Air Raid 3
ps2airraid3_cover

According to the box, this game ensures many hours of action packed fun. I have to admit that was I was actually ensured many minutes of action packed fun, but I’m a mark for Afterburner and its clones, so that’s not surprising. Air Raid 3 is a 3D flight combat game on a set path (into the screen) with simplistic background graphics, repetitive plane models, a gorgeous main model (which is a good thing, as you’re staring at it the entire time you play) and some surprisingly good particle effects. It almost looks better than Wii Heatseeker, which is as much an insult to Heatseeker as it is a compliment to this game, especially given that the entire budget for Air Raid 3 was probably a few dollars less than the budget for Heatseeker’s cover art.

ps2airraid3_screencap
Surely I can't be the only one who hates the movie Top Gun with a passion. Help me out here.

Like Afterburner, you have a limited amount of missiles and unlimited machine gun fire and lock on of missiles once you pass the crosshair over each potential target. Unlike Afterburner, though, you also have limited fuel, a set amount of enemy targets to destroy before each level (15 in total) ends and the ability to fly through ghostly floating pickups – point bonuses, fuel and extra missiles. Air Raid 3 features boss fights, too – the first couple levels have a giant bomber that fires waves of missiles back at you. They’re very reminiscent of Capcom’s 194x-esque bosses, but in glorious 3D, baby.

There’s a generic rock tune playing throughout, workable sound effects, a decent sense of speed, and a lot going on in front of you without being too distracting. If you’re all about the Afterburner action, and you see this for some ridiculously low price, you may be pleasantly surprised, at least for 20 minutes or so. Anyone have any idea what happened to Air Raid 1 and 2?

See also: Combat Ace

Unless otherwise stated, the content of this page is licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 License