Developer: Konami Publisher: Konami Release: 01/90 Genre: Action
Top Gun traumatized a generation of gamers with its tough as nails difficulty and ridiculous landing sequence. We went in to it expecting to recreate the cool dog fighting sequences from the movie. What we did not expect was the game kicking us in the teeth and calling us a pussy. Seeing as so many of us had the same experience the game must have sold well but I doubt many stuck with it. Top Gun: the Second Mission aims to fix the flaws of its predecessor while offering more exciting action. It succeeds to an extent but fails at giving players a compelling reason to seek it out of mild curiosity. Most do not know this game exists and I can kind of see why.
Top Gun: the Second Mission is an original creation not tied to the movie. The original pits you against the Soviet Union although the game does not explicitly state it. However all of the enemy aircraft are prototype planes from the Soviet Union. It becomes even more apparent in the 1p vs. Game mode as all the rival pilots have goofy and stereotypical Russian names. Ah the 80s, I thought Rocky IV ended the Cold War but alas.
The gameplay is similar to the first game with a few additions and changes. You still have unlimited machine gun ammo as well as access to three different missile types. These only differ in terms of their lock-on radius however. By double tapping you can perform a defensive roll which sometimes helps avoid incoming missiles. For no inexplicable reason both missiles and machine gun fire are mapped to the B button. You fire missiles by double tapping B which can and will happen on accident frequently. It makes no sense as A only increase speed but there is no real situation where that is necessary. The UI and other mechanics have been simplified as there is no fuel or altitude meter. In fact altitude no longer matters as you can only climb so high. You can even fly toward the ground without crashing!
Top Gun: the Second Mission has three distinct missions, each ending with a boss fight (e.g., advanced aircraft or massive ground installations). The objectives involve taking down the enemy’s advanced aircraft, from a Hind helicopter to a Star Wars Space shuttle. But the path to reaching your goal is beset by all manner of fighter planes and submarines. Mother Nature gets in on the action as you also have to contend with lightning and laser beams in a later mission. Konami try to do a lot with very little but despite their best efforts the campaign comes up short.
Despite the additional mechanics the Second Mission suffers from heavy repetition. The single player campaign only has three missions and so they are grueling in length to extend the life of the game. Unfortunately they do so in the worst manner possible. Each mission has multiple solo dogfights against a more aggressive plane that are virtually identical and do nothing but waste your time. In addition the levels drag on longer than they reasonably should. Flying over the same terrain, destroying the same ships for minutes at a time grows tiresome quickly. Only the second mission has some variety as you navigate through a forest at blinding speed. More of that would have been better than what we ended up with.
Speaking of dogfighting apparently someone at Konami was especially proud of the dogfighting battles as they have included a competitive multiplayer mode as replay value. It is a cool idea in theory but in practice it is a shallow experience and a novelty at best. In addition you can dogfight against the computer in a separate mode. You go through a tournament of sorts against seven goofy Russian opponents. This would be a good addition if there were any distinguishing characteristics between each enemy. Instead they all fly identical ships against the same backdrop and I only bothered to complete this mode out of obligation.
The difficulty remains high and not always for the right reasons. The enemy waves are more frequent and aggressive and I constantly died without realizing why. Despite the roll its effectiveness is inconsistent. This makes the dogfights long and frustrating and unfortunately they are constant. Checkpoints are few and it is soul crushing to replay nearly the entire level upon death as the missions are long. Once again you have three lives and no continues which is rough. The Konami code works but it only grants an extra life every 20000 points. You will probably achieve that once at best. But hey at least the landing sequence is easier than the nightmare of the original. Yay.
In Closing
Top Gun: The Second Mission is both an improvement and regression over the first game. The gameplay is better but the game has just as many annoying additions that make the experience tedious. A shorter campaign and a worthless multiplayer mode do little to make this an enticing value. It is better than the first game but not by much. Konami certainly tried but this is one of their few misses from that era in my opinion.
