A roguelike game with a difference, Skies Above sees you in control of a tiny person riding, and defending, a whale-esque, flying Leviathan from robot drones.

It has an absolutely phenomenal soundtrack and gorgeous pixel art; there’s certainly no faulting the audiovisual experience of the game.

However, I found the moment-to-moment gameplay, which sees you zipping between drones at the press of a button and careful aim of the control stick, to be less enamouring. It does improve as you build up your stats, buy upgrades and when you complete challenges during runs, but that combo-heavy, basic framework of the gameplay just never quite gelled for me.

That said, I do seem to be in the minority here. The Steam reviews for Skies Above are overwhelmingly positive, and early word on the Switch version, which is the one I played, has been very favourable too.

So what do I know? Not all games can be equally appreciated by everyone, of course, and I’d suggest that if you like the look of Skies Above from its description, and perhaps its trailer, then you may well enjoy the game a lot more than I did.

It really is a beautiful game with superb music, and there’s tons of secrets and upgrades to uncover too. It’s just a shame that the overall experience just didn’t quite click for me, but I’m more than willing to accept that this is just me, and your mileage is likely to vary.

Skies Above is out now for Nintendo Switch and Steam.

Many thanks to Flynn’s Arcade for providing me with a code for Skies Above, for review purposes.

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