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Red Barton and the Sky Pirates

SCORE: 57

I am thankful Family Friendly Gaming was given a digital downloadable code for Red Barton and the Sky Pirates on Steam. This game is advertised as being" "an exciting 3rd person arcade combat flight shooter reminiscent of games like Star Fox back on the classic N64 and the legendary 'After Burner' arcade." I have a few issues with that advertisement.

What are some of the issues I have with the advertisement? First off Red Barton and the Sky Pirates is more like an on rails shooter where we can move left, right, up, and down. The collision detection on the ground (or water) is questionable. I noticed code running on the lower left hand corner while playing the four levels of Red Barton and the Sky Pirates. Why can't I move in the boss fights?

I ran into lag, and glitches while playing Red Barton and the Sky Pirates. I did not mind the wall letting me pass through it without taking damage. I also found I could fly high above the action and stay safe. The one problem with that is the fuel. I had to come down and shoot things to find some fuel. Or I would lose a plane. Expect a lot of violence in the handful of levels in Red Barton and the Sky Pirates.

I wish Red Barton and the Sky Pirates let me aim down. It would also be nice if coins came to us, instead of us having to go to them. I crashed so many times trying to get a coin. I barely tapped the water. The claymation like graphics is neat. I know some think it looks like Star Fox on the Nintendo 64. I believe the graphics in Red Barton and the Sky Pirates look slightly better than that N64 video game.

Why do we collect coins in Red Barton and the Sky Pirates? To upgrade our plane in the hangar. The controls felt really stiff to me. I could not find a way to slow down or speed up either. I ran into problems with my mouse cursor vanishing. Sometimes pressing the 'W' key brought it back. Other times I had to CTR+ALT+DELETE to get past it. I also found ways to fly outside of the map in certain levels.

The idea for Red Barton and the Sky Pirates is definitely interesting. Alas Red Barton and the Sky Pirates still needs some work before it is ready for gamers all over the world. In my opinion Red Barton and the Sky Pirates is a very short experience that is a bit too glitchy at the time this review was written. I wish I had better news for the developer and publisher.
- WMG

{UPDATE} After FFG played this game, and wrote the review for this game we were notified that we were provided a development copy of the game that was not completed.

Graphics: 55%
Sound: 70%
Replay/Extras: 50%
Gameplay: 50%
Family Friendly Factor: 60%

System: Personal Computer
Publisher: Plug In Digital
Developer: Schism Worldwide
Rating: 'NR' for Not Rated
Company provided product
Value/Cost of the review is greater than value/cost of provided product

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