Top Gun (NES)
After reviewing Spyro last week on PS1, I'm diving into the danger zone with Top Gun on NES. Now, considering it's going back a couple of generations in consoles, this review will be a bit quicker than Spyro's. So, with any of the NES/SNES/SEGA generation games that I review I'm going to try and toss in a quick review of something related or a later game in the series if applicable. In this case, I'll be tossing in a quick review of Top Gun : Second Mission, also on NES. So let's kick it off with the first game.
During dog-fighting, the D-Pad controls all your flight movements. They're set up inverted (thankfully) so pressing up will dip the nose down, and pressing down will raise it up, while left and right will turn you left and right. The A button fires your normal gun, while B fires the special missile you select before each mission.
While approaching for the landing, and also during refueling, the D-Pad controls remain the same, but A and B change to controlling your speed. A speeds you up while B slows you down.
A decent and fairly basic set up for a flight game on NES in my opinion.
After choosing your missile loadout, you are then brought to a cockpit view while you await takeoff from your carrier. Inside the cockpit there are a number of dials and switches, but only a few really mean anything to you.
All the way on the left you have two images showing how level your wings are in relation to the horizon, and your pitch meter showing if your nose is aiming up or down. Next to this is your radar, on which you always remain the center. Any enemies that approach you register on this as moving blips until they either fly out of range or you shoot them down. Below the radar is a series of short red bars, which represents your "health" during the dog-fighting. If these all go bye-bye, so do you.
Above the pitch/level images are your altitude and speed, and lastly to the right of the radar you have the type of missile you selected for the mission and the number of these you have remaining.
Once your takeoff initiates, you are automatically brought up to a set altitude before given control of the Tomcat. You proceed to fly around in the skies, shooting down enemies and being avoided shot down yourself. There's never a set number of things you have to destroy in the levels other than the main target you're given which doesn't pop up until the end of the mission. Dealing with other jets and carriers/tanks (depending on if the mission is over water or land) until you are almost out of fuel, triggering the refueling sequence. (Will go into more detail on the refueling and landing sequences in the following section). After successfully refueling, you return to dog-fighting, then you approach your target for the mission. All that's left to do is destroy the carrier/base/shuttle and then complete the landing sequence.
Top Gun is pretty fun overall, albeit a little challenging. The dog-fighting is pretty fast paced and, considering the generation, the flight controls are well developed for the game. You will definitely find yourself having fun shooting things down from the sky and watching the 8-bit explosion from your cockpit.
Time to break this game down a bit.
Enemy's end up running in patterns. Typically, they come in three's, sometimes two's, but very rarely solo. If they approach you from behind you're pretty much safe. There's real no way to fend off an attack from the rear, so the AI is a little nice with this and just has the enemies kind of swoop up from the clouds underneath you and fly off into the distance.
Approaching from the front, they will either fire off normal rounds (which you can dodge) or missiles (these can be dodged also but it's slightly harder, instead you can shoot these bad boys down if you're quick enough). The carriers/tanks are situated on the ground and tend to fire missiles at you in bursts of two or three.
The only enemies to appear on their own pop up from behind you. The radar display changes to a rear-view where you can see a jet behind you and the word "DANGER" flashing. All this takes is just swaying from left to right enough to shake him from your tail.
When you get to the target at the end, you're not only dealing with the missiles from them, but other jets coming at you too. Generally, you want to hold on to the missiles you selected before the mission, and use them at this point as it will destroy the target a little faster.
Around halfway through the levels, you will be near empty on fuel and a refueling jet will come in above you, dropping the refuel line in front of you. Your radar goes away and is replaced with text prompts which you have to follow to sucessfully connect to the line and refuel (and you magically get your special missiles refilled as well through the fuel line....still trying to wrap my head around that one). The text prompts you're given are either : left, right, up, down, speed up, speed down. The up/down commands are flight controls, not which D-Pad button to press. Apparently I've heard some people got confused as to whether you were being commanded to press the corresponding button, or if you were being commanded to adjust your flight pattern thusly...but it seemed pretty obvious to me from the first time I played that it was the latter. Since it's, you know, a flight game...
