Top Gun Combat Zones starts off with the familiar, albeit somewhat grainy, Paramount Pictures logo that you’re used to seeing prior to the start of your favorite flicks (of which, Top Gun just might be one), but that’s a bit puzzling as there aren’t any cinemas to speak of in the game. It didn’t quite make sense to me despite the fact that it doesn’t have much bearing on the review. One would assume it was easier than recreating it just for use with this release. In any event, that’s not the last thing that’ll feel familiar here.

Each “Era” (read: missions in particular areas) is preceded by “Flight School.” Been there before? Read carefully, now. Notice that I said flight school precedes each mission set - you have to complete training for individual aircraft to participate in each theater of operations. Whereas most games of this ilk ship you in and out of flight school in the beginning of the game, this title sends you back to learn more as the aircraft that you ascend to earning become more complex in their controls and abilities.

While this seems perfectly logical and is probably realistic, it goes against the grain and one cannot help but feel that despite having finished an “Era,” you’re somehow being demoted by going back to flight school. And, yes, you have to go back and complete up to six separate training missions to get to the “real” missions. The game boasts thirty-six separate missions but nearly half of them are training exercises. These can be a somewhat time-consuming and tiring affair that seems to serve little purpose in actual utilization of combat arms and techniques to be trained in. They feel like little besides watered-down versions of the actual missions that follow, and aren’t much to get enthusiastic about.

The missions that follow, however, are much more enjoyable than the flight academies. There is a wide variety of targets and enemies in each mission set. Among them: helicopters, aircraft, tanks, anti-aircraft batteries, air defense systems, barracks, tanks, chemical weapons facilities, gunboats, and much, much more. You have an assortment of weapons at your disposal that are limited to what each plane can carry and you can expect to run out of most everything before a typical mission is over. Missions can end one of four ways: you’re successful, you’re shot down, you don’t complete the required parameters, or you don’t complete them within the time limit. Many missions combine multiple operations as the mission progresses. For example, you’re told to destroy a certain group of enemy buildings and you’re interrupted by command to be alerted to the fact that additional targets have entered the combat zone. This can repeat itself a few times within any one particular mission.

While I’m no expert, I’m certain that flight purists will be sorely disappointed with this title. Perhaps the biggest problem, even for a timid flier like me, is that the game feels slow. No matter how fast you’re supposedly traveling, it feels like you’re at molasses speed whether it’s at a high altitude, hugging canyon walls, or assailing ground targets. Firing at enemy helicopters are the equivalent of shooting proverbial ducks with a rifle at the local carnival. The ground targets can be challenging to destroy with your limited arsenal and the dogfights against planes with similar capabilities to yours are more challenging and somehow feel a bit faster.

The game has very detailed graphics and looks terrific through the optional component cables, particularly when coming up close to ground targets and close to aircraft. Perhaps this is part of the difficulty with the overall speed of Top Gun Combat Zones. Despite its inherent lack of speed, it’s obvious that the developer was more intent on making this title lean towards an arcade experience over a flight sim and was partially successful. In particular, the mission scenarios that make you fly through city blocks to destroy particular buildings or fly down the river to take out bridges are engaging and very fun, if not entirely realistic. Equally, the sheer number of targets would never be assigned to a real pilot flying a real mission, but that’s part of the madness that can make this title appealing.

The game boasts multiple scoring issues and this is one of the few reasons to replay missions that you might have already completed. The tiered scoring awards one for a variety of factors including landing the first shot, hit ratio, and damage taken, among others. Otherwise, there isn’t a story told here at all, except for the curt mission briefings that detail what you’re expected to achieve to reach the next mission. Applause should be given, however, to the detailed game screen that provides all of the information that you need during a mission without being noticeable unless you’re looking for it. The intuitive bar from left to right gives you an enemies location and also describes whether he’s even with you or below or above. Well done.

All in all, this isn’t a terrible title, and if you’re a GameCube owner that’s starved for a flight combat simulator then you could certainly do worse than this. The non-flight-school missions are certainly worth a long look and are an entertaining diversion from the mundane that might be construed as “normal” life.

. . . Haohmaru