Blue Lightning (CD)
A top U.N. General named Drako has gone renegade. As a member of the U.N's Blue Lightning squad, you must stop him from organizing a global crime empire and holding the world for ransom. Use a multi-national selection of deadly fighter and attack aircraft to stop Drako's military forces. Only you stand between Drako and world domination!- Seven different modern aircraft to choose from, including the F-14A Tomcat, MiG-29 Fulcrum, and the A-10 Thunderbolt II(warthog)
- Use Gatling guns, missles, Cluster bombs, and more
- 40 different air Combat and Ground Attack missions
- Over 20 different Full-motion 3D rendered movies
- Save the progress of up to five different pilots (requires Memory track)
- CD Quality music
PLAYERS: 1
PUBLISHER: Atari Corporation
DEVELOPED BY: Atari Corporation
At a glance...
| Category | Rating | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| Graphics |  |
3 | |
| Sound/Music |  |
5 | |
| Control | |
3 | |
| Playability |  |
4 | |
| Presentation | |
3 |
Blue Lightning - REVIEW
A "pack-in" CD game from Atari for the new CD Rom console has short-comings.Once the CD loads, you're treated to a nice opening sequence reminiscent of "Top-Gun". The animation here is quite nice and you're left with grand expectations of what the game will be like. Unfortunately, once you select your pilot and start your 'training', you realize that what you see on the screen doesn't quite live up to a CD game.
The graphics/animation during gameplay makes you wonder if you're playing a CD or a cart game. Pixellation is quite evident, and when you control your aircraft the plane jerks as if there are not enough animation frames to provide a smooth transition.
While you train, you're exposed to Air and Ground attack missions. Once you're done with that, you're rated and then you can select your tour of duty. Each country you select has a set of missions you must complete in order to move on to another country.
The music within the game ROCKS (literally!). The game box doesn't lie when it mentions "CD quality music", and you only wish you had the separate audio CD to jam with. You can hear the authentic electric guitar jamming in the background. Ocassionally, you'll hear "supportive" voices in the music to add a sense of power to your session -- "Get ready to rock" anyone?
The game in general runs pretty fast, and there are no apparent slow-downs. The built-in voices from other pilots (friendly or foe) sound a bit 'shallow' and those with an accent sound hokey. During Air attack missions, you press the 'Option' button to simulate a roll-over and that's about the extent of awe you'll get with the graphics/animation.
The game in general has enough playability to keep you occupied for a while. The missions can be tough, and the fact that once a plane crashes it's no longer available makes it even more interesting. However, the game at least for being on CD falls short of crediting the Jag's CD capabilities.
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