MiG-29 Fulcrum Demo

Although the US holds dominion over hi-tech military equipment, the Russians are not that far behind either, especially when you consider the fact that the arms race during the Cold War had the two superpowers spending a lot of money on all sorts of weapons. Fighter planes are especially representative for that era, like the incredibly versatile F-16 developed by the US Army.

MiG-29 Fulcrum is an arcade flight simulator in which you get to pilot the MiG-29, Russia’s pride and joy during the Cold War. The plane is renowned for its maneuverability and speed, which is why it was considered a worthy rival for the F-16. In the game at hand, it is your duty to take full advantage of its abilities and try to accomplish all sorts of dangerous missions around the world.

To start with, there is a campaign mode you can try, although you should not expect an actual story with characters and all that. Instead, it’s just a list of missions arranged by difficulty, starting with a tutorial. If you just want to get up in the sky right away, you can just choose the quick mission mode and select the desired scenario, as well as customize your loadout with a variety of missiles.

Although the game is not a simulator per se, the flight model tries to be realistic in some aspects. The developers asked for help from an actual MiG-29 test pilot in order to make the experience as believable as possible. On the other hand, you only have to use the arrows in order to fly, so this is certainly not a hardcore simulator. Thankfully, at least more people are going to be able to enjoy it with ease.

As far as the technical side is concerned, you need to remember the fact that the game came out a long time ago. What looked like top-of-the-line terrain renderings back in the day now looks like someone forgot to texture the entire game world. However, the planes look decent from a visual point of view, although the cockpit perspective is a bit too static to and washed out to make you believe you are sitting in a jet fighter.

While MiG-29 Fulcrum may be a bit too far behind to be fully enjoyed nowadays, the game can still have an impact on the nostalgic. Not only that, but it’s friendly controls and simple gameplay mechanics should make everyone feel welcome to the genre.