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Un squadron review
Today we will aim for the skies, up amongst the clouds where the few, the proud is. Today We will join.........
Un squadron
Un squadron is a shoot em up game made by capcom in 1991 and realeased to SNES. The game was accually released to arcade already in 1989 but I will talk about the SNES version. The japanese version was named Area 88 while the european and US version was named UN squadron.
Story
The game is based on a manga named Area 88 and follows a few mercenary pilots that are participating in a war against a rebel force(or mercenaries) called project 4.
The game doesnt go in so much on the story however even if some things are shown.
gameplay
the game is a sidescrolling shoot em up. You choose one of three pilots in the beginning and then starts the campaign.
The three pilots are directly taken from the manga/anime and are
Shin- the main person in the serie, his specialty is that he gain expericence fastest(more about that later)
Greg- Shins friend, his special thing is that he recovers much faster from damage(more about that later)
Mickey- Also on of Shins friends, his specialty is that he can fire the special weapons much faster and better than the others, but I havent seen much from that.
When you have choosed a pilot you chooses a mission.
In your mission screen you have a large map as well as a guy telling you some info about the situation. In this game you are fairly free to choose mission, even if you cant choose them all in the beginning.
(the mission screen)
After you got a mission you choose a plane. There are six planes in the game but you can only fly one of them in the beginning, the others you have to buy for the money you earn in the missions. the different planes are specialised on different things, the F14 is the most movable and is best for air combat while the A10 got a second cannon shooting down on the ground as most ground weapons.
All planes
You also get to choose speceial weapon, ranging from normal bombs and missiles to weapons that attacks everything on the whole screen, you have to buy them also and not all planes can take all weapons.
Your primary weapon is you cannon. In the beginning its weak but as more things you kill and pick up special containers you earn experience so it gets dealdier as well as get a bigger spread.
All you have to do in a mission is to fight through the enemies and survive until you get to the end of the map, there you will face a boss wich you have to defeat. After your score will be counted, dependably of what weapons you used and how many enemies you killed.
unlike many other shoot em ups you wont loose a life whenever you are hit.
On the top of your screen you got an energy bar. When you are hit your plane starts to burn and the bar starts flashing, after a few seconds the fire is extinguished and the bar restores, however its a little shorter now. Every time you are hit and the fire is put down you will loose energy.
When you have no energy left the plane will continue to burn until you are hit again or finish the map(or finding a power up). be alert, you wont loose even if the plane is burning but every single hit while burning(even if you got energy left) will kill you.
Now, you got three lives before you loose, but still not. If you have lost three lives(and believe me you will) you can continue anyway, but only three times. So you can say you will have 9 lives before you loose.
the different maps are pretty diverse and the difficulty is raised a lot. The first and second map isnt that hard but when you come to the third it will be very hard, and even worse in gamer mode(reachable by a code).
The game only got 10 levels not counting the bonus levels(they are only missions about destroying trucks.)
And every mission is finished within 5 minutes if you make it, but the sheer difficulty level makes so it takes longer time to finish the game.
graphics and sound.
The graphics was extrodinary when it came and even today It cna feel epic haveing a full scale air battle in the middle of a thunderstorm. The planes look nice and the weapon effects are also pretty cool. The bosses borrows look from both real and not real vehicles.
The soundtrack in UN squadron is just marvelous, they are as epic the limited sound chip allows them to be, the songs are ranging from faster songs to big epic pieces wich just scream that a BIG enemy is waiting for you. The songs however are made so they repeat during the level it is played on(but you dont notice that so much) The only thing I dont like about the music is that they have been a little lazy sometimes adding the same music to several of the bosses and even two different levels.
The sound effects in the game are also pretty good, it sounds really much in the heat of the battle and its often in the soft parties you hear that the explosions sounds a little strange.
One thing that I didnt like is that the game is one player only.
Overall
Un squadron is a side scrolling shoot em up made by capcom 1991. It was released to the SNES. You play as a mercenary pilot in a war facing pirates/rebels or other mercenaries. The game is bloody hard and you will die many times, however its not that hard you will give up playing. The mechanics in the game is pretty unusual for a shoot em up, with the choosing of pilots, planes and weapons as well as having something similar to a health bar.
Points
Gameplay- 9/10 The game is so much fun, once you start you cant get away, about the only bad thing is that its singleplayer only.
Graphics- The game looks nice and some of the levels just scream epicness. 8/10
sounds- the sounds in the game are working, whats truly good however are the music, the soundtrack is both epic, scary and makes you want to fight at the same time. 9/10
total 9/10 I would call i one of the best shoot em ups from that time and I wait day and night for a remake.
Just a fun fact, They changed the name and several things between the japanese and european/american released but not the characters, they are as manga like and looks almost
the same as the characters in the manga serie.
The game looks better in movement.
Last edited by paecmaker; 09-07-2011 at 01:48 PM.
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