This post has affiliate links. If you buy through them, we may earn a small commission at no extra cost to you. Learn more.
From the archive: this review first ran on the Mac Gaming Alliance (MGA), the Mac games site that lived here on DimensionZ in the late 1990s. It was published March 1998 and is reproduced as originally written, with the original screenshots (click to enlarge). More in the Mac Gaming Alliance archive.
| Publisher | Macsoft |
|---|---|
| Tested on | PowerMac 8600/300 w/ 32mb RAM |
| Gameplay | 5 / 5 apples |
| Graphics & Sound | 2 / 5 apples |
| Interface | 4 / 5 apples |
| Difficulty | 5 / 5 apples |
| Bugs | 4 / 5 apples |
| Overall | 3.5 / 5 apples |
| Reviewed by | Jonathan Dreyer |
Top Gun: Fire at Will is an interesting game, it’s not quite a full fledged flightsim and not anywhere near an action game. Top Gun is a Flightsim/Arcade hybrid, the flight controls are not nearly as complex as in F-18 Hornet, allowing Top Gun an arcade like gameplay.
The action begins at Top Gun School, where you’ll compete for the coveted Top Gun Trophy. Then, you’ll lead your wingmen through fierce aerial combat in a burgeoning global crisis. Top Gun gives you the ultimate that modern F-14 dog fighting has to offer.
(Click to Expand)
Gameplay
Although I said that the control of Top Gun were simple compared to Hornet, that doesn’t mean that an idiot could fly the famous F-14 Tomcat. All the necessary aircraft control to be a successful pilot but the emphasis has been put on gameplay, not realism. While Hornet is a better simulator, Top Gun is by far a better GAME.
(Click to Expand)
The Gameplay is the greatest part of Top Gun. You start in the Top Gun school where you go through numerous training missions, each one increasing in difficulty from the one before, your goal is the infamous Top Gun Trophy. There are plenty of mission in many varieties, night flying, escort runs, carrier takeoffs, carrier landings, etc… You have 4 different weapons at your disposal for success in those missions, the M61A1 “Vulcan” cannon, AIM-7 Sparrow missiles, AIM-9M Sidewinder missiles, and AIM-54 Phoenix missiles. And of course you have your RIO sitting right behind you waiting for a chance to give his sarcastic advice. The Top Gun school missions are a perfect to give the flightsim newbies the basics of takeoffs, landings, and dog fighting. There were even some Top Gun school missions later on that I (the flightsim expert) had trouble with, namely the grand canyon mission where you have to stay under the rim of the canyon while dog fighting 3 enemy planes, that was one of the toughest flightsim missions I’ve ever flown.
(Click to Expand)
Graphics & Sound
The graphics of Top Gun are it’s biggest flaw, they stink. The graphics seem to be heavily pixelated even at the highest graphic settings available. The ground and the ocean look ugly, as you can see in some of the screenshots scattered throughout this review. Objects look great, such as other planes and buildings but, the rest of the Top Gun world is almost painfully ugly, if it wasn’t for the great gameplay this game would really suck.
(Click to Expand)
The sound and music of Top Gun is wonderful. It even has the Top Gun song from the movie (although sung by a different singer). The music perfectly balanced for the levels giving it just the right amount of atmosphere without being too distracting. Sound effects in Top Gun were nothing special, the missile sounds are the same for every missile you have and the gun sound is rather annoying when trying to shoot down your enemies.
Interface
Top Gun is a top notch port. All the expected macintosh elements were there, including the use of Apple Input Sprocket for joystick support. Note: I found a conflict with SpeedDoubler 8 and the input sprocket, to play disable SpeedDoubler first.
Difficulty
Top Gun has a perfect difficulty balance, each mission get progressively harder from the one before. This balance allows you to master the basics of flying in Top Gun without being forced to fly unusually difficult missions.
(Click to Expand)
Conclusion
In conclusion, Top Gun has the best gameplay of any game I’ve played recently but, if you’re looking for a flightsim, this is not for. Top Gun is more for gamers with little or no flightsim experience or who just want to play a really fun game. Once you look past the graphics into the gameplay, you’ll realize that Top Gun is great game.
(Click to Expand)
Find a copy
Top Gun: Fire at Will has been out of print for years, but used copies of the original Mac release still turn up, and some classics have been re-released for modern systems. Search for Top Gun: Fire at Will on Amazon.
Leave a Reply