What is there to do when a zany cast of furry friends-turned-enemies find themselves in a mid-century style dogfighting party-game? Shoot one another down of course! That’s the whole premise of Baron: Fur is Gonna Fly the new part y game from Dogmelon studios out now on Nintendo Switch.
It’s a simple game to pick up and play with a surprising amount of depth for the kind of game that it is. Like a lot of other indy party games on the Switch you start it up, pick your character, and within minutes you’re playing. It’s a very hasslefree experience. But there are some complexities for more experienced gamers both to Baron’s advantage and detriment.
The advantage is that for players who keep the fur fly’in for an extended period of time there are some tools and options to mix it up. For example different aircraft give players the opportunity to mix up their strategy and prioritize from a number of attributes like speed, defense, and accuracy.
Similarly, each player can choose a special ability to use in each dog fight. These range from offensive options like turning your plane into a battering ram that takes out opponents in one hit. Some are more tactical options allowing you freeze opponents in mid air or plant traps around the vertical battlefield. All of them have their uses, but may be confusing or challenging for inexperienced gamers to use effectively. Though I found these options gave a bit of flavor to the game none of them really caught my attention or maintained my interest for very long.
That is the crux of my experience with Baron: Fur is Gonna Fly: it never really captured me. Everything about it feels formulaic. A host of wacky characters, boring environments/backgrounds to fight against, and a few unimpressive options to choose from. It all adds up to a forgettable experience that I personally won’t be spending much more time with.
I thought one thing that saves this game from being a complete wash is its charm. Each of the WWII era animal designs is interesting in their own right and, though they sadly play identically, I liked each of their visual aesthetic. Likewise the music is a treat. It’s the kind of jaunty tune you might hear in an old-timey saloon run by various domestic animals. All of them have unique lyrics and each protagonist has their own theme. It’s nothing I’d sit down and listen to intently but for a game that could have easily made do with random background music, Dogmelon stuck to their audio-visual aesthetic and executed on it very well.
It’s a shame then that the game didn’t stick the same landing. I love party games and dogfighting. Just ask twelve years old me who stayed up till the wee hours of the morning playing crimson skies on Xbox live. There are a lot of simple games with tight controls, interesting (if simple) mechanics, with repetitive gameplay that have captured my attention over the years. But this isn’t one of them. It’s a tough title for me to recommend and one that I think most people should avoid. However, if you’re looking for a pick-up-and-play party-style dogfighting game (given that’s a pretty specific niche) on the Switch you likely won’t have a lot of other options. With that caveat, I would recommend checking out some videos of Baron: Fur is Gonna Fly (at the very least long enough to hear the music), but don’t go in expecting it to be the next “big thing” for game-night.