Written by Patrick Orquia
Title: Lost Wing
Developer: Box Frog Games
Publisher: 2Awesome Studio
Genre: arcade, action adventure, endless shooter
Number of Players: 1
Platform: Nintendo Switch
Release Date: July 31, 2020
Price: $7.99
Lost Wing is a bit weird to describe. It looks and kind of plays like a racing game, since you control a spaceship that moves forward through a meandering path filled with enemies and obstacles, but you don't compete with others. It is actually an endless shooter, and you have to avoid these obstacles and enemies or shoot them to clear the way. Quite simplistic gameplay. It even has no story to boast, the title coming from an aspect of the gameplay wherein it is possible for your spaceship to lose a wing or two if you get clipped from the side. You'll have the chance to get them back, of course, which is a good thing.
So, how does it game play? As mentioned, this looks like a racing game but you're just on your own, speeding through a level. At the start of the game, only the tutorial and the first level is available to you, with only the easy difficulty unlocked. Each unlockable additional levels, spaceships, and challenges are unlocked by reaching certain levels. You level up by accumulating points during a playthrough of a level. You gain points simply by continuously moving forward and also by destroying obstacles. Destroyed obstacles leave behind points that can also pick up for additional score. You have three lives for each playthrough, and it is game over when you lose them all. Higher difficulties makes you earn additional XP, which helps a bit in leveling up.
During a playthrough, you get to steadily speed up as you progress into a level, and you can go faster by pressing the right trigger, which also makes you gain charge. Charge is like the currency of the game, as this serves as your bullet to shoot at obstacles/enemies, and also used for slowing down, which is done by pressing the left trigger. Aside from speeding up, you can also gain charge by collecting orbs that are scattered throughout a level. Collecting them can be tricky, due to the obstacles that block your way. Those colored blue can be destroyed, while those in red cannot. To avoid them, you can move to the left or to the right, and you can even press B to make your ship jump. Aside from the orbs, you can also pick up power-ups such as a small drone that can assist you in shooting down obstacles, smartbombs that can clear obstacles en masse, and recovery wings that can make you regain your lost wing or two, as previously mentioned. There are slightly negative pickups: one that makes your ship larger (makes it more susceptible to getting clipped from either side), one that makes your ship smaller (makes it weaker), and one that turns the level upside down and reverses the controls for a short while.
Speaking of going upside down, there will be a time during a playthrough when an "anomaly" happens: the camera gradually goes upside down and back to normal and will almost always result to you ship crashing because the controls also get reversed. This is very disorienting and very annoying and I wish it was not in the game, but alas it's there and there is really no way to avoid it. But I guess if you spend enough time playing the game more, you'll get used to it.
A level is divided into three sections, with a boss fight at the end. These boss fights are quite interesting, and I wish there are more of them in the game. Beating the boss doesn't end the level, though. You get to contiue playing the level to get more and more points until you lose all of your lives. There is an online leaderboard, but unfortunately, no online multiplayer modes.
Overall, Lost Wing is pretty decent, and could be worth your time to play in short bursts, unless you have the tendency to keep on pushing your limits to overcome challenges, in which case, this game is recommended to you. It plays well handheld, so you can play it anywhere and anytime. I played it mostly docked, and I had a good time with it. It looks and sounds good and the performance is mostly stable, though I did encounter at least two crashes, and those are two crashes too many. So if you are a fan of this genre, go and give it a try and try not to lose any of your wings.
Replay Value: High
PROS
- Good visuals, with vibrant neon aesthetics throughout
- Cool electronic soundtrack (you can switch music tracks on the fly by pressing the shoulder buttons)
- Good amount of challenge
- The boss fights are cool and challenging
- Procedurally-generated levels
- Stable performance
- Good price point
- Ideal for handheld gaming
CONS
- Very repetitive gameplay
- Very grind-heavy
- Only three worlds to play in
- No story
- No online multiplayer mode
- Unlocked spaceships could be better if they offer enough difference from one another and could be customized further
- The moment when the level goes upside down is very annoying and shouldn't have been added to the game
RATING: 3.5/5 wings and orbs
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