Rogue Eclipse joins a procedurally generated campaign for Star Fox’s contested crown

You wait forever for a new Star Fox, and suddenly they’re everywhere. Sadly most lack the charm of Nintendo’s classic semi-on-rails shooter series, but Rogue Eclipse looks to be one of the more interesting contenders for the throne, at least judging by its PC Gaming Show: Most Wanted trailer today. Indie studio Huskrafts is beaming at least 70% of your RDA of Space Explosions into your eyeballs here, so give it a look.

Published with the aid of Among Us studio Innersloth’s new publishing wing, Outersloth, Rogue Eclipse certainly looks the part, with plenty of big explosions and some interesting-looking drift-style attacking shown in the trailer. Huskrafts also describes the setting as ‘Arabesque Futurism’, which is nice to see—an underrepresented style of sci-fi, probably best exemplified in the original Homeworld.

Rogue Eclipse looks a lot like a modern Star Fox, with slick angular space fights and on-the-rails action dodging lasers and other enemies. — (Image credit: Huskrafts)

Now, I can hear some of you saying ‘Hey, this game isn’t on rails at all, so it can’t be a Star Fox!’ First, well done on being quite observant, but also equally wrong. Only the very first Star Fox on the SNES was purely on rails. Every game since (including the unreleased Star Fox 2, which ditched that restriction entirely) has contained at least some quantity of traditional free-flight space combat, making the exact definition of a Star Fox quite Slippy (er, slippery).

So it’s more of a philosophical question: Does Rogue Eclipse have the spirit of a Star Fox? I’d say yeah. Slick, angular space fighters, chunky ships to hunt, and big, dodgeable lasers abound here.

But does it have what it takes to stand out from the crowd? The ‘Rogue’ part of the title refers to a roguelike structure. One life, random encounters and a branching campaign that lets you pick your poison for the next fight. Not a bad formula, but it’s also going up against the likes of the upcoming Whisker Squadron, which is doing a lot similar. Or even the recent Rogue Flight, which is on rails, but features some procedural generation gubbins as well.

Like I said, there’s a lot of competition. From purist throwbacks to the classic formula (like the excellent Ex-Zodiac) all the way up to radical reinterpretations. If this one piques your interest, Rogue Eclipse is available to wishlist on Steam now, though still roguishly uncommitted to any kind of release date.

The product of a wasted youth, wasted prime and getting into wasted middle age, Dominic Tarason is a freelance writer, occasional indie PR guy and professional techno-hermit seen in many strange corners of the internet and seldom in reality. Based deep in the Welsh hinterlands where no food delivery dares to go, videogames provide a gritty, realistic escape from the idyllic views and fresh country air. If you're looking for something new and potentially very weird to play, feel free to poke him on Twitter. He's almost sociable, most of the time.