The missions cap off with a landing sequence. You're automatically brought down to a low altitude and are given the same commands from the refueling sequence. At the end of it, the screen flips to a side view of your F-14 approaching the carrier and you either get to watch yourself land, or plummet into the water.
In the end, definitely a challenge present in this game. It will take some mastering to get through all of the missions and the lack of continues means you'll always be brought back to the training mission in the beginning.
- The controls being inverted to actual flight controls is definitely a pro for me in this, as you don't have to spend the first handful of minutes trying to mentally prepare yourself for pressing up and actually going up.
- Having a health bar for the bosses is a nice touch, allowing you to monitor who's approaching death faster.
- The landing sequences are a whole new level of stress. You're monitoring everything about your flight and speed, all at the same time together. But to cap it off you don't really know if you made it or not until the last second after it flips to the side-view. The plane sprite takes the same path at the same speed, and it either levels off and lands, or goes sploosh. Very suspenseful, and not in a very fun way.
- No continues. This is a common issue in NES games, you're given your three lives off the bat, you have no way of earning more, and if you lose all three, you get a Game Over and returned to the main menu. In my personal opinion, it seems that the games that are missing this feature are the ones that could use it the most. After playing this game for an hour straight one day, I can certainly verify that the nerd rage will grow and become more colorful the more Game Over's you get in Top Gun.
**BONUS REVIEW**
Top Gun : The Second Mission
So after a stressful afternoon of playing and replaying the first couple missions of Top Gun, I decided to toss in The Second Mission to see what (if anything) changed.
They definitely picked things up for the sequel. The game itself is a lot better to look at. Your aircraft carrier that you take off from is a lot more colorful than the first one, and there's a bit more detail in the levels themselves.
Flight controls get a complete overhaul that make it feel like it can't possibly be related to the first game. The default setting had the controls not set to be inverted, so after having it ingrained into me from the first game, I'd find myself wanting to pull up and instead, nose dive at the water. You're able to pull loops in this game, and if you double-tap the left or right D-Pad, you can evade with a barrel roll. The only downside to the double-tap is if you're trying to minutely adjust your aim too quickly, you'll do the roll and be thrown off completely.
The combat controls are a bit better too, your B button does all your shooting between the guns and the missiles. The way it works, is the guns shoot unlimited ammo, but when you set the targeting reticle over an enemy, pressing the B button here will target them with a missile and fire it directly at them.
Instead of targets to destroy each mission (of which there are only three this time, no training) you get a solo dog-fight with a boss which ends with you slowly destroying their plane and blowing it up.
The landing sequences in Second Mission are MUCH easier. The radar gives you a static prompt of what speed you need to approach at, and then tells you if you need to adjust up or down, left or right. They run a lot faster as well, approaching the landing to actually landing is just a few seconds.
The sequel definitely picks up some slack from the original, and for those who may already own the first game, if you don't own Second Mission, I highly recommend picking it up.
The Story
With Top Gun, there isn't much of an actual "Story" to the game. You're playing as Maverick in an F-14 Tomcat, through three different missions and a training mission in the beginning. The missions carry you through destroying an enemy aircraft carrier, an enemy base, and lastly an enemy space shuttle. Each mission begins with a briefing screen detailing what you are to do with a map image below showing where it is. At the end of each mission you are faced with a landing sequence, and the second and fourth missions have a refueling sequence in the middle of each.The Controls
The controls for Top Gun vary slightly depending on if you're in the dog-fighting section of the mission or the landing sequence, but for the most part it's the same throughout.During dog-fighting, the D-Pad controls all your flight movements. They're set up inverted (thankfully) so pressing up will dip the nose down, and pressing down will raise it up, while left and right will turn you left and right. The A button fires your normal gun, while B fires the special missile you select before each mission.
While approaching for the landing, and also during refueling, the D-Pad controls remain the same, but A and B change to controlling your speed. A speeds you up while B slows you down.
