Ultimate Air Combat

NES Game Reviews #41 – Ultimate Air Combat

One of my two biggest fears for the Ultimate Air Combat challenge was the racing simulators, and then the flight simulators. You’d be forgiven for thinking the 8-bit limitations would simplify these games, in fact many were overally technical, involving very dedicated mastery of the controls. It was time to face my fears and take on one of many flight-sims the library had to offer.

Ultimate Air Combat has you piloting one of 3 US fighter jets: The Harrier, the F-14 Tomcat or the F-18 Hornet. Each plane handles differently, has differing armor and a different weapon payload.

Your mission is to put an end to the usual tyrannical dictator. Each level is broken into two sections. First you’ll have to survive a ‘dog-fight’, ie air combat against enemy fighter jets (I assume MiGs). As levels progress, the number of bogeys increases. By the final stages you’ll have to take down 9 jets before you can move on. These fights are initially where you’ll struggle most. You have a cockpit perspective. Along with speed, altitude is important to pay attention too, fly too low and you crash, too high and you can stall. Sadly there isn’t much to visualize these limitations, you wont see the floor you crash into for example. The co-pilot is very helpful. He warns you of altitude and enemy missiles. emergency maneuvers or deploying chaff are your only defenses. Missile dodging becomes an art. The Phoenix missile of the F-14 is the most effective but you’ll have to rely on others too when you run out.

The 2nd part is a bombing run over land targets. The game switches to isometric view similar to Desert Strike. These sections are often tougher than the dog-fights but less repetitive and therefore more fun. You must consider your payload for here as well when you arm your jet. Fail the bombing run and you’ll have to redo the dog fight too! It therefore pays to plan your style of attack here. Sometimes going in hot on the target pays off, sometimes taking out ground defenses first is the best option.

Thank god there’s a password for each mission! There’s no cheap tricks here. Just grind grind grind. It’s a very long and very hard game. Completing it is a real achievement!