Piloting

Crawling? More like Physics-defying Dog-fighting...

HIGH The Tactical Maneuver Commands are a literal game-changer.

LOW Being forced to use the Senryu for a mission.

WTF "Cheetah" sounds tougher than "Lynx"?

Playground of Tedium

 

HIGH Blowing up people and vehicles from inside the safety of a helicopter never gets old, does it?

LOW Actually, it does. And surprisingly quickly, at that.

WTF For some reason EA refused to include any licensed characters as a fun secondary skin. Sure, they don't have access to Lucasfilm characters the way the first game did, but aren't they making a James Bond game right now? Meanwhile, the Sean Connery skin is just lying around in a mainframe somewhere, gathering dust.

M.A.C.H. is one of those unfortunate games that sport impressive production values, smart design and a good difficulty curve without ever getting any traction at retail. Heck, I don't even know another PSP owner who's considered playing it, let alone brought it home from a shop. It's too bad really, because past the generic-looking box art and incredibly dull title, there's a pretty sweet experience to be had.

After Burner: Black Falcon may be spiritually true to Sega's seminal 1987 hit, but game design has progressed by leaps and bounds since then. Cleaving so closely to its dusty, outdated forefather hurt more than it helped, I'd say.

According to ESRB, this game contains: Mild Language, Mild Suggestive Themes, Violence, and Use of Tobacco