Never thought the day would come when I'd say this, but I miss Maverick and Goose.
Taito's Over G Fighters is the closest thing to a true jet combat simulator to land on either generation of Xbox. But if you're expecting the frantic fun of pre-insanity Tom Cruise taking on those pesky Russian MiGs in Top Gun, or a modern spin on the fast-paced furballs found in Ubisoft's Blazing Angels, you'll need to adjust your flight plan.
In your role as a pilot with Energy Airforce (as the series is known in its native Japan), a typical mission in Over G Fighters' story mode consists of choosing the global hotspot you want to visit, picking the sortie you want to attempt, selecting an aircraft and a wingman and taking to the skies.
If your goal is to destroy a pair of enemy aircraft, you'll likely close to within missile range, hit the fire button a couple of times once you get locks on your targets ... and that's it. Mission accomplished, head back to base.
Many of the missions are less than five minutes in length (including the tedious taxi and takeoff procedure that some require) and your enemies -- whether hostile fighters, ground installations or sitting-duck ships -- will rarely appear as more than specks in the distance surrounded by the lock-on reticle in your heads-up display. Missiles away!
If you're careless in your target selection or don't use your wingman effectively, you'll sometimes end up frantically dumping chaff and flares to shake off a missile locked on your tail. For the most part, though, it's combat at arm's length.
It's probably realistic, but is it fun? Not really. Also lacking in Over G Fighters is a true sense of speed, even when you're flying some of the more exotic and nimble planes among the game's squadron of 30 unlockable real-world aircraft.
Again, this is probably somewhat true to life -- when you're 5,000 feet in the air, it's hard to get a sense of how fast you're going -- but even Namco's semi-realistic Ace Combat series for the PS2 is more arcadey than Over G Fighters. You can tweak settings here and there for more user-friendly controls, but it's still a fairly technical experience that's likely to bore a lot of non-enthusiasts.
On the upside, the visuals are pretty crisp, especially in the game's cinematic replay mode, and there are an abundance of settings for both one-off single-player missions as well as online battles over Xbox Live versus up to seven other foes.
Fans of those somewhat peculiar Japanese air combat sims will love Over G Fighters, particularly anyone who imported a copy of last year's Energy Airforce: AimStrike! for the PS2. So will military nerds who sleep with a copy of Jane's Aircraft Recognition Guide under their pillow.
Everyone else will probably have mixed feelings about this game, and after a couple of hours of curiously similar missions, they might well end up bailing out.
Just don't smack your head on the canopy when you eject. Rest in peace, Gooseman.
BOTTOM LINE
Fans of modern flight sims will enjoy the game, but its bare-bones presentation and slightly technical nature won't win any followers among action gamers hoping for Top Gun-style dogfights.
WHAM! Rating: |
5 out of 10 |
ESRB Rating: |
T (Teen) |
Official Web Site: |
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