U.N. Squadron

The Good
U.N. Squadron was the first game I ever played on the Super Nintendo Entertainment System and it absolutely boggled my young mind. After being stuck with standard NES graphics and sound for nearly 4 years, I was exposed to the nearly arcade quality (at the time) audio/visual capabilities of the SNES as showcased by this game. Since then, U.N. Squadron has been my personal standard of perfection in a pure action game.

What makes a great action game? First and foremost is graphics, and U.N. Squadron delivers right from the opening sequence with the runway effect exploiting the SNES' famous mode 7 3D graphics. Jump into the first mission and be treated to exquisitely detailed parallax scrolling backgrounds. Move onto the desert mission and watch the blistering heat distort the horizon. Float above the clouds to tackle the enemy's air force. Gorgeous detail every step of the way.

The music never gets old, never grow dull. I personally longed for a complete soundtrack featuring every rockin' song from this game.

The action is characteristically fast and furious as it should be for such a pure action title. The gameplay experience is excellent and the planes you can play are very responsive. Further, and perhaps most importantly, even though this is a flying shooter game, the planes can actually sustain more than one hit before going down in flames, a feature very unusual in this genre. You get to equip your planes with all kinds of curious weapons and it is interesting to experiment with them and understand the effect that each has.

The Bad
How can I say anything negative about sheer perfection? Okay, one item that gets tedious (bad in any game, worse for a pure action game) is when you need to continually fly the bonus missions (hit the enemy supply caravans) just to build up a little cash. This gets to be especially problematic when you build up significant skill in the game. Since you are able to cruise through missions more easily you do not build up as much currency as you would if you were to fail and have to repeat missions.

The Bottom Line
Action games are meant to be temporary diversions, not deep thought exercises. With that, take U.N. Squadron for what it is: An excellent action game that can keep you entertained for an afternoon with its superior graphics, motivating music, and basic shooting gameplay.