Commodore Format
1st February 1991
Categories: Review: Software
Publisher: U. S. Gold
Machine: Commodore 64/128
Published in Commodore Format #5
U.N. Squadron (U. S. Gold)
According to the scenario, the countries of the Middle East have long been in a state of economic and social ruin due to violent civil war. Baddies have united to form an unholy alliance dedicated to kicking sand in the faces of innocent, freedom-loving citizens.
So who can save us all from a fate worse than a Saturday afternoon at Halifax Town FC? Wait a minute - there's always the UN Squadron! A round of applause please for Mickey Simon, Greg Gates and Shin Kazama. Mickey is a bit of an American meat-head who zips about the skies in his personal F-14 Tomcat, armed with 20mm Vulcan Cannon. Greg is from Denmark and used to earn his living by helping hostages from all over Europe; he's now settled into peace-keeping role in an A-10 Thunderbolt, ratting out rounds from his gatling gun and priding himself on his ground attack capabilities. Shin is a Japanese F-20 Tiger Shark pilot: his plane has a higher firing rate than the other two.
From this trio you select the pilot of your choice according to how you like to play. If you've opted for a two-player game, your partner chooses one of the other fliers and you undertake the missions together. Both players waddle over to the UN Shop, where a variety of guns and gadgets are on offer. Hardware costs huge wads and, without the readies, there's no firing fun 'n frolics. Destroying end-of-level enemies substantially improves the bank balance and allows you to purchase juicier items.
If you're happy with your choices, you can tackle the ten missions. Each one is unique: the first, for example, is set in an enemy installation guarded by anti-aircraft guns, fighters and tanks and concludes with an encounter with a giant mobile rocket launcher. This generates an impression of variety in the gameplay which isn't really there: many of the enemies recur in different levels, and the few new opponents are never very challenging.
This boils down to a multi-level scrolling shoot-'em-up which doesn't add much to the brilliant games already in the field. Everything about it is unspectacular: the backgrounds are nicely drawn, the sprites are neat and the end-of-stage opponents can be impressive - but there's nothing to delight hardened shoot-'em-up fans. The game suffers noticeably from repetition, because there is nothing in your opponents' activity to generate excitement: no intelligent movement and some pretty pathetic weaponry. It's a better game in two-player mode and the variety of weapons helps, but if you're used to quality blasters the appeal soon wears off.
Bad Points
- Predictable enemy patterns and poor end-of-stage opponents.
- Unoriginal gameplay won't be appealing to fans of the genre.
- Occasional screen glitches interrupt the action.
- Audio visuals are jarringly average.
Good Points
- Nine different weapons, including lasers, bombs and spray missiles.
- Ten missions, each with unique background graphics.
- Smart presentation screens.
- Three different types of plane to fly, each with different capabilities.
- Good joystick-only controls.
- Simultaneous two-player game mode.