Independence Day

aka: ID4, Independence Day - maailmojen sota, Independence Day: The Game
Moby ID: 1806
Windows Specs
Buy on PlayStation
$10.59 used on eBay
Buy on SEGA Saturn
$29.92 used on eBay
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Description official descriptions

This arcade game is based loosely on the 1996 blockbuster movie "Independence Day." Interspersed with cutscenes lifted from the film, the game consists of flying a jet through various missions in order to take down the gargantuan, city-destroying spaceships. This entails flying around the 3D level and taking out targets such as: communication uplinks, shield generators, the occasional alien fighter craft, and ultimately bringing down the major alien ship via a strike on its main cannon. Powerups are plentiful, such as medical packs that heal your jetcraft, bonus weapons, bonus planes, and an item that freezes enemy planes for a brief time.

Mission settings include the Grand Canyon, Washington D.C., and New York City. There are other missions that are provided on a need-to-know basis (as stated in the manual). The game also features 2-player head-to-head action via a network or null modem link.

Spellings

  • 天煞:地球反击战 - Simplified Chinese spelling

Groups +

Screenshots

Promos

Credits (Windows version)

46 People (39 developers, 7 thanks) · View all

Producer (Fox Interactive)
Associate Producer
Lead Tester
Testers
Code Programmers
Graphics
(if you know italian this guy's a: "Progettazione e Messa a Punto Livelli" )
QA
Producer (Radical Entertainment)
3D Graphics
[ full credits ]

Reviews

Critics

Average score: 47% (based on 26 ratings)

Players

Average score: 2.3 out of 5 (based on 21 ratings with 1 reviews)

Generic and forgetable.

The Good
A 3d action game that capitalized on the summer blockbuster film Independence Day where a cable guy, Will Smith and the president of the United States save the world from an alien invasion... yeah, let's skip the plot shall we?

The gameplay premise has you freeing up cities that have been overtaken by the alien motherships by blasting their shield generators and in the end taking down their main weapon before they fire it. To do so you have to jump in the cockpit of several aircrafts from around the world and fly around a la Rogue Squadron shooting down alien ships, avoiding enemy fire and collecting power up items and secret stuff (like warps to secret levels and fighter planes). The levels themselves are determined by the motherships, providing the ceiling and edges (via a force field that extends from their outer perimeter) and you have a series of allied fighters to back you up, but usually it will be up to you to clear out the levels.

The controls are tight, and responsive enough and...well, this is as far as we go here folks.

The Bad
First of all the graphics in the game scream "first generation playstation game" with those horribly giant flat graphics you knew from Die Hard Trilogy as a main interface and some very, very crude polygonal graphics (that still use sprites every now and then) to display the gameworld. The textures are extremely low-res even for a game of that time, and the special effects are absolutely non-existant, with the lack of any lightning effects being one of the major dissapointments.

However the main problem in Independence Day is the poor gameplay. The game is a repetitive and boring affair that provides only bland action and unexciting appeal. Each missions is the same as the last one with little to no variety in the form of the various planes, and the 3D dogfighting isn't as refined as in other 3D flying games, making it very hard to shoot down enemy ships and/or have any fun at all in the game.

The Bottom Line
The classic problem behind all those quick cash-in licensed games:crappy generic gameplay slapped on a lackluster game concept. With a little more polish this could have been the predecessor to Rogue Squadron, but unfortunately it ended up being a generic and forgetable action game. Don't even bother.

Windows · by Zovni (10504) · 2003

Trivia

Extras

The game in Windows version comes with the making of Independence Day, the movie.

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Identifiers +

  • MobyGames ID: 1806
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Contributors to this Entry

Game added by [BR]Gladiator.

SEGA Saturn added by skl. PlayStation added by Grant McLellan.

Additional contributors: skl, formercontrib, LepricahnsGold, CaesarZX, Picard, Patrick Bregger.

Game added June 28, 2000. Last modified March 19, 2024.