Blue Lightning by Epyx and Atari

The intro scene is done with excellence. Everything is rendered and looks nice and shiny. All the cinemas are of excellent quality. In the game is where this game has it's downfall. Everything is texture-mapped, but when you get up-close, you'll wonder why they didn't put some higher res textures in. After all, this is a CD game right? Your ships look nice, some better than others, but they are a little rough around the edges. The sprites that scale by are flat 2D stuff. I wouldn't mind this so much if they looked a bit better though.

Musically, BL is a total rock-fest. All the tunes in the game were played with a real guitar, which I thought was cool for a vid-game. They all rock and give you the urge to blow everything out of the sky or into the sky. The tunes are nice and long and aren't repetitve at all. Lots of cool guitar solos in there, reminds me of Top-Gun and stuff like that

Sound effects are a bit weak. You've got your explosions which are OK. The gunfire is just average, and FX wise, there's only a few others. There are however, lots of voice-overs which are acted out pretty good, with the exception of a few. "Eat this!" and "You'll never stop us!" are among these. Overall, I think they shoulda put in some more effects.

Gameplay. Now, this is where the fun comes in. Although this game is a little drab graphically, the fun factor is great. This game brings back the old Iron Soldier feeling of destruction. You've got seven planes (one hidden one that I can't find) to choose from, and they each have different control, speed, and weapon storage. You've got your machine gun, Cluster bombs(wipes everything out in a horizontal spread), Napalm(a fireball that burns in a straight line for quite a long time), and the Slammers which are for the main targets. Your manuevers are basic. Pull off your 360 to avoid the enemies. Use the After-burner to haul some hanes and track somebody down, or use the air-brakes to fake somebody out. You have the traditional behind plane view, or the cockpit view, which is nice if there is so much smoke pouring out of the back of your plane that you can't see a thing. There are land and airstrikes, some in daylight, others at night. Fly the ultra jammed packed cities of Europe, narrowly escaping a skyscraper. I like to turn on the After-burners with the Tomcat and feel the wind going through my hair(well, almost). This brings me to my next point. Speed. This game gives you a GREAT deal of speed. Of course this depends on the plane that you have. This game has TONS of LARGE sprites that scale by at blazing speeds, and the frame-rate doesn't seem to suffer at all. I guess that sprite scaling is one of the Jag's main strengths. You won't believe the speed of the Tomcat!

Blue Lightning may be a dissapointment at first, but if you can see beyond the graphics and look at the game you've got, you'll love every second of it. I can pop in this game anytime and pump up the volume and kick some "A". Definitely a great game.

Graphics-8

This is the game's weak spot, so get used to it, or you won't enjoy the game. The cinemas are the only thing holding this category up.

Sound/music-9 1/2

These tunes are great. Great length, and quality. The sound effects needed more though.

Control-10

I found the control to be right on. Each plane has it's characteristics, but overall, they are perfect.

Power-8 1/2

Huge sprites scaling by with grace and the music blasting, and afterwards, you're greeted with a rendered cinema. Loading time is minimized. About 13 sec. off the start, after that, thery're only about 3-4.

Fun factor-9 1/2

Great game with good excitement factor. You do need a memory track to finish(although I finished mine without it once).