U.N. Squadron
1989 · Horizontal Shooter · Arcade
Overview
U.N. Squadron (1989), Area 88 in Japan, is Capcom's mercenary jet shooter based on the manga, in which pilots buy weapons between missions and fly on an energy bar instead of lives.
Deep Dive
Three mercenary pilots — Shin Kazama, Mickey Simon and Greg Gates — fight a terrorist group called Project 4. Unlike Capcom's 1942 and 1943, the game scrolls sideways. Each pilot has an energy bar that drains with damage instead of a stock of lives, and money earned from destroyed enemies buys weapons in a shop before each mission.
Developer Story
Capcom released the arcade game in August 1989, and it topped the RePlay chart for conversion kits in North America in February 1990. The Super NES version, which let each pilot choose between several planes, followed in 1991.
Did You Know?
- The North American release dropped all references to the Area 88 manga.
- Entertainment Weekly gave the Super NES version an A.
- Its spiritual successor is Carrier Air Wing.
Sources & further reading
- U.N. Squadron — Wikipedia
