"Give me space as I lick ya face"

First off, Air Fortress is a misnomer of the second degree. Perhaps it’s a translation issue, but in the United States, the “air” is not usually represented by stars on a black field, nor do big floating asteroids clog up the hospitable, life-friendly atmosphere we know here on Planet Earth. It seems clear that this game, in fact, was intended by the designers to take place in the oh-so-mysterious vastness of OUTER SPACE. Also, there’s not just one fortress. So a better name for this game would have been Space Fortresses, haha. I’m the lucky seventh out of seven people to mention this in their review.

Anyway, regardless of the name issue, the premise of this game seems to be that you, for some reason or another, must travel through space attacking enemy bases and destroying them by blowing up their nuclear reactors. Presuming your character has a good reason for this, and isn’t some kind of horrific space vandal who pushes old ladies into the street for fun, it seems like a noble pursuit, but it’s certainly no easy task.

At each of the numerous fortresses, you must first fight your way in, navigating a small spacecraft across a scrolling screen while shooting at enemies and avoiding obstacles like asteroids and big floating squares. During these stages, you must also work to acquire some of the power-ups scattered on the field. These items will be essential as you make your way deeper into the fortress. Concentrating on fighting, driving, and exploring at the same time makes the flying stages the most intense and interesting parts of the game, but the scrolling is slow enough that you have plenty of time, and can freely maneuver without getting caught against the back edge of the screen, so it’s not overly difficult.

The second stage at each fortress is underground, as you’ve abandoned your little ship and must now fight through the corridors of the stronghold to reach the reactor and eliminate it. As you progress through the game, these levels become larger and larger and much more challenging, and go from being the easier younger sister of the flight stages, to being a much more difficult older brother. As they grow more complex, these sections are extremely reminiscent of Metroid, mostly in the visual department -- all the enemies here seem to be straight out of that seminal space exploration game. (I know what you were thinking. Haha, seminal. You pervert.) You now have two weapons at your disposal; one is a basic gun, and the other is a rocket launcher, which you picked up ammo for during the earlier stage. These weapons will be needed to eliminate enemies in your path, but getting through the fortress will also require you to overcome obstacles like crushing pistons and spinning gates, as well as simplistic puzzles. All this is simply the line of everyday duty for your character. (Jesus. Yes, haha, doodie. You’re a monster.)

Controlling yourself in the underground stages is not quite as intuitive as in the flight stages. With your booster pack, you can move in any direction underground, although you have a limited amount of energy. Fire control is not as simple, and while on the flight stage both buttons fire your main weapon, each button controls a different weapon underground. The main problem with the underground levels, however, is that they just aren’t very exciting or engaging. Having compared them to Metroid visually, it’s clear that the entertainment value of Metroid -- that is, detailed and intricate exploration -- is missing, since each of these levels is pretty linear and there are no items or power-ups hidden for the player to collect.

As the flight levels are the highlight of the gameplay, so do they feature the best of the visual characteristics. The space backgrounds used outside each fortress evoke images of an industrial planet surface, with girders and other structural units rising the background, and other equipment haphazardly scattered over the surface. This seems to imply the enormity of these air fortresses, and the importance of your mission to destroy them. The combination of a well-designed background and detailed foreground objects is the highlight of these stages. The only big negative is your ship itself; it looks like a little orange pustule, and the last thing it reminds me of is a space vehicle designed for combat.

In the underground levels, things are a little more drab -- whereas aboveground we had both the background and foreground contributing to the overall effect, here we get no background, and the corridors of these fortresses seem empty and hollow by comparison. There’s not much variety either. The screen seems to be filled mostly with brown rock, broken up only by the pieces of gray metal which outline the corridors you must travel through. Some of the puzzles and obstacles, like powerful pistons, provide a fleeting halt to this monotony, but it soon returns. The lack of color does not detract from the flight stages simply because they are well-detailed and lively, but in these underground levels it seems very somber and subdued, not really the proper feeling for an action game.

Sound is without doubt the weakest facet of the game. The music remains essentially the same throughout the entire game, even as you move from fortress to fortress or from flying to underground. The theme used is lengthy enough that it doesn’t become immediately repetitive, but it sure gets boring fast. Nevertheless, it is appropriate for the genre, with a “spacey” (not Kevin) feel to it, imbued by the futuristic noises that sound like pieces of metal being slapped together. There are a few different sound effects -- one blare for each of your two guns, another for you getting damaged by an enemy, and a few general noises that seem to function as the utility infielders of the sound effect team.

As a strange shooter/side scroller combination, Air Fortress serves its purpose quite admirably, but there is really nothing to distinguish this game from the seemingly endless ranks of Nintendo games. Certainly it does not distinguish itself in the way Contra or Metroid did. Through purchase or through emulation, you might want to try it at least once. I know that’s an indecisive statement, and probably not what you were hoping for, but it’s the best that can be managed -- this game is about as average as they come.

Reviewer's Score: 6/10, Originally Posted: 06/20/03, Updated 06/20/03