Whisker Squadron: Survivor review – Roguelike Squadron

Check your thrusters, confirm your call sign, and get ready to unleash a barrage of lasers at invaders (from space!) because Whisker Squadron: Survivor is here and ready to launch. The first salvo in a planned two-part assault from Race the Sun developer Flippfly, Whisker: Survivor wears its Star Fox inspirations on its flight suit sleeve, and mixes in a healthy amount of roguelike action for good measure.

If you’ve been hungry for a new Vampire Survivors experience that isn’t a blatant ripoff of the ever-popular game–looking at you, indie developers making an obvious cash-grab based on a hot property–then Whisker Squadron: Survivor is a fresh twist on bullet-hell action. Albeit one that faces engine trouble thanks to the momentum-killing nature of the genre airspace that it flies into, and some annoying technical issues.

First, the right stuff. Hopping into a cockpit, barreling down a neon-drenched gauntlet, and blasting your way through hordes of enemies feels great here. The animation is gorgeous, the 1980s aesthetics mesh well with the art direction, and I’m wondering just how deadly my cat protagonist would be if he was piloting a spaceship that was armed to the teeth with missiles and lasers. There’s more Race the Sun DNA here than Star Fox, but if you’re looking for an ungodly number of lasers being fired in your general direction and tight space that you can squeeze through while doing barrel rolls to deflect enemy attacks, then you’ve come to the right place.

As a roguelike, Whisker Squadron: Survivor hits the mark for what you’d expect from that genre, as each kill rewards you with currency that can be spent on upgrades. You may start out with a fragile kite equipped with peashooters, but by the end of a 20-30 minute run, your spaceship packs a punch depending on the loadouts you’ve chosen. We’re talking increased rate of fire, deadlier bombs, and even laser-pew-pewing drones that’ll fling extra damage at the mothership you’ve been chasing.

Heck, you can even throw in a thicker hull, magnets to draw in resources, and chain-lightning rounds to help you clear the screen of enemies. It’s a system that you’ve seen before in a thousand roguelikes (although Vampire Survivors is clearly the biggest influence here). However, it’s also a gameplay mechanic that hinders the momentum of Whisker Squadron: Survivor.

Make no mistake, I love a climb to power as much as the next guy, but at the same time, if I’m piloting a spaceship then I want to feel the need for speed. I want to be in the danger zone. That said, by the time that I draw close to the end of a run in Survivor, a constant bombardment of upgrades, due to an increase in enemies, puts the brakes on the deft acrobatics and dodges needed to survive the neon onslaught. This is an issue that could be remedied with a more generous spread of upgrades in the opening stages, and a cap on what you can equip before the final blitzkrieg, but, for now, expect the end stages to have a stop-go energy to them that quickly becomes tiresome.

Whisker Squadron: Survivor is also a technically temperamental game, as during my week-long review window, I’ve experienced numerous crashes. This became especially prevalent when I began activating optional mods to make the game more challenging. At these times, Unity decided to choose violence and make my PC sound like it was doing an eternal cover of Praise You at the 34-second mark. Irritating, but hopefully some patches can help get Whisker Squadron: Survivor more flight-worthy.

There’s still something charming here, and when everything falls in place for a fun run of ace combat within the confines of a city under siege, or a 2000s EDM album cover, then this game is the cat’s whiskers. If you’re fascinated by an elevator pitch of Star Fox meets Vampire Survivors, then you can download a demo right now ahead of the full release of Whisker Squadron–which is a completely different experience from Whisker Squadron: Survivor–next year.

As of today, 21 August, the game is in Early Access on Steam.