One of the things I’ve really enjoyed in this generation, has been the abundance of indie games made in the mold of classic arcade titles. While certainly not all of them have been great, there have been a number of notable nuevo arcade titles that have felt like they could have done well sitting beside the classics back in the day. Skies Above really isn’t made in that mold, as its style of play wouldn’t have been well-suited to pumping quarters into it given its slow sense of progression. Even so, at the core of its experience it does have arcade-like sensibilities that do make it compelling, as long as you don’t expect too much from it.

In terms of the basics, what’s essential for you to know is that your goal is to save space whales that are being attacked by some pretty relentless robots. While you ride around on one of their backs, you’ll need to try your best to defend them for as long as you can, keeping in mind that your abilities are pretty limited, so you can expect it to be a challenge. This simplicity of play, and a desire to keep trying to up your game, go further, and hone your skills, is very arcade-like at its heart. Just like most classics, if you take too long a step back and think too hard on it, the gameplay loop is quite simple and not terribly deep in the end. That said, if you dig in and really try to work on perfecting your jumps from robot to robot, making use of your grapple beam only when necessary, and then continue to get new upgrades the further you go, it can be quite satisfying.

There’s no doubt that the game can be pretty challenging, in part because if you’re simply not feeling the groove you’ll likely crash and burn in a hurry, as the robots will continue to accumulate pretty quickly if you’re not staying on top of them. New robot types will also pose challenges, with you needing to pay special attention to most of them when they arrive, because if you give them the time they need to warm up they can simply be devastating. Then, once you unlock Challenges you’ll have additional objectives to try to meet on each run, earning some nice loot if you’re able to pull it off. Of course that then allows you to move further along your upgrade path more quickly, ultimately allowing you to likely go even further in future runs. It isn’t a very deep gameplay loop, but once you get hooked, it can be a satisfying one.