Wing Commander: The Secret Missions

In Wing Commander by Mindscape you literally kicked tail as you blasted the evil cat people of the Kilrathi Empire out of the galaxy. Well, the cats are back and this time they possess the purr-fect planet-busting weapon! They'll stop at nothing to turn the Terran Federation into cosmic kitty litter.

Wing Commander 2

Wing Commander: The Secret Missions is a top-notch, single player space combat simulator with a first-person perspective. Once again you're based aboard the massive Tiger's Claw. Your goal is to wipe out the last desperate forces of the Kilrathi empire. You can fly as many as 16 missions. However, the game changes your specific mission goals depending on your success or failure during the previous mission.

If you played the first game, you've seen all the sights and heard all the sounds in Secret Missions. The outer space combat graphics are sharp, and during a dogfight your view of enemy ships can shift from several thousand kilometers out to a hull-mashing close encounter. The cinematic story sequences shine, particularly the spectacular death scenes. Unfortunately, your eyes only enjoy this treat when you meet defeat. The melodramatic music and the bruising blaster sound effects star among the sounds.

Here Kitty, Kitty

As in the first game, you work your way up through the ranks as you eventually fly four brand new types of Terran fighters. Passwords enable you to save your progress in the face of frequent death.

You must track down several massive Kilrathi star ships, while clearing the space ways of pesky interceptors. The cat-like Kilrathi attack in packs and you're always outnumbered.

At least, Laser Bolt Guns and four types of missiles enable you to fricassee the felines. However, your most helpful high-tech tools are your main screen, which puts a clear view of outer space directly in front of you, and the Radar Display, which gives you a 360-degree digital view of the space around your ship during combat.

Futuristic Controls

Secret Missions requires you to keep your fingers and your mind loose. Flying requires pressing all the buttons on the SNES controller at one time or another. Ship-to-ship fights are tough thumb-mashing encounters. If you played the first game, no problemo! However, rookie pilots would do well to practice, or they may make a fatally errant button-press during a critical moment.

In addition to guiding your ship, you must learn to quickly read your cockpit computer display as it flips through several essential shipboard tasks -- fire up the afterburners, display a Navigation Map, cycle between missiles and laser cannons, communicate with your wing man, and check damage control systems. When you get really good at the controls, you can even taunt your Kilrathi enemies.

Catty Challenge

In space, no one can hear you scream. However, back on Earth, Mindscape must have heard legions of Wing Commander players howl as they bumped heads against the game's murderous challenge. Secret Missions is decidedly easier. Even the practice simulator in the pilot's lounge is much easier to beat.

Secret Missions offers two skill levels, Rookie and Ace. Rookie is just right for first time space cadets or players who have a low tolerance for defeat. Ace is tough, but it's easier than the first game, because now your Laser Bolt Guns are much more effective. You'll do more flyin' and less dyin' during dogfights with the Kilrathi. Also, new long-range firepower enables you to consistently blow away Kilrathi fighters from afar, unlike in the original Wing Commander.

Just the same, Missions doesn't blast off without a hitch. Even though Mindscape made a great effort to juice the adrenaline level in Secret Missions, sometimes you'll still find yourself rocketing through several minutes of dead space as you search for bad guys. As in the original, you fly with wing men. However, this time out you cannot direct them toward your enemies.

It's a Wing Ding

Wing Commander: The Secret Missions won't remain a secret for long. The original is only for serious space aces. By gearing down the overall challenge slightly and adding a Rookie skill level, Secret Missions opens up the war against the Kilrathi to rocket jockeys of all calibers. If outer space combat makes your thumbs twitch, you can bet a cat's asteroid that you'll enjoy this game.

This is the second Wing Commander game for the Super NES, and falls short of the original. The scrolling and action is incredibly choppy plus gets very distracting. This was a good idea, but it just didn't turn out very well.

Now there is a way to get to a special options screen that will allow you to do a load of incredible things for this game. Here is how to do it: when you reach the Title Screen, take controller 2 and press these buttons all at the same time: top L button, top R button, SELECT and START. The music will fade out if you did this correctly.

You will then see a screen that will allow you to choose your series, mission, invincibility on or off, song, sound effects, sound group and exit the screen. When you choose your options, exit and you will be able to enter your name, you will then be able to start on the mission you chose with invincibility!