos and how Sky Gamblers Afterburner would be something worth playing only if you had no other games. Well you do have other game options. Additionally in light of the markup of 400% (a premium you pay simply to exclude microtransactions) I, personally, feel a lot less favorable to this game. Considering some iOS users likely sunk more than 20 dollars in upgrades and unlocks this markup seems generous. However in 2000 this would have been like charging 40 dollars a month for Phantasy Star Online instead of 10. By comparison the only benefit of this higher fee would be akin to a 10% HP reduction for the enemies. So the exclusion of microtransactions does not justify the cost of this 'merely good' tier game.

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