Have you played...? U.N. Squadron
I wanted this to be part of the Mini Reviews 1 post to have an SNES game there, but I wasn’t able to finish it in time 😂 it’s a hard one. Like the other games in that post, I first played U.N. Squadron when I was a kid, around 8 or so I think. Back then I actually played the original Japanese version, which is called Area 88 (エリア88), which was based on a manga and anime of the same name.
U.N. Squadron is a horizontal shmup with mostly real life planes. You go from left to right shooting everything that comes after you. Your enemies will be other aircrafts, tanks, missile turrets and all other sorts of military vehicles.
One of the major differences to other shmups is that your plane has a “life” bar: when you get shot, you don’t immediately lose a life - you enter a “danger” mode that lasts for some seconds, and after that you lose some life bar and go back to normal. If you get hit again during “danger” mode, you lose a life. Because of that, the game feels a little more lenient than your average shmup, but that doesn’t mean it’s easy 🙂 my 8 year old self couldn’t finish that game even after hours and hours of trying and retrying.
Another interesting aspect is that you can upgrade your plane and buy sub weapons before a stage begins. You start with a basic plane, but can buy 5 other planes when you have enough money. Better planes have a higher power limit for your basic gun (your basic shot can be upgraded by collecting power-ups during stages) and can be equipped with more sub weapons.
Sub weapons are very important, especially during the later stages. They range from bombs that hit enemies below you, a cluster of bombs that explode around your plane in a circle, homing missiles, 3-way thunder bolts, etc., to a mega missile that wipes everything on the screen except for bosses. They are essential to hit enemies when they come from weird angles.
Graphics are great, with detailed scenarios and a good variety of enemies. I particularly like the variety of environments: you have stages on the desert, on a forest, in a canyon, inside a storm, inside a cave, etc, and they’re all pleasant to look at. Bosses are big, detailed and menacing, as menacing as big planes, ships and tanks can be. The gameplay is also enhanced by a good soundtrack, full of catchy, high energy tunes that will drive you forward. I’ve always fondly remembered the first stage theme in particular, it rocks!
One of my pet peeves with this game is that in some later stages, enemies start coming from all places in the screen, including from behind. You can’t shoot backwards with your regular gun, so it feels kind of unfair, especially in tight passages (you get hurt if you touch walls and such).
My other pet peeve is that, for some late game bosses, you basically NEED to use sub weapons to take them out, unless you’re a god-level player with pixel perfect control. I get that in the late game you’re expected to have the best plane with all sub weapons, but it still feels kind of unfair to me. Though I’m sure there are people out there who can beat this without ever upgrading the plane or buying any sub weapons.
So 27 years or so after I first played this, I was finally able to finish it 😄 it was kind of cathartic. My 8-year old self is happy, as well as my current self.
This is not a perfect game, but it’s definitely a solid shmup with excellent presentation and good gameplay that’s worth playing.
Rating: 8/10
Original media
Area 88 was based on a manga series of the same name, created by Kaoru Shintani. It was serialized between 1979 and 1986, and apparently was one of the first manga to be translated and published in English in North America (Wikipedia ⤴). Afterwards, the manga was adapted into an OVA (original video animation) still in the 80s and then an anime series in 2004.
The story revolves around Shin Kazama, an up-and-coming pilot who is duped into becoming part of a group of mercenaries based in Area 88, an air force base in the fictional country of Aslam. Shin intends to earn enough money to break his contract with the mercenary group and go back to Japan to be reunited with his fiancée. While at Area 88, killing becomes more and more natural to him and he quickly rises to the top rank among the mercenaries.
I’m not sure why this game was renamed to U.N. Squadron in the west - I guess it might have been an attempt to frame all the dogfighting and destruction as a “peace” mission of sorts for the United Nations? Or maybe it was done to avoid licensing issues, as explored in this VG247 article ⤴, even though the Area 88 manga had already been published in the US. Who knows.
Misc
The Hardcore Gaming 101 ⤴ crew jokes that this is the most median game in their Top 47,858 Games of All Time list ⤴. At the time of this writing, it’s number 614 of 1373 ranked games, so it’s holding to the middle of the list pretty well. 🙂
Details
- Name: U.N. Squadron / Area 88
- Genre: Horizontal shmup
- Developer: Capcom
- Year: 1991
- Console: Super Nintendo / Super Famicom
Screenshots
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