Warplanes: WW1 Sky Aces Review – Not Quite Taking Off

Warplanes: WW1 Sky Aces brings developer Home Net Games’ historical arcade aerial combat to a new console, along with a new price tag. The game is a port of a free-to-play mobile and PC game that has players completing missions and building a Great War air force base, all while collecting (or buying) new biplanes to fill up their hangar. The game’s free-to-play origins are readily apparent, which adds some unnecessary confusion to an already average experience.

While Warplanes: WW1 Sky Aces never presents itself as a realistic simulation like Microsoft Flight Simulator, which continues to add detail to its near photo-realistic map, the game is focused on famous flying aces of World War I, including the Red Baron. A variety of different fighters and bombers from the era can be unlocked with currencies earned through completing missions or bonus objectives. The flying and combat is simple and manageable, with the option to turn off mechanics like aim assist if the curving, heat-seeking bullets is an immersion-breaker for players.

Many aspects of the gameplay and presentation are solid yet unremarkable. The graphics are fine, and run smoothly on Nintendo Switch. Missions aren’t too varied, but the arcade action of shooting down or bombing targets is fun enough. The amount of content and mechanics is impressive for what was originally a free game, and it’s certainly more fun than a modern day commercial flight experience. Anyone from WW1 enthusiasts to those who want a much simpler, cheaper Ace Combat will get some enjoyment out of this game.

A few rounds of missions bring up Warplanes: WW1 Sky Aces‘ flaws, however. Most are small nuisances, but a couple present larger problems. The biggest issue is the friendly AI. Squadrons of planes can be brought out to a mission, and the player can switch between pilots on the fly by pressing left or right on the D-pad. Unfortunately, these AI pilots are mostly useless, especially at harder difficulties, to the point where confusion could arise over which order is “do” or “don’t,” since most options feel the same. These frustrations, combined with the aforementioned lack of mission variety and more than a few typos, detract from what is a mostly enjoyable arcade experience.

Warplanes: WW1 Sky Aces swaps its free-to-play model for a $10 price tag on Switch, but some of those free-to-play mechanics are still present, and this presents the other major problem present in the game. There are not one, but four currencies to keep track of: silver, gold, fuel, and prestige. Without microtransactions, having these four resources isn’t necessary. These are used to unlock new planes or go on missions, but it always feels more like a chore than any kind of meaningful resource management system.

There’s certainly an audience for this game, and at a low asking price, there are certainly worse options for those seeking a quick airplane fix as opposed to the more realistic simulators (some of which might be coming to virtual reality soon). Unfortunately, Home Net Games has not taken advantage of the Switch port to fix AI issues and MTX-reliant gameplay, which hinders the game from becoming all it could be. The airplane action does what it sets out to do, but frustrating AI and a collection of other small problems means that Warplanes: WW1 Sky Aces doesn’t fly as high as it could on Switch – and that its free-to-play mobile version may be a better option overall.

Warplanes: WW1 Sky Aces releases on December 11th for Nintendo Switch. Screen Rant was given a Switch code for the purposes of this review.

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