‘Red Wings: American Aces’ Review: Quick Aerial Thrills for Everyone
Red Wings: American Aces landed on Nintendo Switch and PC last week, marking a small but welcome return of arcadey aerial shooters.
Polish publisher All in! Games has been putting out some good stuff in the last few years (including Chernobylite and Ghostrunner), but most players haven’t heard about Red Wings: Aces of the Sky, an aerial shooter developed by them that was released in 2020. Apparently, it did well enough to warrant a follow-up of sorts: American Aces, which launched last week and made little noise.
I’m not too big on realistic flying simulators, but I definitely have a soft spot for more casual experiences (the Ace Combat series comes to mind) and arcade-like little games such as the Red Wings titles, which feel like a nice throwback to simpler times — their production values are limited, but I think the folks at All in! know exactly where to put the money.
Red Wings: American Aces focuses, as the title suggests, on American pilots — the 30-mission campaign mode kicks off with a brief but comic-booky cutscene, and follows fictional characters through levels that recreate aerial dogfights and other trials during WWI. It’s all good old-school fun that wastes no time meandering around and is 100% zeroed in on delivering solid arcadey thrills; the environments and mission objectives are switched up regularly, and increasingly tough AI fighters make earning all the medals in each level a surprisingly difficult task. It’s easy to get into American Aces thanks to its straightforward controls and precise tutorial, but it’ll definitely test most players’ mettle with its solo content.
Speaking of medals/stars, those are used to upgrade skills and perks — they can also be instantly reimbursed and rearranged to come up with different builds for harder levels. This progression system is also part of the game’s multiplayer offerings (both local co-op and online), although with a separate skill tree. Coupled with a roster of 15 different warplanes (with unlockable skins), there’s just enough variety in there to make American Aces replayable. Moreover, the campaign also offers co-op, and the local multiplayer includes a variety of modes and AI support. Sadly, the online portion of the game is pretty much dead on arrival (at least on Nintendo Switch) unless you group up with friends. The lack of a proper marketing push is a shame, as I believe this aerial shooter would be tons of fun in quick online matches.
On the technical side of things, Red Wings: American Aces won’t wow anyone, but effortlessly delivers smooth action and crisp visuals, rarely dropping below 60 FPS on the Switch. When you couple the impressive performance and welcoming controls with its simple yet striking presentation, it’s hard not to feel attracted to this little game… unless you hate planes, of course. The pieces of original music it constantly blasts during the missions and matches also go hard; I wasn’t expecting much in this regard, but its anachronistic rock-ish soundtrack suits the (most of the time) relaxed action better than you’d expect.
In conclusion, I feel like Red Wings: American Aces deserves more attention than its predecessor, and it’s sad to see small gems such as this one flying under everyone’s radar amidst an overwhelming barrage of high-profile and mid-sized indie releases. It’s doesn’t do anything new and is strictly designed for short gaming sessions, but it completely delivers on the promise of uncomplicated and old-fashioned aerial battles. The perfectly adjusted $11.99 price tag helps, too.
Red Wings: American Aces is now available on Nintendo Switch and PC (Steam), with PlayStation and Xbox versions potentially arriving at a later date.
Thanks to All in! Games and Plan of Attack for the Nintendo Switch review code.
Francisco J. Ruiz is that guy who has watched Jurassic Park a thousand times and loves Star Wars. His hunger for movies is only matched by his love for video games. He graduated in English Studies from the University of Malaga, in Spain. As he keeps writing about what he enjoys (and doesn’t) for websites all over, he’s continuing his studies.
