The initial period of time after new hardware is released is often quiet since there are hardly any software releases for weeks. Done correctly, it’s an excellent opportunity to get the attention of players that may have got round to finishing whatever high profile title the hardware launched with. Perhaps that is the reason why the developers behind Vroom in the Night Sky decided to release it at the same time as the Nintendo Switch.
The idea is that players get to control the Magical Girl witch who just happens to prefer using bikes to fly. Our young Magical Girl enjoys flying around the sky and collecting oversized star shaped items and then passing through a rainbow gate when all the items are collected. There are other objects to collect in order to increase the total score, but there really isn’t anything else that she does whilst playing through the short stages. The only real danger comes from running out of fuel and that never happened whilst playing the title.
Unfortunately each of the stages is bare bones at best to the point that it’s difficult to distinguish between most of them. Each scarcely populated with a couple of props to make it vaguely resemble different places like a town. It all looks so devoid of life that it almost feels pointless to try and explore what are frankly small sized areas.
Then there are the controls which are somewhat functional, but it’s still frustrating to attempt to do basic moves, such as turning. The shoddy control scheme is probably why the game occasionally rewards players with bonus points when turning.
Although the initial bike is incredibly slow, it seems like the logic behind this idea is to encourage players to use Stardust earned by playing levels, to buy new bikes from a shop. Unfortunately, the bikes are not that impressive and the only main reason to even consider gathering enough Stardust to buy the most expensive ones is for the better stats. Then again, saving up to buy new bikes isn’t exactly that appealing where there are barely any stages. With a lack of proper objectives that go beyond collecting the star shapes items, it’s really difficult to find a reason to keep playing the title beyond two/three hours at most.
Not even the inclusion of a rival witch who randomly drops in at one point in some of the stages manages to make playing this title less dull. It seems like the idea is to have her compete against the main witch to see who can collect the most Stardust. But it doesn’t exactly have an impact in how the title is played given that it’s still possible to complete the stage whilst ignoring her. At best, it’s more enjoyable to witness the two witches chat and usually insult each other on the bottom left corner of the screen.
Well, it can barely pass off as a conversation given the fact that just about every piece of dialogue/sentence in this title is probably committing a crime against the English language. Whilst some of the text descriptions for the bikes in the shop are amusing, it still doesn’t explain why there are so many broken sentences in this title. It’s almost as if the development team decided to translate every piece of text with a free online translating tool such as Babelfish.
It’s almost remarkable how average this title is at best in just about every aspect. Not even its quirky nature manages to redeem it of the various flaws that make for what feels like an incomplete title. Nintendo’s focus on indie/smaller titles is commendable, but hopefully it will result in a higher ratio of quality titles being released over the next couple of months. As it stands, Vroom in the Night Sky is not a title worth recommending for owners of the latest Nintendo hardware.
