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Top Gun Hands-On

We fly the unfriendly skies with a work-in-progress version of this movie-inspired combat flight sim.

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Currently scheduled for release next month, Top Gun is a Nintendo DS-exclusive combat flight simulator inspired by the 1986 movie of the same name. The game's scenarios and theaters of combat have very little in common with the events of the movie, but you'll be flying as and alongside memorable characters such as Maverick, Iceman, Slider, and Jester. The aircraft that you'll be flying from a third-person perspective using the DS's directional pad and face buttons include the F-14, the F-16, and the F/A-18. We recently had an opportunity to put a work-in-progress version of Top Gun through its paces and can report that our reunion with the aforementioned fighter pilots wasn't nearly as awkward as we feared it might be.

Flying through this canyon forces you to master the controls early on.
Flying through this canyon forces you to master the controls early on.

On Top Gun's main menu you'll be presented with three different gameplay options: a story-driven campaign mode; free flight missions set in the skies above the US, Asia, or Siberia; and multiplayer dogfights in the same locations. Since campaign mode begins with a number of tutorial missions, we opted for it on our first time in the air and found that it did a good job of familiarizing us with the game's uncomplicated control scheme and heads-up display. The first mission, for example, tasked us with shooting down balloons using machine guns, missiles, and guided missiles, while the second mission took place in a lengthy canyon littered with balloons and explosive barrels that were great for target practice. The third training mission was the first one that was really reminiscent of the movie, since it pitted us against Top Gun instructors and then with taking down enemy targets alongside a wingman. Most of the enemies that we've encountered thus far have been airborne, but antiaircraft gun emplacements protecting enemy structures have also been marked for destruction on occasion.

Whether you choose to fly your plane using Top Gun's "sim" or "arcade" control setups, you'll find that the handling is quite forgiving. Ironically, we found that the arcade-style controls--which made flying through the second training mission's canyon a cakewalk--made some of the dogfight situations a little more challenging simply because they don't afford you quite as much freedom when it comes to evading enemy attacks because your aircraft auto-levels at every opportunity. There will be no flying inverted just a few feet above enemies so you can flip them off if you're using the arcade controls, unfortunately.

Roll, pitch, and yaw controls aside, you'll need to concern yourself with speed control as well as the use of your chosen plane's arsenal. The X and Y buttons are used to increase and decrease your speed, respectively, while the A button is used to fire your machine gun. Missiles in Top Gun come in two flavors: nonguided, which are fired using the left shoulder button, and guided, which you'll fire by releasing the B button that you've been holding down when attempting to get a lock on a target. That leaves the right shoulder button, which you can use to switch between targets.

Don't try this at home.
Don't try this at home.

Perhaps the most challenging aspect of Top Gun right now is staying within the invisible confines of each theater, particularly if you're involved in a lengthy dogfight where high-speed evasive maneuvers are par for the course. Fly too far in a particular direction, including straight up, and you'll be presented with a warning message that, if ignored, precedes an unceremonious "mission failed" screen. You'll also want to avoid flying straight into the ground, of course, which means keeping a close eye on your altimeter because you can't always assume that the ground or the mission's hard deck will look like it's getting closer just because you're hurtling toward it at breakneck speed.

Top Gun's multiplayer offering takes the form of a dogfight deathmatch for up to four players that can be played against a time limit or until one player scores a predetermined number of kills. It's possible for four players to get in on the action using only a single cartridge, but you'll need multiple cartridges if you want to play using anything other than the default map, the default plane, and the default rule set. In the multiplayer game we found that each plane was generally able to withstand at least two or three direct hits before being destroyed but that deliberately crashing our planes into the ground after sustaining a couple of hits not only would sometimes deprive our opponents of the kill, but would see us returning to the battle in a brand-new aircraft almost immediately. This less-than-honorable strategy didn't work every time, but it worked often enough that we're hoping it will be addressed before the game ships. We'll bring you more information on Top Gun for the Nintendo DS as soon as it becomes available.

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