Captain Skyhawk is a single player video game developed by Rare and released in 1990 by Milton Bradley Company

Milton Bradley Company

The Milton Bradley Company is an American game company established by Milton Bradley in Springfield, Massachusetts, in 1860. In 1920, it absorbed the game production of McLoughlin Brothers, formerly the largest game manufacturer in the United States, and in 1987, it purchased Selchow and Righter,...

 for the Nintendo Entertainment System

Nintendo Entertainment System

The Nintendo Entertainment System is an 8-bit video game console that was released by Nintendo in North America during 1985, in Europe during 1986 and Australia in 1987...

.

It features music by acclaimed composer David Wise.

Story

The player takes a role of a fighter pilot

Aviator

An aviator is a person who flies an aircraft. The first recorded use of the term was in 1887, as a variation of 'aviation', from the Latin avis , coined in 1863 by G. de la Landelle in Aviation Ou Navigation Aérienne...

 working to repel an alien invasion

Alien invasion

The alien invasion is a common theme in science fiction stories and film, in which extraterrestrial life invades Earth either to exterminate and supplant human life, enslave it under a colonial system, harvest humans for food, steal the planet's resources, or destroy the planet altogether.The...

. Aliens have invaded Earth, and have built four land bases. These bases are designed to drain Earth's energy and feed it to their mother space station. If the space station is allowed to obtain enough energy, it will destroy the Earth with a massive laser blast. The player must destroy the enemy bases, then go after the space station itself. Scientists, during the course of the game, are working on a top-secret Neutron Cannon. During several missions, the player must make supply drops to the scientists working underground. Sometimes, the aliens will have a scientist captive. Then the player must defeat the alien base and take the scientist to safety.

Gameplay

The game is very reminiscent of the Sega

Sega

, usually styled as SEGA, is a multinational video game software developer and an arcade software and hardware development company headquartered in Ōta, Tokyo, Japan, with various offices around the world...

 classic Zaxxon

Zaxxon

Zaxxon is a 1982 arcade game developed and released by Sega. Some sources claim that Japanese electronics company Ikegami Tsushinki also worked on the development of Zaxxon...

. The game features top-down scrolling overhead isometric

Isometric projection

Isometric projection is a method for visually representing three-dimensional objects in two dimensions in technical and engineering drawings...

 graphics, including simulated 3D terrain. The terrain mimics the look of flight simulators available for the PC at the time. The game player is the pilot of the plane, code-named the F-14VTS (a fictional version of the F-14), and must avoid the mountainous terrain while annihilating aliens.

There are a total of nine missions in the game. The first seven have three objectives each while missions eight and nine have two objectives and one objective, respectively. Each level has multiple routes, some of which allow the player to bypass large gatherings of hostiles. The objectives vary across missions and include destroying an enemy base, dropping supplies, fighting aerial battles, picking up a scientist, and docking with a space station.

Weapons

The player can fire four types of weapons: Cannon, Phoenix Air Intercept Missiles, Maverick air-to-ground missiles

AGM-65 Maverick

The AGM-65 Maverick is an air-to-ground tactical missile designed for close-air support. It is effective against a wide range of tactical targets, including armor, air defenses, ships, ground transportation and fuel storage facilities....

, and Hawk bombs. The cannon is the only weapon with an unlimited supply. The rest of the weapons must be purchased between missions after docking with the space station. The purchases are made with credits obtained through the levels by destroying all aliens that are in a group. Purchasing additional cannons allows the player to fire much more rapidly.

Level design

Each main level in Captain Skyhawk is an isometric plane. After the boss of the stage is destroyed or the packages are delivered the player moves on to a rear-facing 2D screen where he must destroy the enemy ships to gain credits to buy weapons in the space station on the end of the levels. The last space station is replaced with the alien mother-ship.