Lost Wing is aptly named. During my time with the game, my Wipeout-inspired craft lost its fragile wings some three thousand, four hundred and thirty-two times. Lost Wing has also made me lose my temper, my self-respect, my willpower and my desire to exist numerous times. It’s also glorious fun.
Lost Wing is best described as a runner arcade game, though one that’s fused with the levelling up and procedural generation of a roguelite. Your craft whizzes down a neon-coated track that takes more than a few nods from the iconic movie Tron. There’s also hints of Race the Sun that suffuse the visual design, so suffice to say it is an aesthetically arresting game.
When you’re not distracted by looking at pretty things, you’ll need to dodge and blast obstacles that are in your way. Your ammo is finite, so also make sure to pick up ‘charge’ orbs. Charge is vitally important, as it not only powers your blaster, it also allows you to activate a slow-motion mode. Without a regular application of slow-mo, the much more likely your craft will end up splattered against a rock like a bug against a windshield. That’s because the further into the level you go, the faster and faster Lost Wings gets until an incomprehensibly blistering pace is reached, where brain, fingers and game must become a unified whole to survive… until you splat against the inevitable windshield.
This is an emotional game, one of spectacular euphoric highs and crushing nightmarish lows. There were moments when my heart was in my mouth as my craft nimby dodged a field of obstacles, gliding to safety in a Matrix infused action-fest that would make Neo jealous. Then, a distraction and ‘blam’ it’s all over. A life is lost and you have to start again. It’s a devastatingly addictive gameplay loop.
The procedurally generated tracks don’t feel randomised, instead offering a cohesive experience that has both a sense of design and purpose. For example, an innocently placed booster that might just hurtle you into a big fan, a series of perfectly placed jumps that push your reactions to the limit, a cavalcade of obstacles in just the right position to provide you with a clear optimal line (if your reflexes are up to it). Thankfully, the controls are smooth and responsive. Failure is never the game’s fault, just your own for not being quite quick enough.
That is until you come up against a curious design decision made on behalf of developers BoxFrog Games. At certain points on a run an anomaly will be detected. At this point you’d best prepare a paper bag as the screen will rotate in a nausea-inducing display of what can only be described as pure unmitigated hatred for your eyeballs. With everything suddenly upside down your controls will of course be reversed and so, unless you have magic fingers, death will soon ensue. I hated this mechanic. It feels so cruelly unfair and is so diametrically opposed to the excellent design choices made elsewhere.
Lost Wing isn’t just a game that wears its hardcore credentials on its sleeve then; its entire shirt, tie and cardigan combo is coated in hardcore. To combat this, which I appreciated, you’re given three lives per run. This also ties in to a partial checkpoint system, where reaching certain points in the track will enable you a respawn closer to your objective: a big, bad boss. The bosses are satisfactory but ultimately unnecessary – defeating them doesn’t end the level, as you carry on in pursuit of leaderboard glory – and the boss battles will soon fade from memory.
At the start of Lost Wing you’ll find very little to do. You’ll have access to your first craft, one track and easy mode. To unlock content you’ll have to gather points and gain levels across multiple runs, riffing on the metagame found in your typical roguelite. It’s a neat idea, encouraging the player to get the most out of each track and ensuring that they’re ready for the harder courses when they get to them. Unfortunately, it takes too long to level up, there’s a lot of grind required to unlock just about anything. You’re also given a lot of duff rewards after levelling up – having to gather a variety of different paint jobs for your craft before you obtain an exciting new track is arduous. Certainly, this is an element of the game that requires some tweaking to achieve a satisfying balance.
There’s several issues that hamper proceedings then, but these need to be checked and balanced against the price point. For well under a tenner Lost Wing is an absolute bargain, offering a journey that has ton of heart in your mouth action, so long as you can stomach the frustrations on the way.
