Astro Flame Starfighter Switch Review
Gather round children so I can tell you about the golden age of arcade shoot ’em ups, or shmups as they are called now. Many a Timezone lock-in was spent playing games like Capcoms 1943, Raiden, and Gradius. These days, we have more modern (and fantastic) takes like Icaruga, and the Shmup genre is still going strong, and well represented on the Switch. Astro Flame: Starfighter is the latest Shmup to dock at the spaceport so I thought I would upgrade my fighter, and try this rogue-like shooter to see how it performs.
The gameplay differs from most standard shoot ’em-ups as the game features a rogue-like progression. There are no “in-level” power-ups to collect, rather a currency that is used to upgrade your ship. You can add special attacks, upgrade your main cannons, and most importantly, upgrade your shields for taking a few extra hits. There is some grinding involved if you are a bit of a novice like myself, but it felt all the more rewarding to come back to a mission you failed repeatedly to absolutely destroy it. Certain upgrades allow you to deploy a battle drone to help take down enemies, or a Lylat Wars-style bomb that blows up everything around you. I would like to say that this helps with your approach, but most of the time it’s best to save everything until the boss battles to unload in a glorious explosion of bombs, missiles, and lasers.
Astro Flame Starfighter has a very clean art style and runs well. I did have some minor performance hitches when dumping all my special attacks at once to destroy bosses, but apart from that, the gameplay is relatively smooth and looks good with decent special effects and highly detailed ships. There’s enough variation to keep things interesting, and some very frustrating homing missles which make dodging a very frantic exercise.
All of this adds up to a very challenging experience that doesn’t forgive mistakes. That itself is not something to mark a game down for, more a friendly warning that like most Shmups, Astro Flame Starfighter doesn’t mind taking you down a few pegs here and there. Thankfully, you still earn currency on a failed mission, even if it is at a 50% penalty.
My major gripe is the motion of the spacecraft isn’t as fluid as one would hope. It’s not a huge thing, more a small issue that chipped away at my patience in the game. It’s not a game-breaker, but something to get used to. I’m not sure how it would play on a 3rd party control, but in handheld mode, it proved to be a minor annoyance when I felt like the controls cost me a run… Sounds and effects are okay, but nothing to blow you out of this world (pun intended.)
So What’s it Like?
Astro Flame: Starfighter
A good game that's perfect for short bursts