Stonefly Switch Review – Beating Up the Buggos

Stonefly was just one of those games I was really excited for. I had the release date marked on my calendar, the social media notifications on for the developers, and some extra money saved to buy it as soon as I could. I was not disappointed, Stonefly is a brilliant game! The art is really cool and stands out against many other titles, the music is unique, and the complex layers of abilities and skill combos really drew me in to the whole concept of the game. However, as I played through it, a few small things stuck out as just not working quite right.

So in this review, I’m going to weigh the awesome against the annoying and talk about the fantastic second game from Flight School Studios, Stonefly.

You are first introduced to the player character Annika Stonefly and her machine-loving and building dad. Both Annika, her dad, and everyone else in their world are really, really small, even smaller than a bug. To get around, they use snazzy mechanical vehicles called rigs. Annika’s Dad has a particularly amazing rig. It’s his pride and joy, and Annika worries he loves it more than her. After sneaking out in the rig one night, Annika forgets to lock the shed and the rig is stolen! Filled with guilt and determination, she sets off from home to get it back.

Stonefly has a really nice story filled with emotion and action. Annika joins up with the elusive yet friendly Acorn Corps, a ragtag group of pilots set out to gather materials to upgrade their own rigs. Each member also has their own backstory for the player to discover throughout the game.

Although the story was really amazing, you know what would have made it even more amazing? Voice acting. Stonefly is a game in desperate need of some voice acting. Especially when someone is saying something to you as you’re focusing on combat and you don’t even notice it has popped up until it’s gone. It may seem like a really small thing, but I think it would massively enhance the story telling aspect and immerse you into the game even more.

The other big parts of Stonefly are explorations, fighting off bugs to collect minerals, and using those minerals to upgrade your beat-up, old mech given to you by the Acorn Corps.

First, let’s talk about the exploration. This is probably the main aspect of the game, and all the other parts sort of link in around it. You make your way through three colourful areas, each with new minerals, characters, music, and clues on the hunt for your dad’s missing rig. Each world also has new bugs to fight and an Alpha Aphid, giant bugs with loads of minerals on their backs, that you can track down and use to upgrade your rig. I really enjoyed this for the most part, but there are a couple of issues that need addressing.

First of all, you spend most of your time walking around on branches, but some branches that appear to be in the foreground are actually in the background. So you go to jump on them, fall down into the endless wonderfully illustrated abyss, and die. Oh, no. Also, Stonefly is a 3D game, but oddly you can’t rotate the camera. This ended up with way too many situations where my view of the rig was blocked by a tree stump or a rock. Therefore, I would be trying to get my rig back into sight but accidentally fall off a branch and die. I don’t know if it was just me that found these things frustrating, but they did pop up a lot during my playthrough.

On your travels, you will occasionally encounter hoards of bugs to fight off. Your rig’s basic features are jumping, gliding, and shooting to knock the bugs out, and once they’re down, using a blast of air to push them off the edge. As the bugs attack these four vital systems, you gradually lose health. By making it to a safe ledge, you can easily heal with enough time. Although I found these sections really hard, they are massively enjoyable. With each bug having its own attack patterns, designs, and awesome colour schemes, the combat stays fresh and visually intriguing throughout the game. I don’t really have any complaints about this, but I thought it was fantastic.

Every now and then, you can stop by an Acorn Corps base they have set up to rest and upgrade your rig. Although it was really fun saving up my materials for all these cool bonus attacks and customising its colour scheme, wheels, shape, and antenna, I quickly lost track of what buttons I could use to activate the abilities and what those abilities even were. Don’t get me wrong, a few of the abilities are awesome and got used by me all the time, but I just think the sheer number of ways to do one simple thing was a bit overkill.

There’s what I’ve got to say about Stonefly. Thank you for sticking with me until the end! Although the scoring might seem high for a game full of changes to be made, it is important to bear in mind that the positives were way more positive than the negatives were negative, if that makes sense.

Overall, Stonefly is a game I enjoyed thoroughly. It’s been incredibly popular, and it’s not exactly hard to see why. Everything just stands about this game, and for price it is I would absolutely recommend setting some time aside for this microscopic masterpiece.

Stonefly Review provided by Nintendo Link
Publisher: Flight School Studios
Developer: Flight School Studios
Release Date: June 1, 2021
Price: $19.99, £17.99, €19.99
Game Size: 1557MB