Captain Skyhawk

"Eh... I would expect better from something Rare was involved with..."

Captain Skyhawk was the illegitimate lovechild of Milton Bradley and Rare, and was born in 1989. Ok, maybe it wasn't illegitimate, but it wasn't very good. I was shocked to see Rare make something I didn't like very much. I found this game to be rather dull. The graphics didn't impress me very much. Sure, you're flying over what looks like astroturf in a somewhat 3-D fashion, but it looks like crap. I know, I know, it's the NES... but don't try to do something you can't do on the NES, which was make a good 3-D environment. I'm not picky about graphics though, if a game looks like crap I'll still play it. It just irks me that Rare would try something foolish like this. Anyway, my main problem is the gameplay itself. The super fighter jet from Hell thing is very hard to control, and you'll find yourself rising and falling for no apparent reason, which will lead to crashes in the 3-D part, missed planes in the air battle part, and missed attempts at the dock part. Speaking of the air battle, that part has the worst control of any part of any game ever made. Ok, maybe it's not that bad, but it does suck. You'll be too busy trying to get your plane to go where you want it to go, that you'll miss a lot of planes. The docking part is supposed to be very easy, and it is, as long as you can control your plane. After that, it's all down to timing. What the hell is a fighter jet doing in space, anyway? That thing must be very, very costly, yet you get like 6 of them to play with, AND they go down with the slightest impact of anything, be it a bullet, or a wall... makes no sense. I won't waste my time writing about the sounds and such, I'll just tell you straight up: they're bad. One last gripe before we break it down: Why the hell do they have a score of ''0'' on the high score list? Is 0 that tough of a score to achieve that it needs special recognition? And since it belongs to the only female on the board, we can accuse them of being sexist. Anyway, time for the breakdown, I'm tired of bashing this thing...

Graphics: Suck/10
Well, if I HAVE to give it a number... I give it Pi. I just didn't like their failed attempt at a 3-D type game. This would've been a lot better if it was an overhead 'bomber' type game, or something like that. I'm disappointed in Rare here, I really am.

Audio: 0/10
I hit mute about 4.7 seconds into it. The music in the game is horrible, the sounds are horrible... It's just horrible. I would rather listen to nails screeching across a chalkboard on infinite loop for 12 straight days than listen to what this game had to offer audibly.

Challenge: 10/10
It only gets a 10 because I found it challenging to stay interested and actually keep playing. It's probably easy, but I never tried, due to the fact that the controls were so bad.

Gameplay: -4,923,304/10
This gets my lowest gameplay rating to date. I was going to give it a 0, but that would've been generous. The controls are the worst of any game I've played, and that's what really killed my interest in this game. If you're going to make a game like this, at least do it right. Make the graphics decent, they don't have to be 3-D. Make the controls a LOT better... and there you go, this game might not be so bad. I would avoid it, but hey, a friend of mine actually likes it... I guess it's a matter of opinion in the end.

Reviewer's Score: 1/10, Originally Posted: 06/12/02, Updated 06/12/02