F-14 Tomcat

"A Wonderful Game."

When I the store I went to did not have a copy of Ecks vs. Sever, I decided to give F-14 Tomcat a try. I had heard it was a good game and the screenshots I had seen looked cool. Nevertheless, I have never been very interested in flight sims and was unsure if I would like this game. When I started playing, I got so addicted that I could not stop playing. Just about everything about this game is good.

Story – 8/10: China and Taiwan are heading towards war. Your Carrier is currently in the South China Sea and the president has declared the airspace in the region closed to all aircraft. You are ordered to shoot down anything that violates the airspace, as one of the nations is apparently planning to test America’s resolve by intruding into it. This is a pretty good story except for the fact that yours seems to be the only working fighter onboard your carrier.

Graphics – 9/10: The graphics are very good. The cockpit looks quite realistic, as does the landscape. The planes look as real as they can look on the GBA’s screen. I do have issue with the fact the there is almost no variation in the landscape, but I guess there is not much to see out in the ocean. The landscape’s blandness is made up for by the fact that you fly missions at different times of day, which is quite realistic and well done. The other thing to note is there is not framerate slowdown. You will not experience any choppiness, even when you are dogfighting three MiGs.

Sound – 9/10: The sound effects are very realistic. You machine gun sounds real, as does the sound of it hitting an aircraft. Everything adds to the effect of you being in flight. There is background music and it fits nicely with the game while not being intrusive. The sound in this game is quite good.

Gameplay – 10/10: This is the part of a game that really counts. A game can look and sound great. But, unless the gameplay is good, no one will enjoy it. Fortunately this game looks and sounds great and is incredibly fun and realistic. You really feel like you are flying. The combat is quite realistic. You will have to avoid missiles while trying to destroy your foes with a variety of guided missiles as well as your machine gun. Although take off and landing are most likely easier than in the real world, they work to greatly add to the gameplay. Don’t think that you can just fly around forever and shoot as many missiles as you want. Everything on your aircraft is in limited supply. However, this allows for another cool feature to be incorporated into the game: in-flight refueling. There are also two different levels of difficulty, which allows even the novice aviator to do well. The learning curve for the controls and the like is actually not to steep. It took me only about half an hour to memorize all the controls and screens. I had never before seriously played a game of this type, so it will probably take you even less time to master the controls. I simply cannot say enough about the gameplay.

Multiplayer – 9/10: You can have a dogfight with up to three other people. You can customize everything, from weapons used to the time of day. Very cool even though everyone will need a copy of the game for multiplayer.

Replayability – 8/10: After you beat the game, you get a new password will unlock one of two nice surprises depending on which difficulty you beat the game. This does actually make the single player missions different, so you will want to play again. This does, however, bring up the point of saving by passwords. I hate that. Why can’t they simply put at least one battery save? That is a big minus for me. However it is the only minus about this game, so don’t worry. After you have replayed the levels again, there is always multiplayer.

Overall – 9/10: This game is great and the only one of its kind on the GBA.

Rent or Buy: Buy unless you are unsure of whether or not you will like a flight sim. However, in my opinion, this is one great game and almost anyone will like it.

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 08/02/02, Updated 08/02/02