Angry Video Game Nerd
Episode 10
Top Gun

Mike's notes:

– In episode 10 the Nerd reviews Top Gun for NES

– Towards the end of this episode the Nerd also reviews Top Gun: The Second Mission. This was a game James borrowed from my NES collection. I remember laughing with him over how small the font is on the label spine. You need a microscope to read it.

YouTube description:

The Nerd tackles two more bad NES games based on another film, Top Gun, and finds out how some elements of their gameplay are just impossible to do. This is Angry Video Game Nerd episode 10.

In this episode, The angry video game nerd is taking on the NES game, “Top gun”. Based off of the hit movie from 1986 starring Tom Cruise. The game is one of the first flight simulation games ever released, how does it hold up in the eyes of the nerd?

Well upon starting the game, He realizes how empty and boring the game is. The developers were trying to make the game as realistic as possible, therefore, there are hardly any enemies to shoot at, you’re blindly flying around an empty and visually unappealing sky, and worst of all, there is no music to accompany you during this unfortunate adventure, there is just the sound of the plane’s irritating engine. Once the nerd manages to beat the level, it is now time to land the plane, sound easy? Unfortunately, it’s far from it, there are way too many numbers, words, and gauges flashing on the screen at once. For example, right in the middle of the planes screen, it will say “UP!! UP!!.” Does this mean press up on the controller? Or does it mean press down to fly your plane up? Long story short, the nerd doesn’t prevail in this plane landing scenario, regardless of whether you actually land the plane, the level will be completed.

Now it’s time for the second level, and you are now a little bit above sea level, so the screen now has 2 different shades of blue, one for the sky and one for the ocean…how exciting. Halfway through this level though, your plane starts running low on fuel, so another plane flies by that will help refuel you, but, uh-oh, The nerd has to control the nozzle with same confusing directions as landing the plane. As you can assume, it doesn’t turn out too well, the refueling plane eventually flies off and leaves him for dead. The nerd has never beaten this level simply because of that re fueling plane segment, the game is only 4 levels long, so the nerd shows off his idea of the last two levels. This includes level 3 “Blow sh*t up,” where he is shooting the top gun movie and video game covers, and level 4 “Vent your anger and destroy the T.V” where he punches the TV and throws “Sonic Booms,” street fighter style.

Before the episode ends, the nerd mentions that there is a sequel that was also released on the NES, called “Top Gun: Second Mission.” The game is much faster paced with not as much boring moments, their always seems to be something happening but was noticeably much harder than it’s predecessor. There were also a few vs modes, one where you went against the CPU, and another, that was multiplayer based, where you would go against a friend. The nerd mentions that when playing the multiplayer versus game, when the match is finished, it shows a cutscene of the winner landing the plane, and the loser safely making it out alive, via his parachute. The nerd doesn’t approve of the loser safely making it out of his plane. The episode comes to an end with the nerd saying “I’ve had enough of this garbage….f*** balls!”

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