Spacewing War Review (Xbox Series S)

by Jim Smale · June 13, 2022

Four our Spacewing War Review we meet the Invaders from the Planet Mavros who have descended onto Earth to claim it as their new home, and it’s up to you to stop them! Spacewing War is a side-scrolling shoot’em up inspired by handheld genre classics. Presented in 4-tone pixel art style, this action-packed space adventure blends light-hearted sci-fi storytelling and deceptively simple mechanics with the depth of weapon-juggling and tons of secrets to discover.

Spacewing War Review Pros:

8 Bit graphics.
526MB download size.
1000 Gamerscore.
Shmup gameplay.
Side-scrolling shooter.
50 color palettes from Gameboy-style green screens, black and white, and many others.
Four difficulties – Easy, normal, hard, and extreme.
The best score is shown on the main menu.
Bite-sized levels.
Auto scrolling but you can move around.
Levels will have additional parts to them where if you are quick enough you can get bonuses.
Weapons – you have four and can freely swap between them. There are standard shots, spread shots, Bombs, and boomerangs.
You can hold the shoot button down.
Boss battles.
Health bar and you can pick up hearts to replenish them.
Coins will give bonus scores.
Extra lives can be found.

Spacewing War Review Cons:

No checkpoints so death has you restarting the level again.
No tutorials.
The final part of the story mode is so long and boring.
You have to do the story mode in one sitting.
So easy to die from hitting the wall as the screen moves fast.
Uses a lot of sprites that look familiar.
You need to play a lot of the game to unlock all the additional game modes.

Spacewing War:

Official website.

Developer: Pneuma Games

Publisher: eastasiasoft

Store Links –

Xbox

8/10
Graphics - 8/10
7/10
Sound - 7/10
7/10
Accessibility - 7/10
6/10
Length - 6/10
7/10
Fun Factor - 7/10

7/10

Summary

Spacewing War started off really cool, I like the Cutesy graphics along with the basic yet engaging shooting. Once I put the Gameboy green screen on it all clicked and I was having a lot of fun. By the fifth or sixth level however it started to test my patience, I knew I had to do it all in one sitting to unlock anything in the game, the level designs getting cheap with tight gaps etc really started testing my patience. Once I finished the story I got a few unlocks but even then it felt underwhelming mostly because all the levels are so short, they all started to feel and play the same. I would say if you can get through the repetitive nature of it all, then it is a cool little game but it is definitely a one trick.