Watching
Top Gun today serves only to school you in the campy film-making of the eighties, but flying through a couple of levels of the slick new iPhone game is certain to take your breath away.
Building on the phenomenal engine created for bombastic stock car racer
Days of Thunder, this fast-paced flier left quite an impression during our hands on time with it at Game Developers Conference.
Top Gun deviates from the film, taking place years later when Maverick and Iceman have become instructors at the Top Gun Flight Academy. You play as a hot shot pilot looking to make your own mark. Through the course of ten missions, you fly a range of modern aircraft from B-2 Stealth bomber and sleek fighters as you hone your aerial skills.
Tilts of the handset enable you to control your aircraft as it flies along a predetermined course. Thankfully, the game automatically sets the neutral point of the accelerometer to the angle at which you're holding the handset when you start the game. At any time, you can also pause the game and recalibrate.
Danger zones appearing as red boxes with a strike-through pop up at random, which you avoid by tipping the handset to move your plane. If you get caught in one of these danger zones, you take damage, and during each mission you're generously allowed eight hits before crashing.
Paramount Pictures producer Michael Paglione explains, "We're trying to reach a happy medium so that it's challenging, but still fun."
Skirting the danger zones as they appear is a particular challenge, especially when you add enemies to the mix. You come packing a Vulcan cannon fired with a press of a button on the left side of the screen. Additionally, you can launch up to four missiles that lock onto targets using another button on the opposite side of the screen.
We definitely had to work to hone in on the bogeys bearing down on us, using a combination of Vulcan fire to whittle them down and then finishing them off with a well-targeted Sidewinder.
"Freeverse did so much work on
Days of Thunder that we were able to add a lot more cool stuff in
Top Gun as a result," says Paglione of the game's developers.
You're rewarded with medals for completing missions and executing daredevil feats. Cutscenes have been added to give the game a more cinematic feel, complemented by a five-song soundtrack.
It all comes together for an impressive package that isn't too far off: Paglione confirms that the game will arrive on the App Store following some last minute polishing in mid-April.
