Around its initial release in the early '90s, Sega launched G-LOC: Air Battle in several different forms, including an arcade cabinet, a Mega Drive port, and eventually crash-landing it on the portable Game Gear console. The series has been mostly absent since then, finally popping back up on the 3DS’s Virtual Console service. Some elements were altered and some were lost in the process of scaling it down from the arcade original to this Game Gear port, but G-LOC has somehow managed to fly another day.
The entirety of gameplay is from a first-person perspective with you sitting in the cockpit of a fighter plane. According to the game’s manual, your not-so-apparent goal is to take out the Future World Army, represented here as jets, tanks and warships. The loose plot is completely absent in-game, however, so everything really just comes down to shooting everything else on screen before they shoot you.
This is a difficult game, but not in the fun, enticing way that makes you wan to keep playing. Rather than providing a reasonable challenge with steadily increasing difficulty, G-LOC’s difficulty instead comes from gameplay and graphics that have not aged gracefully. Your mission is always clear — destroy 10 fighters, destroy 15 warships — but completing that objective becomes a chore once you realize that there's no real way of predicting where an enemy might pop up or whether or not your line of fire will make contact. All of your enemies, be they plane or ship, look like grey masses of pixels that increase in size as they creep over the horizon line towards you. The environments are also quite unattractive, repeating the same exact mountainous and flat patters but with color pallet swaps to represent water and land. The truth is that most missions feel like you’re just flying in a straight line, shooting wildly, hoping to hit a target. Missions feel this way because that’s exactly what you’re doing.
There are nine missions, the first eight of which can be played in any order and the final becoming available when the rest are complete. As you complete missions, you will be awarded a certain amount of points that can be spent at the supply hangar on ship repairs and upgrades. Effectively managing your points is a necessity, as choosing between refueling your plane and picking up more missiles could mean the difference between a successful and a failed mission. However, the supply hangar is only available after a mission has been completed; this is a frustrating mechanic that makes planning ahead for your next mission imperative.
Beyond the nine missions, there is a multiplayer mode that allows you and a friend to engage in a dogfight against one another. Multiplayer is limited to local only, though, and it requires both players to own a copy of the game, as it does not support download play.
Just as the graphics haven't lasted the test of time, the soundtrack leaves much to be desired as well. The 8-bit tracks sound tinny and grating, compelling a quick flick of the 3DS's volume to the "mute" position. While the music is sure to get stuck in your head, you’ll be begging for a way to get it back out.
Your jet controls are simple, work well, and are probably the most functional aspect of this game. Replacing the arcade cabinet joystick, your craft can be maneuvered using either the 3DS’s D-Pad or Circle Pad, and your weapons are attributed to the A and B buttons. Though the controls may be primarily mapped for D-Pad use based on the Game Gear’s inputs, using the Circle Pad feels natural, matching the turns and dips of your jet with ease. This is all well and good, but when unbroken controls – especially when they’re improved on by modern hardware rather than that which the game was originally intended for – are the most enticing aspect of a game, it becomes obvious that this one isn’t up to snuff.
Conclusion
G-LOC: Air Battle is an unattractive and unfortunate port of a now-classic arcade gem. While the Mega Drive version did well to bring the experience to home consoles, this Game Gear iteration is nothing more than a half-hearted attempt at porting it even further. It’s very possible that this may have been an impressive portable experience in the early '90s, but it hasn't aged gracefully, and it's definitely time to leave this one grounded.
Comments 14
I used to own the Master System version as a kid and loved it. Too bad the GG version doesn't hold up as well.
@KeeperBvK
The game sucked just as much back then but when we were young, we had a much higher tolerance for bad games. Games didn't come cheap and so you HAD to love them
@Vriess Which game sucked bad back then? This review is about the Game Gear version, and I'm talking about the Master System version. Two completely different games, as you can alro read up on here: http://www.hardcoregaming101.net/afterburner/afterburner2.htm
One of the worst games I had for my Gamegear.
I remember the reviews at the time put me off the Game Gear version certainly, and fast moving air combat (with tiny sprites) didnt seem a concept well suited to the hardware.
The Arcade game had an impressive rotating cabinet if I remember, though I never got to play it.
Always with the giving of low scores because of graphics BS... I still rate Atari 2600 Battlezone higher than Battlefield just for addictive gameplay alone
@MadAussieBloke To be fair, it's less about "bad graphics" and more about them doing absolutely nothing with the 8-bit graphics they had. I'm a huge fan of sprite-based games and 8-bit art, but this game is just ugly.
Look at the screenshots! They all look exactly the same except for the color swaps!
To think that I may have gotten it!
Too bad. I enjoyed Ace Combat: Assault Horizon Legacy, and I was hoping this could have been another fun little dog fighter.
@KeeperBvK, @Vriess, @Damagemanual, @Ristar42, @MAB, @Ron_DelVillano, @Undead_terror, and @RR529:
As part of my effort to celebrate every single Virtual Console game, E-Shop game, and expansion for Wii U and 3DS, I am going through every single NintendoLife.com Review (or offsite review for those games that NintendoLife.com never reviewed) to see if it is worth our collective time in the Virtual Console's final year.
For G-LOC: Air Battle from Game Gear on 3DS Virtual Console, here are my questions.:
1) Are the controls inverted or regular?
Like when you press up, does the targeting reticule go up or down?
I find it so disorienting when the controls are inverted, even though that is more realistic.
2) How many total hours of gameplay would it take to earn a perfect completion rating on all 9/9 Missions?
3) The reviewer for this game complains about the random enemy locations, but praises the spot-on controls.
Wouldn't random enemy locations be GOOD as they provide an accurate test of reflexes?
4) If you want enemy locations to be part of a set pattern, isn't that the same general gameplay as the Punch-Out series, which is regarded as a classic game?
5) For the bad graphics, were they just the best the Game Gear could do without slowing the frame rate down?
I would rather have a solid frame rate with bad graphics than pretty graphics that chug.
6) When Nintendo eliminates online support, will local wireless play still be available?
I feel like local wireless play just uses your 2 DS and a modem, so it should be fine, but then again, my friend tried to download a game on the Switch and still play a game, which should be fine, and the Switch would not do it until he closed the game, so I never put anything past Nintendo.
7) Am I the only one who was SHOCKED to learn the Game Gear had multiplayer support in the early 1990s? WOW!!!
8) How many blocks of space does this download take up and what is the current price? (in both US dollars and Euros)
9) What number score out of 10 would you give this game and why?
Thanks so much for your info!
@SportyMarioSonicMix
I never played the GG version.
But I can comment on one of your questions:
7) Am I the only one who was SHOCKED to learn the Game Gear had multiplayer support in the early 1990s? WOW!!!
>Why would you be shocked? The Gameboy had multiplayer in 1989. You realize that the GG also only had multiplayer via link cable? So what is so special about it?
@KeeperBvK: I am SHOCKED to learn the Game Boy had multiplayer in 1989 too!!!
The way Nintendo Power covered Game Boy Games, I thought Game Boy Games were 1 player only besides Pokemon Trading.
But I would not call that multiplayer. I think of that more as DS Streetpass features.
@SportyMarioSonicMix What? How does it in any way relate to Streetpass? It's multiplayer and nothing else. You connect the Gamboys and play gaems together...
Right at launch of the Game Boy, multiplayer was a big thing in Tetris. Later, there even was a four-player adapter.
@KeeperBvK: Yes with the way Nintendo Power covered "multiplayer" on Game Boy, it seemed like all it was trading not playing whole games together.
Sort of like how if you pass people with DS', you exchange stuff, but do not play games together.
That is what I meant by it being similar to Streetpass.
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