Some ideas are obvious, but it's always smart to layer a few things on top to keep things interesting.  Flippfly's Race the Sun was a hit, but also instantly made fans of the endless-flyer want to see what would happen if there was something to shoot.  It was hard not to want a Starfox-like sequel, and that's exactly what Whisker Squadron is.  The cat characters from Flippfly's postponed/delayed/hopefully-not-canceled Cats Fly Helicopters got pressed into service as pilots for a feline space force, shooting over the surface of planets, through space, and into the hearts of the Dogbots' trap-filled stations.

While on the surface Whisker Squadron looks like Starfox with cats, the addition of Race the Sun's elements make it a very different game.  The biggest change is that each run is procedural, with a random selection of levels on the flight towards the final boss.  Each level is also procedurally generated, with a final boss also being randomly created from parts.  It stretches the definition of roguelike to the limits but still just fits in the classification, especially seeing as you've got total of one life to reach the end.  The shield feels generous at the start but the enemies are good shots, and it doesn't take more than a few mistakes to see the defenses whittled down to a sliver.  It's nothing a little practice can't overcome, though, at least in the demo, and soon you'll be charting a course through the levels to find or buy get as many ship-enhancing perks as possible.

Whisker Squadron has been in development since roughly May of last year, and the release of today's demo shows how that time has been spent.  The levels are reminiscent of Race the Sun except far more colorful, and there's a nice variety of terrain and challenges to shoot through.  The first level is always trees and rocks, but after that come space stations with laser-traps, mined scrapyards in the asteroid fields, and even a city level that requires careful flying through the buildings and overpasses cluttering the course.  This is all included in the demo, which is a generous chunk of in-development gaming that promises a fantastically replayable take on the Starfox formula.  There's also a trailer, of course, but while watching is nice playing is better.  Head over to Steam to grab the demo and dispatch a few fighters of the Dogbot army.

https://www.anrdoezrs.net/links/3607085/type/dlg/sid/UUhgUeUpU13332/https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OecesgPtKrw