Previous Next

Ray Ban sunglasses, powerful motorbikes and life in the US Navy were all popularised in the visually breathtaking film. But the real star was the Grumman F-14 Tomcat, here digitized for high-flying arcade action.

A split-screen, two-player 3D flight game this has fast vector graphics although movement is a little erratic: you can often have the enemy plane length-wise in your sights with you in his sights as well!

Planes also tend to vanish out of your gunsight when close to, rather than smoothly flying away. Another problem is the horizon - it's a simple white line and the only way of telling if you're upside down or not is by looking at your instruments.

In two-player mode you each have three lives and the duel starts with you materialising in a night sky. Use the small radar scanner to manoeuvre into firing position and choose either cannon or missiles - the latter are deadly but can be foiled by flares. Speed can increased or decreased, and collisions with the sea are invariably fatal. In one player mode, you again have three lives, and must defeat three enemy planes (one after the other) to progress onto the next level.

As you can see, gameplay is extremely simple and the graphics lack the necessary smoothness to compensate. At a budget price, it's fun for a while, but lastability is low.