Blue Lightning

Blue Lightning is an arcade-style combat flight simulator game played from a third-person perspective, similar to the original game on Atari Lynx and After Burner (1987), in which the player assume the role of a fighter pilot from the titular squadron. The plot revolves around General Drako, who worked for the United Nations using their military personnel to maintain peace around the world, but slowly gained control and power of military organizations to expand his organized crime empire across the globe. U.N. leaders were surprised by Drako''s betrayal and actions had to be taken. Members from the Blue Lightning squadron joined Drako''s corrupted ranks, while the remaining loyal forces eager a chance to overthrow the criminal group. The U.N. recurred to the squadron and assigned a rookie pilot of the force to stop Drako. The player can choose any save slot to keep their progress, customize it with a portrait picture, and select one of three difficulty levels when starting the game. The player can also access the options screen to change configurations such as controls and other settings. The main objective of the game is to complete a series of missions across various continents such as Australia, Europe, North America, Russia, and South America, in order to defeat general Drako and his army. The player is first assigned with a group of training missions in preparation for the main "Tour of Duty" missions. Each mission increases in difficulty as the game progress further. After completing every tour mission, the player is then assigned to a "final tour" and sent to the Arctic where most of Drako''s army resides. Progress is automatically saved after completing a continent if a Memory Track cartridge is present, otherwise players can play through the game without saving. Before starting a mission, a briefing screen explaining the current situation in the selected "Tour" location is shown, which lists the objective for each of the four missions on the selected area. There are five types of assignments in the game such as aerial, escort, and ground missions. The player can choose from seven fighter planes instead of being settled with only one plane as in the original game, each one having their own advantages and disadvantages, but the player must complete the training missions first before gaining access to the other aircraft. During gameplay, the player''s plane can fire its machine gun or a limited number of missiles to use against enemy units. In ground missions, the player is given access to three types of bombs. The player can toggle between third-person and first-person views, perform an aleron roll to minimize damage from enemy fire, and activate the plane''s afterburner for a short speed boost. The planes also act as lives, and the game is over if all of them are crashed or destroyed, though extra planes can be obtained by either completing the chosen set of missions or reaching a certain score.