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U.N. Squadron (Area 88 in Japan), is a shooting/action arcade game by Capcom. It is based on the anime/manga Area 88. Although it doesn't bear any resemblance to the original history, it still uses the many of the characters and place setting.

In the context of other Capcom shooters such as 1942, 1943: The Battle of Midway, and Giga Wing this is one of the few that is a side scrolling shooter rather than a top down (vertical) shooter.

Gameplay

In this game, 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. Their mission is to stop a terrorist group known as Project 4.

Pilots

• Shin Kazama: Shin flies an F-20 Tigershark; the weapons on his plane fire forward only but at a quick pace. Shin and his plane are the most balanced combination available.

• Mickey Simon: Mickey flies an F-14 Tomcat; the weapons on his plane also fire forward only, but are also larger (albeit slower), inflicting more damage than Shins plane.

• Greg Gates: Greg flies an A-10 Thunderbolt; this plane has smaller forward fire than either Shin or Mickey's planes, but it also fires a second stream downward at a 45° angle from the forward firing stream.

Weapons Shop

Before entering a level, the player has the opportunity to purchase special weapons or added defenses in the shop. The player earns money for this shop by destroying enemy planes and vehicles during levels and, when the level is finished, any unused weapons are converted back into money.

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:

• Bulpup: Launches missiles forward at various angles.
• Bulpup II: A more powerful Bulpup.

• Phoenix: Homing missiles that go after any enemies on the screen.
• Falcon: A more powerful Phoenix.

• S. Shell: Shoots a large long shell at enemies that inflicts more damage than regular guns.
• S. Shell II: A more powerful and larger S. Shell.

• Bomb II: Allows you to drop powerful bombs from above.
• Napalm: More powerful than Bomb II in that it ignites the ground when it lands.

Defense

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

• Energy Tank: Adds more life to the lifebar when the level begins.
• Shield: Absorbs damage from enemy fire or collisions.
• Super Shield: Same as Shield, but can absorb more damage.

Play

Once a level has been entered, the game is similar to Defender and R-Type in form: the character's plane is viewed side-on, flying right as enemies approach 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 you destroy 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:

• Blue POW: 1 point
• Green POW: 2 points
• Yellow POW: 4 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.

Like many shooters, the game is very challenging. Levels frequently included large numbers of enemies atacking at once, with subsequent vast amounts of firepower on screen. The player needed 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 (or any) continues.

Enemies

Normal Enemies:

• AV-8B Harrier II

• B-1 Lancer

• B-52 Stratofortress

• Mi-24 'Hind'

• Mi-26 'Halo'

• MiG-21 'Fishbed'

• MiG-23 'Flogger'

• MiG-25 'Foxbat'

• MiG-29 'Fulcrum'

• Su-25 'Frogfoot'

• Tu-22M 'Backfire'

Bosses:

1. Rocket Tank (resembles an MLRS)

2. B-2 Stealth Bomber

3. Forest Fortress

4. Land Carrier

5. VTOL Bomber 'Byson' (resembles a V-22 Osprey)

6. Cave Carrier

7. Bomber 'Bullhead' (resembles a C-5 Galaxy)

8. Arsenal (various bosses are encountered in this stage)

9. Battleship 'Minks'

• Sub-Boss: Typhoon Submarine

10. Flying Fortress

Ports

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U.N. Squadron (known as Area 88 in Japan) was ported to the Super Nintendo Entertainment System in 1991. Differences between the arcade game and the SNES port include:

• Single player only
• Different planes may be used independent of the pilot chosen
• More and different power-ups may be purchased in the between-level store
• An overhead map is used between levels
• If you die during a level, you restart that level from the beginning

U.N. Squadron on the Super Nintendo bears a strong resemblance to the original arcade game. Featuring the same levels and bosses as the arcade version, the Super Ninentendo version also includes more aircraft:

• F-8 Crusader: This is the generic aircraft that players start off with. The ceiling for the Corsair's gun power is very low, and the aircraft can only carry three types of special weapons.

• F-20 Tigershark: The cheapest aircraft that can be purchased after completion of the third mission. This aircraft has mediocre weapons capability; however, it is well suited to both air and ground attack.

• F-14D Tomcat: The F-14 Tomcat is intended primarily for air-to-air combat and carries no real ordinance for attacking ground targets. (This highlights a mistake in the game versus reality; the real-life F-14 was designed to carry the Phoenix missile, whereas the game version F-14 cannot.)

• A-10 Warthog: Intended for ground attack, the A-10 fires two shots for every gun burst. One travels forward, and the second (slightly weaker) shot travels at a downward 45-degree angle.

• YF-23 Black Widow: Capable of carrying a wide range of armaments, the YF-23 has the primary attribute of being stealthy. As such, enemy guided weapons such as missiles will not track the fighter.

• EF-200 Efreet: The best fighter available in the game. The Efreet has the highest weapon power ceiling. In addition to this, the Efreet can carry all the special weapons, and can carry more special weapon ammo than any other fighter. The Efreet also enjoys the advantage of being tougher to destroy. As such, it is the most expensive fighter available in the game, and it is easy to play the whole game without ever having enough money to purchase it. (The EF-200 Efreet is identical in appearance to the MIG-31 Firefox from the movie of the same name.)

External links

• Area 88 entry on the Killer List of Videogames
• U.N. Squadron entry on the Killer List of Videogames
• GameFAQs information page
• MobyGames information page

• Capcom games
• Arcade games
• Super NES games
• ZX Spectrum games
• 1989 arcade games
• 1991 computer and video games