 UN Squadron (Area 88)
From the days of the Atari onwards, the champions of the side-scrolling shooter genre seemed to be based on you defeating the aliens in your mighty spaceship. You march onwards through ever increasing hordes of enemies and occasionally pick up a smart bomb to clear the screen or make your laser bigger. In Capcom's UN Squadron (often known as Area 88 in many places around the globe), there seems to be an emphasis on making changes to the genre - a reason that has me returning again and again to play this 12 year old game.
In UN Squadron, the setting is modern day, using contemporary fighter planes. To begin the game you choose one of three different pilots. Each one offers a unique skill for the battlefield, so choose depending on where you think you might need a hand. One pilot helps maneuvarability, one pilot increases shooting rate, and the last helps you shake off damage easier. The next interesting addition to the shooter genre is the ability to purchase different planes. During each level of the game you'll gain cash for completing objectives and shooting down enemy planes, so you can apply this to buying new planes for yourself. Each of the six planes has their individuality in controllability, basic weaponry, and the types of special weapons they can carry. Some are geared towards destryoing ground troops, whilst others excel at fighting craft above themselves. Knowing which plane to choose before a battle can certainly turn the tide. The last offering to break the mould of the shooter-style game is pre-buying special weapons, and a wide variety of weapons to boot. Homing missiles, regular bombs, napalm, a "mega-weapon" that does heavy damage to bosses and destroys everything on screen, bombs that zoom across the ground, machine guns that fire 45degrees upwards and ahead of you, and a cluster weapon that wreaks a circle of destruction around you. Again, knowing which weapons to buy ahead of time makes all the difference between outright death and a clear winner.
The graphics encompass everything we expect from a Capcom game for the SNES. Vibrant use of colour and tones, lovely backdrops, and crisp clean artwork on the full-screen boss characters. On the SNES and also emulators, the amount of action on screen can sometimes cause slowdown. With shooters I like to think this is intentional to give you a bit of breathing room while you sort out your foes. Still, it can be a bit awkward to adjust to a suddenly crawling game. For sound, again Capcom delivers just as it has with many of their other games. Upbeat slightly rock n roll midi tunes play in the background, with a different tune for each level to keep things new and interesting. When you hit a boss at the end of some levels, the music will often change from being upbeat to something slow and sonorous, to remind you of your impending death! |
