Dom Robinson reviews

for Sega Dreamcast

Distributed by
Hasbro Interactive

Even if you're not a study of history, fans of the David Puttnam-produced film Memphis Belle

The Mighty Eighth were the US Army Air Force 8th Bomber Command. They had the unlucky task of running daylight bomber runs over the specified areas of occupied Europe, striking military targets with pin-point precision. Missing the target during the game won't kill anyone real, but for those who flew about the clouds it was a matter of life and death. Here, you'll take on all ten roles - Bombardier, Navigator, Cheekgunner, Pilot, Co-Pilot, Engineer/Top Turret Gunner, Radio Operator, Bail Turret Gunner, Left and Right Waist and Tail Gunners - aboard the plane from managing the campaign, through shooting down the German Luftwaffe intent on stopping your mission, to dropping the big ones themselves.

The options available to you include Quick Start, which drops you right in the thick of the action for those who just want a brief blast, training missions which sharpen the skills of your team and to add realism, Historic missions - those that the brave men actually went on to help win the war, with maps of the actual terrain on which they fought including England, the Netherlands, France, Germany and Belgium.

There are also two campaign modes: Historical - this is the main game mode which provides you with a single plane and the crew with which to complete your tour of duty should you succeed. Do well here and you must consider the Squadron Commander campaign - controlling an entire squadron of twelve B-17s and 120 crew members with over 200 targets to plan and demolish.

In addition to piloting the "Flying Fortress", you can take on the role of an escort fighter in the P38 Lightning, P47 Thunderbolt and the P51 Mustang, or for a change of pace, Stan Boardman's favourites, the Germans, in the form of the FW-190, BF-109, ME-262 Schwalbe and the ME-163 Komet.

With a fully-working cockpit, there's great attention to detail, but it can get overbearing if you're not used to flight simulators. On a final note, my namesake, Dominic Robinson, was the Project Leader and Programmer of this game. I was asked in the 80s if I had written the ZX Spectrum classic, Uridium. Sadly, I'm not him, I didn't write that game and I wish I had his bank balance...

Overall: 3½/5

This review used to be on Freeloader.com but they have since closed.

Review copyright © Dominic Robinson, 2000.

DVDs reviewed by the editor are watched on a Panasonic TXW32R4 32" widescreen TV connected to either a Creative Dxr2 DVD-ROM player or Microsoft Xbox and played through a Sony STR-DB930 amplifier.

PC games reviewed by the editor are on: