Tomcat Alley

Fighter jets are fucking awesome. The Discovery Channel knows this, which is why they show those specials all the time. Top Gun was such a popular film for a reason, and it wasn’t the volleyball scenes. And the designers of this game know this. After Sega’s TruVideo team tried to give us the action hero experience in Midnight Raiders, they followed up with the fighter jock experience in Tomcat Alley. The jackoff CIA operative from that game even makes an appearance in this one, seemingly tying the two together.  But where Midnight Raiders failed, this game – surprisingly – does it much better.

Upon loading the game, the first thing you’re treated to is a grainy introduction video of your pilot arriving at the super-secret air base of the title. I guess Miramar wouldn’t let the crew film there, so instead Tomcat Alley is a giant mesa in the middle of the desert. There’s even a styrofoam wall painted to look like rock, that grinds back to reveal a keypad and scanner, allowing stealthy entry to the base. The mesa itself holds a storage hangar full of the game’s namesake – the F-14 Tomcat – which really isn’t secret enough to require hiding it in the fucking Batcave.

You play as a faceless Radar Intercept Officer (RIO), a.k.a. that guy who sits in the back of the plane and does everything but fly it. Your responsibilities range from finding targets, to launching missiles, to answering the radio. This video also introduces you to your wingmen – one is a greasy mustached man who looks better suited to a season on HBO’s Oz, the other is one of those blonde women for budget films where the script calls for a knockout hottie, but Vanessa Marcil is too expensive. Just like Midnight Raiders, her makeup and hair are professionally done within an active war zone.

The plot is only as deep as it needs to be, which isn’t much. A Russian general has gone rogue, and is threatening the U.S. with an assortment of MiGs and bombers loaded with viral payloads. Just where you are is never explained – it seems like you’re flying over the western U.S., but the tone of the game doesn’t match the panic of Commies flying missions over our backyard. It doesn’t really matter though, as any plot they could come up with would just be an excuse to shoot down planes, which is what you do like it was going out of style.

You’ll spend the game in the plane’s cockpit, watching videos of flying, launching missiles, or taking evasive action. You switch over to a first person HUD when you’re required to make split-second decisions, like dodging missiles or answering the radio. You’ll also fire missiles from this view. Regardless of the mission given to you in the briefing, every engagement will break down like this: You take off and select the first waypoint from the HUD. Video of plane flying and detecting bogeys. Back to the HUD to pick a target out of some red radar contacts. Video of plane flying to meet bogey. Fight bogey. Repeat until you reach goal.

The game’s randomization elements kick in here. Essentially about ten scenarios have been pre-baked before the show and the game randomly pulls one out of the oven. Five of these involve you coming up behind the enemy and getting a chance to shoot first. Five of them involve the enemy getting the drop on you and require evasive action – you just select the countermeasure icon and watching the plane do something neat to dodge the missile. Every engagement is pulled from the same ten-ish edited scenarios. They’re general enough that it won’t be a huge distraction, but you’ll quickly see repeats (“He can run, but he’ll die tired.”)

However, when you’re not shooting the enemy, you’re always being fired upon, and you always must release a countermeasure in this situation. You’ll always be saved if you do, but you only have a few countermeasures per mission with no way to load more. This becomes a big problem when luck is against you and you’re fired on by the same plane three or more times in a row. Since it’s all random, you could theoretically run out of countermeasures before getting the opportunity to launch a single missile. It would be nice if the missiles could randomly miss, or your pilot could do some of those neat tricks he’s paid to do, but alas, when you’re out of countermeasures, you’re done.

Aiming is greatly improved over Raiders. Navigating the HUD is simple. The B button selects an icon, and is how you select waypoints, change missiles, and answer the radio. Targeting an enemy plane involves chasing a fast-maneuvering enemy with your comparatively sluggish crosshairs. The A button shoots, and unlike Raiders, if you shoot early then you actually miss. Though also unlike Raiders, if you can line up the crosshairs with the plane for even a fraction of a second, they will “stick” to it briefly and turn red to indicate a lock. Release the D-pad, tap A, and watch the fireworks. It’s a harder system to get used to, but having the cursor snap to enemies is a brilliant decision that alone makes this game much more playable.

Unfortunately, graphics are still your typical Sega CD quality. Scenes are lit well, however, so it’s much easier to understand what’s on the screen. Cockpit shots are actually believable. It looks like the actors are actually in a jet up in the air, instead of in a mock cockpit in front of green screen like in Raiders. The planes are a similar story, looking like clean, original footage instead of expected military stock (unless the Navy just did a better job of filming their F-14s).

The camera is much more stable when fighting planes, while the action is still fast and disorienting. Planes you’re targeting seem to be sprites instead of filmed stock footage – you rarely will be able to tell, but it would explain why the sequences are so visually well-controlled compared to Raiders. The sound is dead-on, with the famous sounds of F-14 engines flaring, radio chatter, and warning alarms coming through with perfection.

Tomcat Alley is actually enjoyable, despite tackling subjects and methods tried and failed by other games. You’re still just watching quick splices of grainy video, and you are just moving a cursor over a green box and pressing a button, but it just works better here. That lock-on cursor helps a whole lot, while maybe it’s also just me giving bitchin’ jet fighters an enthusiastic pass. If you’re looking for good FMV games, this one is actually worth checking out.

 

The Good

It’s actually fun, despite not being much different than certain other CD games (we don’t name names here at JGR, but it starts with an “M” and ends with an “idnight Raiders”).

 

The Bad

Limited countermeasures aren’t great. Lock on cursor helps a ton, but still takes getting used to. Answering the radio is just as critical as dodging missiles.