
Sign Up

Wing Commander

Amiga game review, ADF downloads, screenshots, ratings and insights
Wing Commander is one of the finest games created for the sci-fi/space simulation genres of all time. It was technologically innovative with true 3D space employing bitmapped sprites at various angles to create the sensation of true 3D graphics (a technique later refined by Doom a few years later).

From a creative standpoint, imagine taking Luke Skywalker in his X-Wing fighter and mixing it The Last Starfighter and you've got the basic idea for Wing Commander. You can't get much cooler than that.

The Amiga's color palette is a bit lacking at times for this port (16 colors), but to be honest you rarely notice. But where the colors are missing the soundtrack is where the Amiga shines past the PCs of its era.

The cinematic art direction is also jaw dropping, even though it is identical to its PC brothers. Origin's Chris Roberts even went through the effort to create "winning" and "losing" endings depending on how things went in the game, which was a pretty novel concept for a simulation game. The music, graphics and gameplay are ultimately not to be missed. It often feels like you are actually playing a movie, if that makes sense.

The game was such a blockbuster success that LucasArts followed suit with their own X-Wing series. Wing Commander even spawned several novels, a TV series on the USA Network cable channel, a movie (which bombed) and a collectible card game.
6 total votes