A decent and fairly basic set up for a flight game on NES in my opinion.
The Gameplay
Each mission begins with the briefing screen with a quick detail of what you'll be doing in the upcoming level, with a map of what area you'll be in (although you never see much outside of clouds and water). From the briefing, you move to weapon selection. You are given a choice of one of three different missiles. The difference between them is how many you are given, and the area of detection in which you can fire them on an enemy.After choosing your missile loadout, you are then brought to a cockpit view while you await takeoff from your carrier. Inside the cockpit there are a number of dials and switches, but only a few really mean anything to you.
All the way on the left you have two images showing how level your wings are in relation to the horizon, and your pitch meter showing if your nose is aiming up or down. Next to this is your radar, on which you always remain the center. Any enemies that approach you register on this as moving blips until they either fly out of range or you shoot them down. Below the radar is a series of short red bars, which represents your "health" during the dog-fighting. If these all go bye-bye, so do you.
Above the pitch/level images are your altitude and speed, and lastly to the right of the radar you have the type of missile you selected for the mission and the number of these you have remaining.
Once your takeoff initiates, you are automatically brought up to a set altitude before given control of the Tomcat. You proceed to fly around in the skies, shooting down enemies and being avoided shot down yourself. There's never a set number of things you have to destroy in the levels other than the main target you're given which doesn't pop up until the end of the mission. Dealing with other jets and carriers/tanks (depending on if the mission is over water or land) until you are almost out of fuel, triggering the refueling sequence. (Will go into more detail on the refueling and landing sequences in the following section). After successfully refueling, you return to dog-fighting, then you approach your target for the mission. All that's left to do is destroy the carrier/base/shuttle and then complete the landing sequence.
Top Gun is pretty fun overall, albeit a little challenging. The dog-fighting is pretty fast paced and, considering the generation, the flight controls are well developed for the game. You will definitely find yourself having fun shooting things down from the sky and watching the 8-bit explosion from your cockpit.
Time to break this game down a bit.
The Challenge (or lack thereof?)
The challenge is definitely not lacking in Konami's Top Gun. The flight combat is extremely fast paced for an NES game, and enemies are inconsistent as to whether they will shoot you with missiles, bullets, or not at all. The refueling and landing sequences can be very finicky having to monitor not only your angle of approach, but your speed as well.Enemy's end up running in patterns. Typically, they come in three's, sometimes two's, but very rarely solo. If they approach you from behind you're pretty much safe. There's real no way to fend off an attack from the rear, so the AI is a little nice with this and just has the enemies kind of swoop up from the clouds underneath you and fly off into the distance.
Approaching from the front, they will either fire off normal rounds (which you can dodge) or missiles (these can be dodged also but it's slightly harder, instead you can shoot these bad boys down if you're quick enough). The carriers/tanks are situated on the ground and tend to fire missiles at you in bursts of two or three.
The only enemies to appear on their own pop up from behind you. The radar display changes to a rear-view where you can see a jet behind you and the word "DANGER" flashing. All this takes is just swaying from left to right enough to shake him from your tail.
When you get to the target at the end, you're not only dealing with the missiles from them, but other jets coming at you too. Generally, you want to hold on to the missiles you selected before the mission, and use them at this point as it will destroy the target a little faster.
Around halfway through the levels, you will be near empty on fuel and a refueling jet will come in above you, dropping the refuel line in front of you. Your radar goes away and is replaced with text prompts which you have to follow to sucessfully connect to the line and refuel (and you magically get your special missiles refilled as well through the fuel line....still trying to wrap my head around that one). The text prompts you're given are either : left, right, up, down, speed up, speed down. The up/down commands are flight controls, not which D-Pad button to press. Apparently I've heard some people got confused as to whether you were being commanded to press the corresponding button, or if you were being commanded to adjust your flight pattern thusly...but it seemed pretty obvious to me from the first time I played that it was the latter. Since it's, you know, a flight game...
