Captain Skyhawk

"I sat down to write a review for Madden 2000, and I ended up writing this..."

OPENING STATEMENT
Captain Skyhawk is a space shooting game that I think would have been better off in the arcades. But, even on the Nintendo Entertainment System, Captain Skyhawk may just be the best space shooter released for the console.

GAMEPLAY--9
Captain Skyhawk presents you with the ability to use two weapons at once. Those two weapons are bombs and bullets. Unlike the Raiden series, which Captain Skyhawk is quite similar to, those weapons cannot be changed through different power-ups.

There are plenty of different types of enemies in the levels, each of which will try to take you out in a different way. Some enemies will fly after you, others will chase you on the ground, and some will remain stationary, hoping to nail you as you fly past. The large number of enemies make Captain Skyhawk a much better game. But it is the enormous bosses, most of which who cannot fit on the screen, that put Captain Skyhawk over the shoulders of the rest. The bosses really are much more difficult than normal enemies. Most of the time you will have to hit them more than once, in numerous locations, to finally take care of them. The boss battles are among the most fun in the game just because of the way they are orchestrated. There really is only one way to beat a boss, and if you do not find out that way quickly, you will not be getting past it.

GRAPHICS--8
I think that Captain Skyhawk may be the first game that actually came very close to being three dimensional. And it is very, very close. The enemies are all sprites, but the sprites are drawn like polygons. Everything is very angular, giving Captain Skyhawk a futuristic look.

The levels are also colored in an ‘another world’ type of sense. The levels are all very predominantly one color. In the first level, for instance, most everything is green. Most of the enemies are either gray or orange, with some green thrown in. There are steep hills, all topped off with an angular decent from a flat plain. The hills may look great. but flying in between them can be really quite difficult.

MUSIC--6
SOUND--7
The sound is a little bit better than the typical fair you would find on the Nintendo. The music all sounds very synthesized, and, although it fits in well with the futuristic theme, I do not think it was intended, and it sounds quite sloppy. Some of the songs are better than others, but mostly they are all about equal quality. The song in the fourth level is my favorite though.

The sound effects are a touch better. Although they are nothing to write home about either. They do a nice job representing the rapid fire from your machine gun, and the blasts of your bombs. The explosions, especially, sounded like they were recorded from a very scratchy record. The gunfire is not as bad in the sound quality department, but the developers tried to make it sound a little bit too spacey.

CONTROL--9
Captain Skyhawk is a breeze to control. The buttons are set up perfectly for their respective tasks. A is perfect for the machine gun, as B is for the bomb. Flying is a lot easier than I expected with the Control Pad being used instead of a joystick. The control may be what I am most impressed with in Captain Skyhawk. Even the sharpest of turns are possible with the quick responses you will receive.

FUN--8
Although this may sound like a usual statement from me if you have read a lot of my reviews, Captain Skyhawk may have been the perfect game if there was a well-done dogfight multiplayer mode. But, even the one player mode, with only five levels if I remember correctly, will provide you with more than enough fun to warrant the purchase. The levels that are based on the land are quite fun, but it is the dogfight levels in the sky that make this game excellent. They are nearly perfectly done, and every flight game could, and should, learn something from these developers.

CHALLENGE--MEDIUM TO HIGH
The high number of enemies makes the game great, but it also makes it kind of difficult. Even with only five levels, Captain Skyhawk took me longer than I expected to complete. Usually I expect a game to be harder than it is. Captain Skyhawk was completely the opposite. The enemies, especially those that seem to trail you, seem to shoot you down more than the natural number of times. Even so, Captain Skyhawk is never frustrating, because every time you get shot down, you are taking at least five of them with you.

REPLAY VALUE--MEDIUM
Yes, this rating would have probably been higher if there was a multiplayer mode also. But, even without one, I played through Captain Skyhawk more than enough times. I did my best to play the dogfight levels as much as possible. While I doubt you will be playing this game everyday for the rest of your life, you will still play it a substantial amount.

CLOSING STATEMENT
I think that there could easily be a spectacular Captain Skyhawk game on a next-generation console. Most everything could stay the same. All they would need to do was clean up the sound, add more levels and a multiplayer mode, and they would have a perfect ten rated game.

OVERALL--9

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 10/03/00, Updated 07/18/01