A-10 Tank Killer
| Developer: Dynamix | Graphics: |
 | |
| Publisher: Dynamix | Sound: |
| |
| Year: 1990 | Difficulty: |
| |
| Genre: Flight simulation | Lastability: |
| |
| Number of players: 1 | Rating: |
7/10 | |
Experience a military campaign at the controls of the renowned A-10 Thunderbolt II “Warthog” ground-attack aircraft.
Good news: take-off is incredibly straightforward. Simply accelerate (keys “1” to “9”), then pull back on the stick. Even better: landing is entirely optional.
What’s more, the relatively small number of controls makes the game fairly easy to get to grips with. Press “Space” to fire the cannon, “+” and “-” to select a missile, and “Enter” (or right-click the mouse) to launch it.
Visually, the developers went all-in on digitised 32-colour photographs (intro screens, cockpit, explosions…). While that might have screamed “modern” at the time, today it’s more like a whisper from the past. As for the cockpit, I personally find it spectacularly ugly.
Though far from overwhelmingly complex, the missions offer the variety and atmosphere you’d expect from the genre. A full arsenal of weapons is at your disposal, mainly air-to-ground, as the title implies. During combat, cooperation with allied forces (both in the air and on the ground), along with occasional radio chatter (sometimes amusing), adds a bit of life.
In short, this is an accessible and flashy simulation I’d recommend to beginners. I should add there’s a “god mode” option with infinite ammo, and an additional disk was released the following year.
Opt for the PC-DOS version, which is faster and better looking; or go for the 1.5 version (1991), optimised for the Amiga (more screenshots here, here, and here). Add an extra point to my rating for this one.
|
