Air Cavalry for SNES

Image: MobyGames

Air Cavalry

Apocalypse No

Genre: simulation - flight

Publisher: Gametek

Year: 1994

System: SNES

Gameplay Score: 2

Gameplay Notes:

Made by the same guys as Spectre. Design is very simple - just fly around and kill targets. Rotate thru a few weapons and fire with A. Same problem as all these games - you can only shoot straight and can't move quickly enough to flank an enemy so you have to just fly straight at them while they blast you. No strategy. Parts of your copter take damage which is cool for realism but makes an impossible game even less playable. For example damage to the rotor makes you move at about 1/4 speed.

Level Design Score: 1

Level Design Notes:

Fly around with specific objectives which are just to kill X number of a given type of unit. AA guns, supply trucks, SAM sites, radar sites, etc. Map at the start is pretty useless since you can only see it once and not in game. No compass so no way to orient yourself either.

Theme Score: 4

Theme Notes:

More 'Murica than even Desert Strike. End level animation shows you flying in front of a full screen American flag and then your pilot giving a thumbs up while your kills are tallied up with decals on the side of the fuselage. Good stuff

Art Style Score: 3

Art Style Notes:

Typical Mode 7 game. Pilotwings looks infinitely better. Uses only half the screen with an enormous and mostly unhelpful HUD below. Sprites are indistinguishable from one another and scaling on them is horrible. They each only have 2 break points.

Audio Score: 1

Audio Notes:

Plays the Flight of the Valkyries during mission briefings but then a very minimalistic beat during missions. Sounds are satisfying but very quiet.

Overall Score: 37

Review ID: 23