Sopwith

The Good
Sopwith is just a really fun game to play. The "easy" (single player) mode gives a gentle introduction to the plane's controls (far simpler than any 3D flight simulator). Once those skills are mastered, you can play against the computer with enemy planes. The enemy plane logic is extremely good - there's no easy technique to defeat them, but you can have really engrossing dogfights trying. The greatest thing is when you have two enemy planes on your tail and you get them to collide.

The Bad
Sopwith could have done with more than one level. The single player mode was a bit too easy, but the single player vs computer mode was too hard. The networking feature could never be made to work (I believe it needed some special proprietory networking hardware - Sopwith may even have originally been written in order to demonstrate this hardware). Finally, the game seemed a bit unpolished - it dumped you back to DOS when you completed it or lost all your lives.

The Bottom Line
Sopwith is a good, fast, fun action game. When playing it, you may well spend more time trying to do great stunts than actually finishing it. The fact that you can do all these great stunts (which aren't "built in" to the game, they just emerge from the way you can manouvre your plane) is probably the best thing about it.

The Good
Damn, Sopwith was without a doubt one of the best games on the good ole' 8088. With excellent controls, reasonable sound and graphics, good level design, great concept and most importantly hours and hours of sheer fun, Sopwith is without a single doubt a landmark in computer gaming. Even it's ridiculous music is memorable :-)

The Bad
Well, as said above, the music is fairly ridiculous and I wish the graphics were a bit better, but the only genuine complaint I have with this magnificent game is its poor sound - the plane engine noise can truly drive someone nuts.

The Bottom Line
A great classic which will not be easily forgotten. Just wait for Andrew Jenner to review it, you'll see why :-)