Honestly, I can't really say what possessed me to revisit this NES air combat game based on the Tom Cruise blockbuster. It's slow-paced, bland, repetitive, and at times, unnecessarily difficult. I've never had any particularly fond memories of it, but it always stymied me back in the day, so I guess I was probably just looking for some closure. Folks, I don't know why it has taken me so long to learn this lesson, but in gaming as well as in life, it's often true what they say about bad relationships being best left in the past. Anyway, with a total of only four missions, Top Gun is mercilessly short, but other than that there's not much about it that I can recommend. I guess that some of the music is okay. I think I may have mentioned it before, but many if not most Konami games of the era featured excellent soundtracks. With this game, I always found it weird that they chose to license only the "Top Gun Anthem" and not also spring for the Kenny Loggins classic, "Danger Zone". Must have been too expensive. Instead, we got this silly little copycat version that simply doesn't capture the raw emotional power of the original track. Here, listen for yourself:
And here's the original... by the way, I was joking about the "raw emotional power" stuff ;P
Trojan - NES
I feel like this 1986 hack 'n slash side-scroller from Capcom never gets a lot of mention these days, but it's a well made game that's notable for several reasons. For one thing, it has a great post-apocalyptic, early cyberpunk vibe. Set amidst ruined skyscrapers and rusted out automobiles, your unnamed character (I'll call him Trojan Man) fights with a sword and shield and squares off against similarly armed foes. Throughout the game's six stages, Trojan Man must slice his way through an army of brigands and mutant humans in his effort to bring down an evil gang intent on, you know, world domination...probably. Point being that its setting and mood are surprisingly effective and well realized for a game of its era. Another interesting aspect of this game is its two-player versus mode. In the NES version, you and a friend can go one-on-one in a Street Fighter-style match where you must use your jumps, strikes, and blocks to best your opponent. According to a good friend that I'll call Wikipedia, this mode was actually Capcom's first foray into the fighting game genre. Think about that, will ya?! It also has great music, really decent graphics, and surprisingly deep gameplay. Sure, I could point out the ever-present flicker that seemed to plague Capcom's early NES games, or the semi-annoying-but-you'll-actually-get-used-to-it-and-it's-really-not-that-bad "up to jump" mechanic, but that would really be nitpicking.
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