Top Gun: Combat Zones Demo

Top Gun is one of the movies that distinguished themselves from the rest during that era, although there are many more like it. It may not be regarded as too much of a blockbuster now, but back then it had all the ingredients right and the cliches it used were not yet cliches, for the most part. Beside that, the movie cemented once and for all the idea that jet pilots are cool and daring, not to mention real heroes for protecting the country every day.

Top Gun: Combat Zones is an arcade flight simulator in which you get to pretend that you are a fighter pilot yourself and take part in a variety of dangerous missions all over the world, destroying enemy planes and buildings. The campaign is split into multiple missions, each one of which has different completion requirements and a certain difficulty level you must get accustomed to.

The dogfights are nothing too special, since the flight model is very basic and you can practically navigate just fine using the directional arrows on the keyboard. Once a target enters your sights, you can either fire the machine-gun and attempt to bring it down with multiple hits, or fire the missiles and hope that your aim is true, otherwise you waste the ammo and it gets pretty difficult to fight back afterward.

Since this is an arcade game, after all, you should not find it surprising that the levels are crawling with enemy helicopters, AA guns or fighter jets, since that’s how your nerves are put to the test. It is not very difficult to handle them all, but you do need to get acquainted with the controls beforehand and learn how to make proper use of the guns, in order to avoid wasting them during the battles.

Graphically, there is nothing to stand in awe of today, but that wasn’t the case when it was first released either. The models look good, on the other hand, as do the environments and the special effects that ensue whenever you start firing the weapons. The handling might pose some issues to those who are not accustomed to the genre, but they are generally intuitive and very responsive.

Although the developers could have done a much better job when it comes to the story and the actual gameplay, Top Gun: Combat Zones is extremely fun to play and it should be a real treat for the fans of the arcade genre. Moreover, those who enjoyed the movie could enjoy the game as well, although it barely has anything to do with it.