One heck of a glow-up.
Again in 2023, after I reviewed the unique Fur Squadron on Nintendo Swap, I concluded with “Fur Squadron is a fairly nicely executed love letter to Star Fox and rail shooters basically, and it’s clear that the potential is there for this developer to drag off one thing of a a lot bigger scale.” Just below three years later and I couldn’t be happier to say that Fur Squadron Phoenix completely delivers on that potential. Developer Raptor Claw manages to handle practically each critique I levied at that authentic launch and the result’s a completely entertaining and heartfelt Star Fox-like expertise.
You play as a brand new protagonist, Robin, a member of Phoenix Squadron. After your total squadron is shot down within the opening mission, you’re re-assigned to Fur Squadron to coach up and get some candy revenge. The marketing campaign consists of eight levels. Every one is pretty lengthy and odds are you’ll want a few tries to get by means of a few of them. Ranges are break up between coaching missions which occur in a digital atmosphere, and story missions which occur in the true world. Coaching missions award you with expertise that can be utilized to improve your ship. You get expertise whether or not you full the coaching missions efficiently or not, creating a pleasant sense of development even when replaying the identical degree to clear it. Story missions however award you nothing when you get shot down. I loved this from a story perspective and the way it dramatically bolstered the strain of story missions. With no checkpoints, failing a narrative mission looks like a way more vital loss than shedding a simulated coaching mission.
Rail shooters which might be constructed on replaying ranges to earn upgrades don’t all the time work for me, as issue usually feels artificially inflated for the sake of padding out the expertise. I didn’t thoughts as a lot in Fur Squadron Phoenix. The issue curve felt difficult however by no means outright unfair. It will be tough however I believe it’s utterly potential to complete the sport with the beginning ship when you actually wished to. It additionally helps that degree construction and enemy format is considerably randomized in every run. The large set piece moments are all the time the identical however you’ll come up in opposition to totally different enemy patterns that stop you from utterly memorizing any stage. The one draw back right here is that you simply begin to choose up on the totally different enemy assault patterns that come up inside every degree’s extra randomized segments. I’d have appreciated to see this randomization be a bit of extra aggressive. On the identical time, there may be some satisfaction to be present in arising with the right combo of cost pictures and particular weapons to make use of to successfully combo your manner by means of patterns once you study to acknowledge them.
Degree design itself ranges from satisfactory to wonderful. At worst, a number of the early ranges really feel very open, with the one actual problem revolving round managing the waves of enemies. However after the primary few levels, there will get to be a much bigger deal with piloting round obstacles in additional authored set piece moments. A few the later levels revisit earlier ones briefly earlier than sending the extent off in a wildly totally different course. A few of the finest moments contain weaving by means of twisting tunnels because the digicam snakes round behind you. It’s extremely satisfying to return out of those moments having cleared each enemy and dodged each impediment. It is in these moments which you could see how nicely Fur Squadron Phoenix understands what makes the style nice and my solely grievance is that I want it will let free like this a bit of extra usually.
Whereas there is no such thing as a distinct Swap 2 model of Fur Squadron Phoenix, the developer has taken sensible benefit of the {hardware} by together with a efficiency mode toggle. This unlocks the body charge, permitting the Swap 2 to hit a constant 60 fps the place the unique Swap defaults to 30 fps. It’s a good choice and from my expertise enjoying a pre-release construct on my Steam Deck, the Swap model is nicely optimized and the Swap 2 affords a fair smoother expertise. The rendering decision is certainly constrained by the Swap limitations nevertheless it nonetheless appears fairly sharp on Swap 2. I did discover the controls a bit of stiff when attempting to make refined actions. This was a difficulty I raised with the unique sport, and whereas it feels a bit higher right here, I did nonetheless wind up adjusting the sensitivity to alleviate the problem.
There have been loads of opinions I’ve written through the years the place I’ve mentioned one thing to the impact of eager to see a developer take a second run at one thing. Seeing the evolution from Fur Squadron’s easy half-hour lengthy debut to Fur Squadron Phoenix’s visually various and expansive marketing campaign is unimaginable. The controls are nonetheless just a bit stiff and there may be maybe a bit extra repetition than is right, however it’s laborious to not be taken in by the attraction. It is a nice rail shooter that hints at much more potential for a 3rd entry. When you’re in search of one thing to fill the perpetual Star Fox formed gap in your coronary heart, Fur Squadron Phoenix makes for a beautiful different. I can’t wait to see what this developer does subsequent.
