Beating Top Gun (NES) no deaths, My Playthrough (5/5/2024)
2My deathless playthrough of Top Gun for NES. Didn't own this as a kid but definitely played it over at my friend's house. What a deceptively difficult game! I remember attempting and failing to refuel so we must have made it past the first mission but I don't think we were able to land on the carrier reliably or ever got close to beating it.
It's only four missions long and seems pretty easy until you it's time to land your F-14 Tomcat on the aircraft carrier. That was a huge learning curve! Then there's the refueling, which is significantly easier than landing but still caused me to visit the afterlife quite a bit before I finally got it down.
Even when I got pretty good at both of those, every mission beyond the first would throw bullets and missiles at me like they had gone out of style. And I swear at least a few of those missiles have some kind of phase-technology that let's my bullets pass through them as I can't even tell you how many times I was hit head-on even when my target reticle was right on it with my finger spamming that fire button.
After many frustrating attempts and close calls I was able to finally beat this game for the first time about a week ago, just barely scraping by on my last life. I continued practicing until I could get my first no-death playthrough which finally happened last night after returning from a friend's house where we had started playing ISS Vanguard for the first time.
I love both Top Gun movies and this game isn't bad, but after a while it does kinda get boring. A lot of my deaths happened simply due to my focus wandering to whatever was playing on TV. Supposedly the sequel game, Top Gun: The Second Mission, has more going on so maybe I'll check that out later but for right now I'm glad to be finished with this game.
This isn't a guide, walkthrough, or tutorial, it's just me playing through the game as best I can. What do you think of the game? Do you have any play tips, childhood memories, or interesting stories to share?
00:00:00 Game Start
00:00:15 Mission 1
00:05:18 Mission 2
00:13:30 Mission 3
00:21:27 Mission 4
00:30:51 End
Beaten on 5/5/2024. Top Gun was developed by Konami and released in 1987 for the Nintendo Entertainment System.
My other videogame playthroughs:
https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PL9JlPr-HjPOX4AnhhZcE2hjMLx05rNPge
My Retro Achievements:
https://retroachievements.org/user/primehalo?g=100
My Setup:
RetroArch on Windows with the FCEUmm core, Achievements Hardcore Mode enabled, 8Bitdo Pro 2 controller. Recorded with OBS Studio.
#nes #retro #retrogaming #topgun