reviews

Lost Wing Switch Review

Shaun M JoosteJul 29, 202010140

Lost Wing is a racing arcade shooter that brings adrenaline action to your PC and Console. There are different release dates for the various platforms. It released on the PS4 on 28 July and XBO today, while the Nintendo Switch and PC releases are set for 31 July 2020. Fortunately, we have the opportunity to give you details on the Lost Wing Switch Edition.

Is Lost Wing enjoyable to play on the Switch? What science fiction features does it have and is it worth buying? Read more in our action-packed Lost Wing review below!

Platform reviewed:	Nintendo Switch
Release date:	31 July 2020
Price:	£7.99 / $7.99 / R129.95
Genre:	Racing, Shooter, Action, Arcade
Players:	1
File size	594 MB
Developer:	Boxfrog Games
Publisher:	2Awesome Studio

Contents

1 Lost Wing Story
2 Gameplay
3 How Lost Wing looks
4 How it sounds
5 Lost Wing Nintendo Switch – Final Verdict
- 5.1 Other Reviews and Guides

Lost Wing Story

Lost Wing places you as a pilot of a space ship in a science fiction setting. You’ll do runs through three different worlds with different stages. In each mission, you’ll need to survive the numerous obstacles and not lose your wing (no pun intended).

When you hit objects with your wings, they break off, hence the name of the title ‘Lost Wing.’ This feature basically gives you three lives, since your ship will crash once any object hits the ship’s main body. However, you can reclaim your wings will special repair icons during your flight.

As you progress and level up in Lost Wing on the Nintendo Switch, you’ll unlock new stages and better ships. New challenges and obstacles become available for you to master. It delivers action throughout the game, keeping you on your toes… or fingers, rather.

What’s the objective of Lost Wing? There is a score meter at the bottom of the screen that filters three objectives, based on your progress in the mission. The objectives unlock in the following order:

Personal Best: try to beat your previous score on that stage;
Local Best: beat the local high score in your region;
Global Best: become the best pilot in the world!

While you’ll spend most of your time swaying and shooting objects, there are also bosses to defeat. In the end, you’re competing to become the best Lost Wing pilot in the world.

Gameplay

Playing Lost Wing on the Nintendo Switch

We found the gameplay and controls easy to use for our Lost Wing review. The sticks swerve your ship from side to side, while two buttons allow you to fire your missiles or smart bombs. You can also jump over certain objects. Strangely enough, the game doesn’t make use of the Joy-Con sway motion like Mario Kart 8 does, where moving the controller left and right also moves your ship.

The trick comes in using the Nintendo Switch‘s ZL and ZR buttons. Lost Wing lets you accelerate and slow down, depending on how much ‘Charge’ you have. When you boost, you create more Charge at the risk of losing your wing when you hit objects. Of course, you can slow down when you need to, which will drain your Charge.

Shooting objects in Lost Wing releases extra score points as well as special drops. Some will instantly boost your Charge, while others will apply unique abilities and shooting power. However, there are also bad drops, such as turning your screen upside down.

You have three official lives during a run, indicated by 3 Lost Wing ship icons on the left. Losing a wing won’t affect these lives, giving you more chances to survive the run. It’s only when your entire body is destroyed that you lose a life.

Unlocking New Ships

When you receive points on the leaderboard in Lost Wing, you increase your personal level. Increasing your ranking unlocks new ships and missions. You can only upgrade the ships through power-ups that you receive through the missions, so there’s no upgrade options in the main lobby. There’s also no way to customise your ships, which we found slightly disappointing.

Replayability

There is no primary story or mission objective, other than completing runs and defeating the bosses in all three worlds. However, you’ll be replaying missions merely to become the best Lost Wing pilot in the world. It’s a great game to just pick up whenever you fancy for an action-packed run through any of the missions that you’ve unlocked. If you get knocked off the top of the leaderboard, try and try again.

How Lost Wing looks

Lost Wing will satisfy several science fiction nuts out there, like me. Besides the space ship and the sci-fi elements, there are also neon lights everywhere, which just adds to the pleasure of the outstanding graphics. Images are crisp and clear, which is helpful in an adrenaline shooter like this one.

There is a good selection of different types of ships. A few of them remind me of Star Wars replicas, but maybe that’s just me. It really amazes me how much Boxfrog Games was able to put into such a small game.

How it sounds

What is a sci-fi action shooter without electronic beats? Lost Wing continues with the action with the amazing soundtrack, which will fuel you through your run. Even more enjoyable is that we can skip to the next song in the playlist with the flick of a button. Oh yes, and the missiles go ‘pew pew’ and the Smartbomb goes ‘boom.’

Lost Wing Nintendo Switch – Final Verdict

Lost Wing is one of the more enjoyable racing arcade shooters I’ve played in a long time. It presents outstanding graphics with a pleasurable electronic soundtrack. The controls are easy, while the missions become rather challenging the more you progress through them.

While there is no detailed story, you’ll feel a sense of progression by beating leaderboard scores and bosses. However, the gameplay could be improved by making use of the Nintendo Switch‘s built-in features, such as the swaying motion of the Joy-Cons. It also wouldn’t hurt to add local multiplayer to play side by side against family and friends.

Having said that, it’s still incredibly enjoyable to play. For all you sci-fi junkies who love arcade racing shooters and speed runs, we believe Lost Wing is worth buying at such a low price.

Other Reviews and Guides

Lost Wing Review Overview

80%

While there is no detailed story, you'll feel a sense of progression by beating leaderboard scores and bosses. It presents outstanding graphics with a pleasurable electronic soundtrack. The controls are easy, while the missions become rather challenging the more you progress through them.