One heck of a glow-up.
Again in 2023, once 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 tug off one thing of a a lot bigger scale.” Slightly 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 almost 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 complete 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. Each is pretty lengthy and odds are you’ll want a few tries to get by way of a few of them. Ranges are break up between coaching missions which happen in a digital atmosphere, and story missions which happen in the actual 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 alternatively award you nothing if you happen to get shot down. I loved this from a story perspective and the way it dramatically strengthened the stress of story missions. With no checkpoints, failing a narrative mission seems 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 problem typically 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 could be troublesome however I think it’s utterly potential to complete the sport with the beginning ship if you happen to actually wished to. It additionally helps that degree construction and enemy format is considerably randomized in every run. The massive set piece moments are all the time the identical however you’ll come up in opposition to completely different enemy patterns that forestall you from utterly memorizing any stage. The one draw back right here is that you simply begin to choose up on the completely different enemy assault patterns that come up inside every degree’s extra randomized segments. I’d have preferred to see this randomization be somewhat extra aggressive. On the identical time, there may be some satisfaction to be present in arising with the right combo of cost photographs and particular weapons to make use of to successfully combo your manner by way of patterns once you be taught to acknowledge them.
Stage design itself ranges from satisfactory to wonderful. At worst, among 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 an even 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 completely different course. Among the finest moments contain weaving by way 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 that you could see how nicely Fur Squadron Phoenix understands what makes the style nice and my solely criticism is that I want it might let unfastened like this somewhat extra typically.
Whereas there isn’t any 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 fee, 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 taking part in a pre-release construct on my Steam Deck, the Swap model is nicely optimized and the Swap 2 presents a fair smoother expertise. The rendering decision is unquestionably constrained by the Swap limitations but it surely nonetheless seems fairly sharp on Swap 2. I did discover the controls somewhat stiff when making an attempt to make delicate actions. This was a problem I raised with the unique recreation, and whereas it feels a bit higher right here, I did nonetheless wind up adjusting the sensitivity to alleviate the difficulty.
There have been loads of opinions I’ve written over time the place I’ve mentioned one thing to the impact of desirous 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 unbelievable. The controls are nonetheless just a bit stiff and there may be maybe a bit extra repetition than is right, however it’s exhausting to not be taken in by the attraction. This can be a nice rail shooter that hints at much more potential for a 3rd entry. Should you’re on the lookout for one thing to fill the perpetual Star Fox formed gap in your coronary heart, Fur Squadron Phoenix makes for a beautiful various. I can’t wait to see what this developer does subsequent.
