#182 G-Loc: Air Battle (R-360)

Posted: 20th March 2020 by Jeroen in Games
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854th played so far

Genre: Shoot ‘Em Up
Platform: Arcade
Year of Release: 1990
Developer: Sega AM 2
Publisher: Sega

For today’s shoot ’em up, we get a flight simulator-like plane dog fighting game. Rather than the focus on accuracy of the former, getting the shooting in is more important – it looks like a primitive Flight Simulator, but based on the description we don’t get that much freedom or as many options. It seems fine enough, but let’s see how it goes.

Our Thoughts

The uncharitable reading of this game’s gameplay is that it’s a standard shooter with a plane HUD on top. Playing this in the arcade, some cabinets seem to have been a sit down affair that moved as you flew around, for some cool realism. Here, there’s a smooth feeling shooter where the oddities of the genre make sense.

At the beginner level, it really feels like a standard shooter. You can aim, while you shoot at the enemies coming at you. The medium difficulty gives you more speed control, which adds quite a bit to the strategy and adds in the flight simulation that sets the game apart. The control feels quite intuitive, which is quite good considering how later games still struggle with it.

The game has you shooting down planes coming in against you in most level, although in some there is a focus on ground troops instead. There’s the usual general fire, as well as auto lock on missiles that have a limited number. What’s quite nice is that the opponents have these as well, and when one gets fired at you from behind it switches to an outside view to help you avoid it. It’s a decent working system.

Final Thoughts

G-Loc may not seem like much at first glance, but it’s a lot of fun. The shooting is good, the controls are well done and play well and the game looks good, especially for its time. It’s a gem that sadly seems to be mostly forgotten, and worth giving a go when you can.