Captain Skyhawk review - Nintendo Entertainment System
An evil empire has arrived from outer space and is threatening to conquer the entire Earth! They've already dispatched battleships to build massive installations on the planet's surface, and have infested the land with attack craft! Earth's defence controllers are more than a bit miffed about this and have summoned the elusive Captain Skyhawk for help.
Captain Skyhawk's the hunkiest hero available, and is also a bit of a dab hand when it comes to flying an F-14 Tomcat. He's also got his own customised, souped-up F-14 fueled and ready for instant use. His ship can hover in mid-air like a Harrier jump-jet, travel into space like a Space Shuttle, and carry more weapons than a B52 blanket bomber!
His main objective is to destroy the four installations that the enemy have created, but there's loads of sub-missions in the game that Skyhawk must carry out before he can claim to be victorious!
What the Mean Machines staff thought
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Rare aren't usually ones to disappoint when it comes to Nintendo games and Captain Skyhawk is yet another example of a brilliant game. The graphics are excellent, the sprites are varied and well-animated (especially Skyhawk's F-14) and the backdrops are brill. The sound's decent as well with accomplished tunes and spot-on effects. But it's the playability that counts and Captain Skyhawk is simply superb! The inertia on the F-14 is excellent, and the gameplay is very challenging with loads of levels to conquer. I particularly like the level where the wings stay swept back, and Skyhawk has to negotiate the landscape travelling at super-sonic speeds without crashing! To be perfectly honest, Captain Skyhawk is one of the finest NES action games out - and it's certainly the best Nintendo game I've played since Snake, Rattle and Roll.
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Have your say about this review
Laurie - 19 Sep 2008, 08:54 GMT
The rather lazy title aside, this was a welcome addition to the Nintendo NES. Yet again, Rare excelled themselves (one can only imagine what it must have been like to work for them) and the boundaries of the machine with ultra smooth scrolling and superb sprites. This would remind one of an early arcade game but with far superior playability thrown in with a defined game progression. As usual, the gameplay is on the difficult side of difficult. Not by any means the best game on the NES, nor indeed by Rare, but worth playing nonetheless.
Chris P. - 13 Apr 2013, 01:40 GMT
I think these reviewers are Milton Bradley fans, 90% for Captain Skyhawk!!!! The graphics are seriously impressive for the time, love the isometric landscapes played out in three dimensional design, beautiful. The hit detection suffers as you try to progress at higher speeds, and some heavy clipping stops textures from popping as you swipe from side to side. Its an adrenaline rush, but the reason games like 1942 and Heavy Barrel nailed this design is that the realized the system limitations. These games shined on later platforms, but if you're a die hard fan of the genre, you should definitely check out Skyhawk as well. REAL rating, 6/10, cmon guys...
