Welcome to our review of Skypeace – a fast-paced action game for the Nintendo Switch.
Skypeace is developed by studio Sonic Powered, which is turning twenty this year! They mostly have published and developed titles I personally never heard of (like I Am An Air Traffic Controller: Airport Hero Kankuu), which isn’t strange since most of their games never left Japan. Skypeace was different though. Originally released on the Nintendo 3DS in 2016, they ported the game to the Nintendo Switch, where it became available on the 26th of April.
Jetpack Joyride
Since I hadn’t played the original game, I went in with a ‘let’s see what we got’ kind of feel. The game consists of ten different stages, with the same goal. Collect as many coins as possible, making outrageous combo’s doing so, and avoid the enemies in your way. You control your character, either Pulse (the girl) or Surf (the boy), while gliding on a hoverboard through the sky of .. I guess Skypeace? There is no backstory, just fast-paced action and collecting coins.
The game reminded me of the iOS/Android title Jetpack Joyride, where you had to run as much possible while collecting coins and upgrading your pack to get further and further. The main difference between Jetpack Joyride and Skypeace is the fact JJ has actual missions to complete. Skypeace does include a total of ten pages of achievements, but they don’t give the game depth. It’s the usual stuff like collect x-coins, don’t get hit in level y, and don’t collect shields in level z.
Fun?
Does this mean the game isn’t fun? Neh, the game itself is fun. The stages last around two-three minutes, so I saw the game credits at around a half hour of gameplay. It didn’t bother me, since I had fun running through the stages, but I’m not sure if I’m going to launch Skypeace again if I have to wait for a few minutes. The stages are repetitive, only getting a little harder at a time. The last three stages add invincible/invisible enemies, which caused me to lose the first time, and really annoyed me. I get that you want to make your game ‘challenging’, but putting these kinds of enemies in such a way, that you can’t even get necessary items for certain achievements is just plain wrong.
Should you get it?
Well, the game only costs 0.99€, so if you have a Euro left in your E-shop account, why not. It’s entertaining for a bit, but it could have been so much more.
