Destroying them will yield a red or blue POW-up. Certain enemies and enemy formations are different colors than other enemies of the same type. Thus, the player’s basic attack can be considered a long-burst weapon, rather than single-shot or full-auto like most other shooters. One thing the player will quickly realize is that when firing the plane’s basic gun, if held it will let out around 10 shots and then stop until pressed again. While not much to manage, sometimes the question comes down to extra firepower or more sustainability for the mission at hand. The player’s money is, however, limited and is determined by how many enemies are downed in each level. In addition, the option of an expanded energy bar as well as a shield, in three and five-hit varieties, are always available.
The weapons being offered are tied to the given level. McCoy will offer a weak and a strong class of auxiliary weapon. Afterwards the option to purchase secondary weapons and defensive upgrades from shady quartermaster McCoy arises. Colonel Saki Vashtal for the situation in the upcoming level with a backdrop borrowed from the OVAs. Before each mission, the player is briefed by Lt. He has a reputation for selling scavenged parts and weapons of dubious quality.įurther setting itself for distinction, Area 88 maintains the theme of the mercenary nature of it’s source material. Here he just hands out mission briefings.Ī crooked dealer if there ever was, McCoy is the quartermaster of Area 88. In the source material he is a prince of the Aslan government resisting the anti-government forces. In the SNES version he recovers from danger mode the quickest. He has a gatling gun that is lacking in forward strength in exchange for having a second gun that fires at a downward angle as well as having strong ground options but lacking air options. In the SNES version he gets more milage out of auxiliary weapons.Ī pilot from Denmark that helped hostages escape with the reputation of being unkillable. He has a strong vulcan cannon and Air-to-Air options, but weak Air-to-Ground options. Navy pilot from New York who couldn’t adjust back to civilian life. In the SNES version his vulcan cannon requires fewer POW-ups to level.Ī former U.S. He has a medium strength vulcan cannon and has no poor auxiliary weapon choices. CharactersĪ Japanese piloting genius tricked into working off a mercenary contract. This choice is an important one as even upon death and continuing as the expense of a credit, the pilot decision is locked in and cannot be changed until a new game session has begun.
Each pilot has their own characteristics to give them a unique mechanical advantage in addition to cosmetic distinction. Similar to its successful predecessors however, Area 88 features an energy bar allowing the player to take multiple hits before dying, something that remained rather uncommon in the arcade scrolling shooter scene.Īt the outset of the game, the player or players are instructed to pick one of three pilots from the series: main character Shin Kazama in his F-20 Tigershark, friend of Shin’s Mickey Simon in his F-14 Tomcat and comedy relief fan-favorite Greg Gates piloting an A-10A Thunderbolt II. Contrary to the quite successful 194X series, Area 88 is instead a horizontal shooter as opposed to Capcom’s usual vertical shooters. Developed and published by Capcom, Area 88 is a bit of a departure from the development giant’s usual arcade shooter fare. North America and Europe received more localized versions of the game as U.N. Naturally when video games came to reach a certain degree of sophistication, an adaptation of Shitani’s classic tale of tragedy was all but certain.Īrea 88 was initially released in the Arcades of Japan in August of 1989. It was one of the first three manga to be translated and released stateside, (the other two being Mai, the Psychic Girl and Legend of Kamui) had three OVAs based on it made in 1985 and re-released in 2006 on DVD with English localization. The manga of Area 88 has been well-regarded for its accurate depiction of various jet aircraft by aviation enthusiasts as well as its strength of character writing and storytelling.
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