Rogue Flight’s launch date trailer had me hooked immediately with the VHS scanlines. Those lovingly simulated, telltale signs of age, wear, and tear (and, let’s be honest, bootlegging) of VHS tapes from the ’80s and ’90s are a clear call to action for anime fans of that era. In fact, it’s one of many loaded audiovisual geek references that developer Truant Pixel and publisher Perp Games have lovingly placed into this work. Rogue Flight is a stylized, cel-shaded, arcade-style space combat shooter in the vein of games like StarFox, Galaxy Force II, and SoulStar, as well as anime classics like Gunbuster and Macross (a.k.a. Robotech). It’s undeniably impressive what this small, Ohio-based studio has accomplished here.
Rogue Flight’s plot is as classic as they come. Hundreds of years into the future, ARGUS, an AI once entrusted with maintaining peace and protecting humanity, becomes sentient and quickly turns mankind’s weaponry against its creators, forcing the remnants of... Read more