Thursday, January 19, 2012

Top Gun: 1HN Old-Timey Flight Simulation


I must make a bold statement: any American born in the 70s (like me) would find it challenging to NOT have some kind of positive feeling associated with the movie Top Gun, an 80s fighter flick directed by (at the time) young director Tony Scott and starring Tom Cruise as Pete "Maverick" Mitchell. Top Gun was a rather straightforward film about a hotshot F-14 pilot and his RIO buddy as they challenged similarly talented pilots and RIOs at a Naval flight school in Miramar, CA. Along the way, Maverick (Tom Cruise) and Goose (played by Anthony Edwards) would engage in dogfights, dangerous flying, and other macho escapades. Of course, tragedy strikes in the middle of the movie, from which Maverick must recover to overcome his own doubts and defeat some MiGs to boot. The movie then ends on an encouraging high note. I know I'm glossing over much of the movie, but that's the basic gist of it.

To cash in on the success of Top Gun, Konami developed the Top Gun videogame for the NES and released it in 1987. In the game, you are the pilot of an F-14 Tomcat, and you must complete four missions, each of which concludes with having to land on an aircraft carrier. All four missions are comprised of much dogfighting from the first-person perspective of sitting in the cockpit. At the beginning of each mission, you have your choice of one of three types of missiles: you can choose 40 of the weakest missiles, 20 of the medium-strength missiles, or 10 of the most powerful missiles. Depending on the mission, some missiles are better than others; for example, for the first two missions, choose the 40-missile option because you will engage in much dogfighting. However, for the fourth mission (if I recall correctly), go with the more powerful missiles. You get a briefing before each mission, so pay attention to the text.

Top Gun has much nostalgia value for me, both because of the movie with which it is associated and because the gameplay is so simple and easy to grasp that anyone can play the moment they press Start. Now, even my sons have taken to the game, if only because it's uncomplicated. That said, Top Gun was a flawed game: dogfighting is terribly stiff and simplistic, you can shoot at missiles and destroy them (really, this isn't entirely bad), you can avoid the action all together (just by going up or down for the entire mission), and landing the F-14 can be extremely difficult for a first-time player. It takes some practice and steady fingers to land your plane; if you cannot land it, you waste a 1-UP but you move on to the next mission. As expected for an early NES game, the graphics are unspectacular and the point-of-view doesn't change much and is largely useless; just look at the unnecessary gauges in the lower-right corner of the cockpit, which have NO bearing on gameplay. Also, does one really need a horizon indicator when you can't roll the plane?

In any case, Top Gun is a fun little game to play for 20 to 30 minutes, but it becomes dull rather quickly. As a teenager, I had acquired this game from my friend Brian in a trade, though I don't remember what I traded. At the time, I enjoyed this game and could play it for a much longer duration than I can now, mostly because my time is too precious these days to spend with this game. Honestly, I'd rather play a Sonic or Mario game. This is not to say that the game is a "dud," especially for younger players; there are just better games to play. One thing, though: there is a music loop that plays before the start of every mission when you choose your missiles. I can't explain why, but I can listen to this loop for hours; there is something soothing and enthralling about it. Listen to it for yourself and let me know what you think:

Friday, January 13, 2012

Super R-Type: 3HN Mindless Frustration


Call it a compulsion to extend my family's classic game collection or an odd desire to expose my boys to the finer, less modern games out there, but I'm always on the lookout for classic Super Nintendo or Genesis games. I read reviews and watch players' recorded longplays to isolate those games that exemplify the best of those consoles. Sometimes, I hit gold with games like Super Metroid or Super Mario World, but I also encounter duds, like OutRunners (which I may review in the future - it's a dull, split-screen racing simulation on the Genesis). Before Christmas, I turned my sights on side-scrolling spaceship shmups (shoot-em-ups) because our collection didn't feature one. There are several out there, including the venerable Gradius series and the R-Type series (both of which spanned the NES and SNES). I vacillated between Gradius III and Super R-Type for the SNES; what swayed me towards Super R-Type was the price on eBay, where it was 50 cents cheaper that Gradius III. I must admit that this is a dumb reason to choose between games, but I bought Super R-Type, wrapped it up, and gave it to my sons as one of many Christmas presents.

Okay... I'll just summarize my thoughts: Super R-Type is poor. Yes, the graphics are colorful, the aliens are eerily eye-popping, and the in-game sounds are crisp. My issues with this game are not the presentation of it, but the gameplay. As one may expect, side-scrolling shmups are no-brainers: you fly, move top to bottom, shoot things with your basic weapon, acquire stronger weapons, and then blast more baddies to smithereens with those powerful, acquired weapons. Super R-Type is no different, but (as far as I can tell) you only use three of the six available gameplay buttons on the SNES controller - that's a waste. Also, I must say that the second mini-boss is just too HARD to beat; I had to watch someone else's longplay on YouTube just to figure out how to destroy that spinning metal gyromite (Do you like the NES reference?). The first level should ALWAYS be a breeze when the game is set to the EASY setting; but, in Super R-Type, I have yet to get past it, so one can imagine how discouraged my boys were playing the game.

Super R-Type is almost exactly what I would expect from a side-scrolling space shmup: one lone ship, some power-ups, endless squadrons of baddies, and loads of mini-bosses. Considering this, I cannot fathom why I felt it necessary to add such games to our family collection because, honestly, I have always found them dull and pointless (except for Zanac, which continues to grow on me). My boys seemed to agree as they gave up on the game after 10 minutes of frustration. I can't blame them, though I will revisit this game in a feeble attempt to pass that second mini-boss. So, don't believe the hype. My advice is to stay away from side-scrolling space shmups, and avoid the confounding, mind-numbing blandness of Super R-Type.