U.N. Squadron

U.N. Squadron

Sales flyer for the arcade version.
Developer(s) Capcom
Publisher(s) Capcom
Composer(s) Manami Matsumae
Takashi Tateishi
Mari Yamaguchi
Platform(s) Arcade, Amiga, Amstrad CPC, Atari ST, Commodore 64, SNES, ZX Spectrum
Release date(s) August 1989
Genre(s) Scrolling shooter
Mode(s) Up to 2 players, cooperative
Cabinet Upright
Arcade system CPS-1
Display Raster, 384 x 224 pixels (Horizontal), 4096 colors

U.N. Squadron is a 1989 side scrolling shooting game released for the CPS arcade hardware by Capcom. The game was released in Japan as Area 88 (Japanese: エリア88 Hepburn: Eria Hachi-Jū-Hachi?) and is based on the manga series of the same name, featuring the same main characters. Here, their mission is to stop a terrorist group known as Project 4. It was followed by the sequel Carrier Air Wing.

Contents

Gameplay

The game is a typical side scrolling shooter, going against the trend of other Capcom shooters, such as 1942, and 1943: The Battle of Midway, which are vertically scrolling shooters. However, like other Capcom shooters, the player has a life / energy bar that is consumed over the course of a single life as the player sustains damage, a trait highly uncommon among other comparable arcade-style shooters which normally use a system of reserve lives, where one of which is lost upon a single enemy hit.

The player can choose between three mercenary pilots: Shin Kazama, Mickey Simon, and Greg Gates. Each pilot flies a specific plane and has slightly different capabilities.

Pilots

Weapons Shop

In both the arcade and SNES versions of the game, before entering a level, the player has the opportunity to purchase special weapons or added defenses in the shop. The player earns money to buy weapons by destroying enemy planes and vehicles during levels and, when the level is finished, any unused weapons are converted back into money.

Weapons

Arcade version

Weapons

Depending on the level and which pilot they have chosen, players will encounter two of these eight different weapon enhancements in the weapons shop:

Defense

After selecting (or passing up) additional weapons, players are offered one of three defensive enhancements (these are the same on every level):

SNES version

Depending on which plane has been purchased, players can buy any combination of these weapons.

During gameplay

Once a level has been entered, the game scrolls to the right with the enemies approaching from many directions. Land, sea, and air units are encountered in the various stages.

The player's main gun has infinite ammunition and can be upgraded by picking up accumulating POW points. POWs, which appear when the player destroys certain red enemies, can be found as green, blue or yellow glowing orbs inside a small box. Each color POW is worth a different amount of points:

The player's current number of POWs and the amount needed for the next gun upgrade is displayed in the upper left corner of the display. Each upgrade generally requires more POWs to get than the last upgrade, and so forth.

Special weapons, on the other hand, are limited in ammunition and have no ability to upgrade in level. The character's plane can take a number of enemy hits before being destroyed and has a brief period of invulnerability after each hit. This makes the game a little less frustrating. However, after this brief period of invulnerability, the planes in the SNES version will temporarily become completely vulnerable.

Like many shooters, the game is very challenging. Levels frequently include large numbers of enemies attacking simultaneously, with subsequent vast amounts of firepower on screen. The player needs quick reflexes to navigate through all this fire while still attacking their enemies. Only a skilled player is capable of finishing the game with few (if any) continues.

Levels and bosses

Arcade version

SNES version

Ports

U.N. Squadron (known as Area 88 in Japan) was ported to the SNES in 1991. The principal difference between the SNES version and the arcade version is that in the SNES game each pilot can use a range of planes. All pilots start out with $3000 and the basic F8 Crusader and can buy other aircraft as they progress. Other differences include:

The SNES version also includes more aircrafts than the arcade version:

Reception

U.N. Squadron was named the number one 2D 'shooter' of all time by Handsome Tom and Stuttering Craig of ScrewAttack.[1] Stuttering Craig even placed U.N. Squadron in a tie with Gradius III for the 17th Best Super Nintendo game ever[2] and dedicated a Top 9 List of the reasons why it's awesome on the games entry in the Video Game Vault.[3] IGN ranked U.N. Squadron 37th on their "Top 100 Super Nintendo Games" list,[4] which made U.N. Squadron the highest ranking side scroller shooter game on that list.

References

External links