Zzap


Flight Pack
By Prism
Commodore 64/128

 
Published in Zzap #81

Flight Pack

No prizes for guessing what's on offer here folks! It's rip-roaring, high-flying action all the way, with a couple of shoot-'em-ups and two sims.

Deep Strike

First off the mark is Deep Strike, a game so old it could have been written by the Wright Brothers. Scoring a less-than-brilliant 61% in Issue 52, Deep Strike is one of those games you can spend ages finding fault with, but still manages to be fairly addictive and endearing.

The graphics are sparse, the animation jerky, and one of the enemies insists on flying straight into your gunsight and staying there until blown to smithereens - you can't get rid of him, whatever you try. Even so, its flawed but simplistic gameplay makes it a worthy opener to the compilation, but nothing outstanding.

First Strike

First Strike, on the other hand, is one helluva game! A high scorer as a full-price release and a Silver Medal on budget, First Strike is still one of the best fliers around. The graphics are fast and colourful, the scenery is exciting and involved, and the gameplay - wow!

The weapons selection menu is great, not detracting from the action at all, and with eight missions to choose from you won't complete it in a hurry. First Strike features a huge variety of baddies to blast, and some excellent touches like the on-board radar and the way your plane handles sluggishly when damaged.

First Strike would make a great budget bargain on its own, so with three other games thrown in, it's unbelevable!

Combat Lynx

Combat Lynx is a strange one - choose your weapons, then blast your way through enemy terrain in your Lynx helicopter. Fair enough, but why does it offer a standard 3D view of your surroundings, yet claim that you're viewing them from behind a helicopter panel? And why does the program allow you to turn through 90 degrees, then suddenly flip the screen?

Combat Lynx is a slow and unexciting game. Sim freaks might like it, but I didn't.

Pilot 64

The blurb for Pilot 64 claims it was written by a real pilot. If this is the case, he should have stuck to flying planes - Pilot 64 is crap! A flight sim in the truest sense, this is one of those oldies but not-very-goodies where you control a light aircraft which you can fly wherever you wish - no military element at all. The game takes place at night, but this is no excuse for the dull and featureless graphics, and the 'action' is hellishly slow and flickery.

Recommendation

So there we have it - one absolutely mega-stonking game, one okayish game, and two duds. If you already have First Strike, don't bother, but if you haven't Flight Pack is an essential purchase for this game alone.