Maverick, Goose, Viper and the Iceman cometh to DS
Afterburners and missiles to the fore as Mastiff prepares to go Top Gun
Ain’t life topsyturvy? Twenty years ago Tom Cruise was heading into marriage number one and now he’s onto number three with someone who is still younger than his first wife Mimi Roger when they wed. Back in those days, Tom ‘Maverick’ Cruise was the hero of polished high-concept movies; a strange phrase that meant a film had no plot. Great for Tom and romps like Top Gun which was one of the best recruitment films ever made for the US air force, despite being all about the US Navy’s elite combat flight school.
Hey, maybe one day someone will actually make a decent game based on the license. Shouldn’t really be too difficult. After all plane games like Ace Combat have been million sellers, and not just for the flight sim crowd. But somehow Top Gun seems to have been cursed - so it’s not just been Kelly McGillis’ career then?
Anyhow, latest outfit to take on the challenge of Ice Man, Maverick and poor ol’ Goose (a pre-ER Anthony Edwards - with a pregnant Megan Ryan as his screen wife his death was guaranteed) is little known publisher Mastiff. And it’s pleased to announce you’ll be able to choose to play as the pilots from the film and that there will be; “pulse-pounding music reminiscent of the movie soundtrack”. We can only hope it doesn’t start a Kenny Loggins revival.
But, of course, Mastiff isn’t really bothered about the characters and soundtrack of a film you have to almost ancient to have seen first time round. Its Top Gun for DS is all about planes not the hidden homoerotism of fighting men.
So instead you’ll get to ace your way through 10 single player missions including training, dogfighting, escort missions and protection of airspace. A variety of planes including old faves like the Tomcat and Fighting Falcon will be offered with weaponry such as machine guns, fire-and-forget missiles and guided bombs. While pilots will have to deal with environmental effects including dealing with blinding sun, rain, clouds, and snow as well as fighting over arctic, ocean, forest and desert zones.
In terms of DS hardware, the touchscreen will be used as a 2D topdown map so you can see mission objectives and the position of any targets. It will also display the number of missiles remaining and other inventory information. Top Gun will use DS’ wi-fi for head-to-head multiplayer for up to four players too.
