Happy Friday, everyone. Today I’m going to look at a game from the folks over at Taito: Sky Destroyer.
Developed by Home Data (now Magical Company) and published by Taito, Sky Destroyer was first released in arcades and then on the Famicom in 1985. Very little (if anything) is known about this game’s development history, but Taito was definitely one of the most influential game companies at the time. They put out many classics over the years, including Space Invaders, Bubble Bobble, Arkanoid, and Takeshi no Chousenjou (hey, that’s still a classic, whether you like it or not). Plus, they’re a subsidiary of Square (now Square Enix), which created the Final Fantasy series. So, it seems this promises to be a decent title. Let’s take a look.
The game boots up with an animated title sequence, with a theme that sounds awfully like the Indiana Jones song. Off to a good start, I see. As for the game itself, it is set during World War II and is a third-person shooter where you control a Japanese Zero plane. So, it’s kind of like a precursor to After Burner. First, the basics: the graphics are pretty good for the Famicom, with just enough detail so you can tell what everything is. The music, not counting the rip-off title theme, is almost nonexistent. There are only two fanfares in the entire game, one for the intro and one for when you get a Game Over. There is no level theme at all.
Let’s get to the gameplay. The object is to shoot down enemy planes, which appear to be American P-51 Mustangs. Already you can guess why this game wasn’t released here. Each plane can be destroyed with one hit, which seems fine and dandy. Unfortunately, you don’t have a targeting reticule, which means you’ll have to rely on the direction your bullets go to coordinate an attack. Even then, enemy planes aren’t that easy to hit. In fact, the closer they come to your plane, the more difficult it will be to hit them. You’d think it would be the other way around, but I guess not. Fortunately, you don’t get points docked if they pass your plane. You can attempt to get in their flight path to try and get a direct hit, but this puts you at risk of a kamikaze, which will result in instant death. That’s right, one hit kills you in this game, whether it be crashing or enemy shots from planes or ships.
Ah yes, at the end of each level you will come up against a boss fight, which will be either a navy ship or Enola Gay-esque planes. The former will fire shots at you like the planes, but you have to avoid even more as they have more cannons. However, by pressing B you can drop a torpedo to try and sink the ship. The torpedo only fires straight ahead, but if you drop it in the right position it will destroy the ship in one hit. The latter and harder boss is a giant destroyer plane, which again has more cannons and takes multiple shots to kill. So, you must shoot that plane at least 7 times while avoiding its shots, all the while trying to avoid P-51 Mustangs coming your way, while also shooting at you.
So that’s Sky Destroyer. The gameplay never changes, and the only difference between levels is the time of day. It’s a challenging shooter, but once you know what you’re doing in terms of shooting it’s definitely playable, albeit a bit monotonous after a while. As this was never released in Taito Legends compilations, the Famicom cart is your only option. If you’re looking for a cheaper alternative to After Burner, I suppose you could do worse for 99 cents.
Rating: 7/10