Developed and Published by DM Games Pty Ltd and Dogmelon Games, Baron: Fur Is Gonna Fly is a multiplayer party battle game with small planes. So, fire up your engines, embrace the spirit of the early 20th century and get ready to battle with the animal of your choice. With characters like Squadron leader Mittens the cat and Captain Stilton the mouse, you sense early on the game has a bit of whimsy about it. The character art is quite nicely drawn but it is limited to just the menus as once you are in your plane you don’t really notice your character. The other graphics in the game include whimsical newspaper cuttings with headlines about the upcoming battle. But the planes themselves are not too distinguishable in their design and it’s only the different colours you pay attention to.
Usually, I would talk about the story or plot of the game, but this is a direct party game and you can only do some training levels, a side game with waves of enemies or jump into a battle with friends or AI opponents. Unfortunately, this is local only so no playing with your online buddies here. The battle does allow up to 8 players at once for those of you who have 8 friends with controllers around one Xbox…. or any gaps can be filled with AI bots.
Baron:FIGF plays out in a single screen and the controls could not be simpler. Everyone starts from the bottom of the screen and holds the A button to speed up before they can take flight. The A button then becomes the button to shoot the plane’s gun, the X button is for your special attack and the right trigger button is your evading barrel roll. Those are the only buttons and the rest is being able to steer your plane around the screen and this is limited to what these planes can actually do. By this I mean the planes move semi realistically so if you try to raise altitude your plane will slow down and if you point the nose of your plane down to lower altitude you will pick up speed. So, making the use of raising and lowering altitudes, performing barrel rolls and doing a loop the loop you must try to take down all the rival planes. As you start to hit the enemy with bullets you will see smoke come out of the plane. Too much smoke and the plane will lose control and plummet to its doom, but if you avoid the gunfire the smoke will eventually die down and your plane will have recovered.
The game can be played as a free for all or in teams, it can be played on a time limit or with stock lives and the screen play area size can be altered for more space or a more intimate affair of carnage. You can slightly customise your plane by choosing out of 4 types, its colour and each plane has a small benefit over the other like being slightly quicker, can turn better or it is steadier when shooting. There are 13 different special weapons to choose from, but it doesn’t explain what each does so it’s a bit of trial and error. The ones I have seen include a cannon which fires a one-hit kill shot if accurate enough, a flamethrower to attack in a short bit wider arc and an anvil which you can drop on enemies beneath you. But you need to wait until the gauge is full before you can use your special weapon, so you need to use them wisely.
The training takes place as a coin collecting exercise, which will help you get to grips with steering the plane. There are 3 different training levels to compete in which achievements for hitting a certain score. The other option in this game is the Sheep option. This Sheep side game consists of you being a solo pilot which needs to take on waves of enemies with different conditions, which becomes increasingly difficult.
Conclusion
Baron: Fur Is Gonna Fly is a reasonably fun party game for friends and family to play. The planes steering dynamics take a little bit of time to get used to, but the controls are simple enough for most to pick up and play. I feel there is only a limited amount of variation here though, meaning you’re unlikely to get much longevity out of things. Online play would’ve helped, but really the point is to get some friends crowded round on the sofa.
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