The missions cap off with a landing sequence. You're automatically brought down to a low altitude and are given the same commands from the refueling sequence. At the end of it, the screen flips to a side view of your F-14 approaching the carrier and you either get to watch yourself land, or plummet into the water.
In the end, definitely a challenge present in this game. It will take some mastering to get through all of the missions and the lack of continues means you'll always be brought back to the training mission in the beginning.
PROS
- First and foremost, this game starts you off on the main menu with an 8-bit version of the Top Gun theme, and each time I pop this game in I find myself highly distracted listening to the theme.- The controls being inverted to actual flight controls is definitely a pro for me in this, as you don't have to spend the first handful of minutes trying to mentally prepare yourself for pressing up and actually going up.
- Having a health bar for the bosses is a nice touch, allowing you to monitor who's approaching death faster.
On The Fence
- Even though it helps with how challenging the game can be, the patterns of the enemies are easily memorized, and repeat in a cycle constantly, so once you see where the first one is coming from, you can already be lined up for the second and third. I was torn between making this a pro or a con because it's honestly both for me. It seems cheap at first, but when you're on your third or fourth attempt of the game and getting frustrated, it's nice to chunk some guys out of the sky without an issue.CONS
- You can't fly in loops, and you can't do evasive barrel rolls. The former I didn't miss too much, but the latter would be a great addition to this game for dodging oncoming missiles.- The landing sequences are a whole new level of stress. You're monitoring everything about your flight and speed, all at the same time together. But to cap it off you don't really know if you made it or not until the last second after it flips to the side-view. The plane sprite takes the same path at the same speed, and it either levels off and lands, or goes sploosh. Very suspenseful, and not in a very fun way.
- No continues. This is a common issue in NES games, you're given your three lives off the bat, you have no way of earning more, and if you lose all three, you get a Game Over and returned to the main menu. In my personal opinion, it seems that the games that are missing this feature are the ones that could use it the most. After playing this game for an hour straight one day, I can certainly verify that the nerd rage will grow and become more colorful the more Game Over's you get in Top Gun.
Final Verdict
Despite the cons outweighing the pros, this still makes for a fun game. If you can manage to get through it, all four missions combined take about a half an hour to complete. But unless you have mastered this game don't expect to only set aside a half hour of time for playing. It'll be exhausting and stressful while you're playing, but after the nerd rage has passed, you'll remember the good things about it and want to play it again. And, bonus, it's pretty cheap to pick up, only a few bucks. So if you like a challenging old-school video game, definitely consider Top Gun on NES for your collection.**BONUS REVIEW**
Top Gun : The Second Mission
So after a stressful afternoon of playing and replaying the first couple missions of Top Gun, I decided to toss in The Second Mission to see what (if anything) changed.
They definitely picked things up for the sequel. The game itself is a lot better to look at. Your aircraft carrier that you take off from is a lot more colorful than the first one, and there's a bit more detail in the levels themselves.
Flight controls get a complete overhaul that make it feel like it can't possibly be related to the first game. The default setting had the controls not set to be inverted, so after having it ingrained into me from the first game, I'd find myself wanting to pull up and instead, nose dive at the water. You're able to pull loops in this game, and if you double-tap the left or right D-Pad, you can evade with a barrel roll. The only downside to the double-tap is if you're trying to minutely adjust your aim too quickly, you'll do the roll and be thrown off completely.
The combat controls are a bit better too, your B button does all your shooting between the guns and the missiles. The way it works, is the guns shoot unlimited ammo, but when you set the targeting reticle over an enemy, pressing the B button here will target them with a missile and fire it directly at them.
Instead of targets to destroy each mission (of which there are only three this time, no training) you get a solo dog-fight with a boss which ends with you slowly destroying their plane and blowing it up.
The landing sequences in Second Mission are MUCH easier. The radar gives you a static prompt of what speed you need to approach at, and then tells you if you need to adjust up or down, left or right. They run a lot faster as well, approaching the landing to actually landing is just a few seconds.
The sequel definitely picks up some slack from the original, and for those who may already own the first game, if you don't own Second Mission, I highly recommend picking it up.
