After playing the demo for Wild Blue Skies a few months ago, I was eager to fly alongside Bowie and the Blue Bombers as a fan of its starry inspiration. Promising 90’s-inspired fun that honors its star-fairing roots, does this ship-flying adventure chart its own path? Or does it follow the star map a bit too closely?
While I had a fun time shooting baddies with the Blue Bombers, I docked my ship underwhelmed at a few elements.
Developer/Publisher: Balor Games, Chuhai Labs/Vitei Backroom Inc.
Platforms: PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S, PC (Steam), Nintendo Switch
Release Date: August 13th (Most Platforms), 2026 (Nintendo Switch)
Price: $14.99
Reviewed On PlayStation 5
Let’s Rock and Roll – Premise of Wild Blue Skies
In a tale famous across the stars, an evil General is trying to take over the galaxy. But that’s nothing the Blue Bombers can’t solve! The heroes of this adventure are Bowie, Roe, Chuck, and Daman. This colorful band of pilots takes to the skies to save the day.
While it doesn’t have the production values of Star Fox (2026), specifically that game’s intermission cutscenes between missions, the banter between the team during missions is charming and channels the spirit of Star Fox 64. This is done through a strong voice cast, comprised of talent from the anime industry.
The Blue Bombers – Voice Acting Highlights of Wild Blue Skies
My favorite has to be Bowie’s performance, nailing the confidence that Fox McCloud carried in the original Star Fox 64. I also enjoyed the personalities of the other pilots, with the cocky nature of Falco and the dorkiness of Slippy melding together for Daman’s character.
Not every cast member is a stand-out, with the villians and your rivals feeling generic. But all in all, I enjoyed the story for what it was trying to be, a fun Saturday Morning romp.
Familiar Assaults – Gameplay/Controls
Another aspect of Wild Blue Skies that felt familiar was the controls and core gameplay. As I mentioned in my preview coverage, it feels similar to Star Fox 64 in terms of control feel and core gameplay design. Players control Bowie with the other Blue Bombers flying alongside you during each mission.
While a handful of missions feature ‘All Range Mode’, the bulk of the adventure is the iconic rail-shooter gameplay of classic 90’s adventures, flying toward the screen. Bowie can shoot lasers, release charged lock-on blasts, shoot powerful explosive bombs, and break/boost.
General controls are solid, with your ship having weight to its movement. And when you combine that with a fantastic barrel roll, moving around the battlefield feels great. This isn’t the case when in ‘All Range Mode’, where the heavier feel of the controls becomes a problem.
A Wonky Wheel – All Range Missions and Boss Encounters
More so, the lack of maneuvers like the somersault and u-turn makes those missions particularly annoying. I frequently died during these missions due to the inability to avoid enemy fire fast enough, and it doesn’t help that your ship doesn’t move fast enough in the ‘All Range Mode’ missions.
The issues sadly don’t stop at lackluster controls in All Range Missions. Wild Blue Skies’ Boss Encounters can be quite challenging. For the most part, the high level of challenge is appreciated, more so once you get used to the Barrel Roll.
But some boss encounters last a while early on, and I barely made it through some of them during my initial runs. The final boss, even if it’s familiar to an iconic space ape, took a few tries to defeat.
The Perfect Run – Progression
And when I say a few runs, I mean that, as Wild Blue Skies heavily encourages repeated playthroughs to see every level. With several levels to play through and having short runtimes, replay value is a strength of Wild Blue Skies.
Most stages feature branching paths, which are unlocked by completing optional mission objectives. These are sometimes telegraphed to the player, with one early on when Daman challenges Bowie to fly through waterfalls. But most of the time, the game does not tell you about them at all.
I found several of the branching paths by just blowing up random things along the way, like falling rocks in one level or smashing through crystal in another. It’s great that there’s an incentive to be attentive while flying through these short arcadey levels, but telling the player about the optional objectives would’ve been welcomed.
That’s something Star Fox (2026) did a great job with. That game’s cast outright informs Fox of potential branching routes or mid-level; they comment on Fox doing something to trigger the alternative route (like triggering a warp jump).
Ripped from Saturday Mornings – Visuals & Audio
One thing that Wild Blue Skies absolutely nails is a strong visual identity. Taking inspiration from Studio Ghibli, the thick shading across the characters, ships, and every aspect of the world is a visual delight. The game leaves a strong early impression with a beautiful animated cut scene to kick off the adventure.
The character designs for Bowie and the team are also nice, going for a more cartoony, stylized look. It’s welcome when Star Fox (2026) opts for a grounded, realistic look for its cast and world. Alongside the colorful cast of characters are some beautiful stages. From the initial city area with bright colors that pop off the screen, a stunning icy trek with snow hitting the screen, and a rough storm with thick black and grey clouds, most stages visually stand out.
Animation work on the ships is appreciated too, with parts of them moving as you fly through each level. The slight adjustments on the wings as you move around and the sick-looking engines are visual details I appreciated too.
Sadly, these visual delights come at a cost.
Unstable G-Defuser – Performance on PS5
Playing the game on PlayStation 5, I was surprised by the performance issues. Initially, every level ran at a smooth 60 FPS, but as I played repeated runs, I noticed my performance dipping into the low 30 FPS range in the more visually demanding stages.
Even after restarting the game, the issue still appeared. While I understand that Star Fox on the SNES and N64 didn’t run the greatest, with modern hardware, these frame rate issues shouldn’t be happening. Hopefully they will be addressed in a future update.
Closing Thoughts on Wild Blue Skies
It’s a wonderful thing to see games made with such love and admiration for what came before them. Wild Blue Skies proudly wears its love for Star Fox 64, and for the most part, this is a charming homage to a legendary video game.
Featuring a striking anime-inspired art style, likable characters, and fun gameplay, Wild Blue Skies has a stable flight that I can recommend to everyone eager to explore star-filled skies, even if the performance can be a bit rocky and controls for the All-Range sections aren’t perfect.
Wild Blue Skies Review
Pros
Striking art style that stands out.
On-Rails stages control well, and gameplay is tried-and-true.
Likeable cast of main characters.
Great replay value with branching routes to discover.
Cons
Performance issues on PS5.
All Range Mode stages have control issues.
Alternative Routes aren't always telegraphed to the player.
This game was reviewed using a code provided by the publisher.
