Whenever a new space-based dogfighting game of some kind shows up on the scene, I’m immediately obligated to note my love of the classic Wing Commander series and how, for me, it completely defined everything games like that should be. In terms of the subgenre on the Switch we’ve seen a smattering of titles, with none of them really tackling every aspect of that series well. Nonetheless, some have at least nailed down pretty engaging space combat, and some others have expanded the scope of the types of missions and challenges you can face, even if never capturing the joys of having an engaging character on your wing backing you up. 

DarkStar One, looking like a pretty direct port of a game released about 2 decades ago to the likes of the XBox 360, can now be added to the list, though I’m not sure whether it makes a substantial case for being ranked very high on it. You’ll play as the inheritor of a pretty extraordinary ship, capable of adapting in a somewhat RPG character-like way as you go. Precisely what you do in order to make that happen, at least, turns out to mostly be up to you, allowing you to indulge in fighting pirates, looking to trade all over, or perhaps engage in some more nefarious action. Pretty well regardless of your choice of path, the fundamentals of the missions you’ll face will remain the same and somewhat quickly repetitive outside of the specifics. Still, it’s nice to feel like you have options when you’re looking to invest some time in a world like this with plenty of space ports to visit and explore.

Somewhat unsurprisingly though, there’s quite a bit of baggage due to the age of the original game that’s hard to ignore. In general, anything tied to your interactions with others, from the pretty primitive character models to the often clunky dialogue (though to be fair some of these issues seem to be tied to translation), and sometimes even clunkier delivery knock the experience down a few notches, unless perhaps you’ve played it before and those can somehow trigger some nostalgia. In terms of dogfighting, as you can expect, more recent titles have done it better, whether it’s because their control schemes are more sensible or the flow of combat is simply more exciting. Worse, the liberties you have to choose your own overall path have also been handled better by the likes of Rebel Galaxy Outlaw since the time this was released.

In the end, it isn’t that the gameplay and overall experience are terrible. It’s just that they’re decidedly plain and a bit too ordinary by today’s standards, and its decades-old production values do nothing to help either.  Perhaps if you’re a huge fan of sci-fi space operas and dogfights in the stars, and have already exhausted what’s admittedly only a small number of titles already out there on the system, this will do in a pinch.