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Lethal Skies II
by Jolex Del Pilar
Sunday, September 21 2003
Arcade air combat with a cool mission replay mode. Find out more inside.
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Title:
Lethal Skies II
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Platform:
PS2
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Publisher:
Sammy Studios |
Developer:
Asmik Ace Entertainment |
#
of Players: 1 - 2 |
Genre:
Action/Arcade Flight
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Origin:
Japan
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Expected
Release:
September 15, 2003 |
Grapevine:
You'll be firing missiles in this game at a rate of about one per 10 seconds if my experience representative of what's common. |
About 15 years ago, Konami released a cool arcade game based on the Top Gun movie. It featured an actual cockpit that the player would sit inside. It would actually pivot and move according to the flight maneuvers that were being conducted on screen. It cost a quarter to start, and a quarter to continue. In fact, it was what made the Chuck E. Cheese arcade so entertaining. Well that, and the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Arcade game.
Lethal Skies II is an arcade flight combat game in the same style of Air Combat and the aforementioned Top Gun. Those looking for realistic flight physics will have to look elsewhere, this is an arcade game pure and simple. The full power, inverted climbs at 1000 knots, and the 17 G turns made it fairly obvious. That isn't a bad thing however. Unlike other games, Lethal Skies II doesn't ever claim or present itself as a game that is interested in any "simulations" of real world flight. The game features a rock soundtrack and an introduction movie that is more akin to a music video than an actual flight demonstration. This isn't Microprose's F-16 Falcon, this is pop culture's interpretation of flight combat.
The story is told through animated scenes, and scripted dialogue during mission briefings. They aren't done very well however. For some reason, under the assumption that this game came out in Japan first, the dialogue doesn't seem to translate well. It has a very quasi-English sounding rhythm to it. Still, I was able to get the main portion of the story with little difficulty. Apparently the earth was ruined by global warming, people scurry for resources, people fight for resources... nothing exactly original, but who cares, we're here for the combat right?
The gameplay itself is mission based, and features 19 real-world fighter and bomber aircraft, including many present day designs as well as designs that won't be active for a few years like the F-22 Raptor. A nice assortment if you're into that kind of thing. The missions themselves range from defend the base, to destroy the convoy, to sink the ship. It's fairly varied and luckily for this game most of the missions are fast paced and fun. It's also easy to control, the analog for steering, the triggers to speed up or slow down, etc. Unlike most hardcore sims, this game puts you into the action instantly, meaning no long flights along a waypoint system just to drop a bomb. You'll be firing missiles in this game at a rate of about one per 10 seconds if my experience representative of what's common. The action is fast.
The game is average in the graphics realm. Most of the missions feature a very limited viewing distance due to excessive amounts of clouds or fog. Now I realize that they did this to increase the frame rate of the game, but the fog is still there. The plane models are fairly accurate though and do look beautiful when you can actually see them.
One of the cooler aspects of the game is the replay mode which gives the player a way of viewing his/her recent action from just about any viewing angle and distance. Only through the replay camera was I truly able to appreciate what was going on in the game. You see, in combat, you have little time to dwell upon the beauty around you, less you be shot out of the sky. Little did I realize that the hectic, missile firing, and twisting and turning, actually resembled something more akin to two swans flying gracefully together, intertwined in a flight of gracious affection.
There is a two-player mode in this game. It features campaign cooperation missions or battle modes in which you dogfight with a friend. Split-screen or i.link (little slot underneath the USB) modes are available, with i.link mode giving gamers an option to use two PS2 systems and two televisions. This increases the replayability of the game slightly.
Lethal Skies II, while not a perfect game, does feature fast paced, and entertaining, arcade action. It's better than the recently released Top Gun game for the PS2 (not to be confused with the Top Gun arcade game), and it has a better sense of speed than Air Combat. Although the game has the viewing distance of 2nd generation N64 games, that isn't entirely the game engines fault and is more likely due to the limitations of the PS2 hardware. Funny "engrish", and fog aside, Lethal Skies II should entertain gamers, at least for a little while.
--- Jolex Del Pilar
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