Of course, it didn't take long for Creed Chaos Systems to let people know that the fifth game in Creed Games' roster was now available.
1/4, 2/4, 3/4, and 4/4 had now bumped up their denominators by one and at 5/5... there it was...
Top Gun. With all the movie foster font and design.
Tag line: Flight and Fight. With a picturesque F-14 ready to burst out the screen!
How could console owners, which are regular Creed customers, not know what this meant?
How could they not know that Alexander Creed's screenwriter persona, Alex Creed, was at it again?
Of course, with how much an all-rounder the mysterious fellow is, how could he not have a video game to go along with his movie?
Most of them had already seen said movie, some even twice or thrice already, so it was within compulsion that they find out what this new game is about!
Then again, they also knew that this picturesque, new display was but a tantalizing yet locked door.
They'd have to have a key to unlock something ever since the hateful yet addicting Flappy Birds... so...
To the comic book store!
-----
For those headed for Creed Store, Fanboy almost always beats them to it.
He already had the Top Gun package in hand... with the handy manual and the tiny GameKey that you could only hope to not misplace.
He was happy but Fanboy can't help but sigh in melancholy.
Prompting Mr. Counterboy to notice. He needed to notice because it was always this boy that clogs up the buy train with all the small talk. "Something got you down?"
"I'm happy that I have a new Creed game to play..." Fanboy continued. "...but it's kind of sad that the new printed titles of Creed only come in video game manuals nowadays."
"I looked and a Top Gun comic book is nowhere near existent." He was really expecting that and Fanboy could only add with sadness.
"I checked and it is almost a year since the BttF comic. Alexander Creed's newest and also latest comic title to boot. Aside from crossover specials, that is."
"Mister, this is kind of disheartening to ask but is Creed Comics really phasing out?" Fanboy wasn't the only one who thought this way, even the nerds waiting behind him had heard of this rumor.
If Watchmen's explosive end was an indication, then could Creed Comics truly be on the verge of serializing extinction?
"Well, you're imaginations sure are quite rich?" Mr. Counterboy could only grimace at that. He knew that the little boss had plans and he could only dismiss these kinds of thoughts for now. "Why don't you just play Top Gun at home and see if a comic book story is needed?"
"I, myself, had played it already and you'll be surprised to know what's in stall."
Spoken like a true salesman...
The disheartened Fanboy and some of his nerd buddies couldn't help but just pay a whopping $40 to go.
To find out what a game of flight and fight is truly about!
------
And find out they did!
With the new GameKey snug in the slot, Fanboy pressed play, and play it did.
Just like how the movie revved up to that enrapturing Top Gun theme, this game was not anything less.
That feeling of wanting to be a Top Gun pilot like Maverick was impassioned by that movie and this Flight and Fight happens to let you do so.
How freaking exciting was that?!
He had already read the manual and had gone through the in-game tutorial, so Fanboy knew that the whole thing was through controllers but wow... was it amazing already?!
Every button was now going to be used, especially the L-R buttons.
These buttons correspond to the left and right thrusters.
Pressing on L will boost the left thruster and help with ease in banking right and the R was the opposite.
Press both together and your jet will boost forward.
Not pressing any will maintain jetting velocity while a quick double tap will kill the engines altogether.
As a multi-time Top Gun watcher, how could Fanboy not know that this was Maverick's engine-killing trick?
This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.
Of course, to add complexity to it all, for the pointer, the shooter, and overall direction... the d-pad is there for it. It's called directional pad for a reason.
If one's use of L-R and d-pad is done right, the manual and the tutorial even alluded to neg-Gs, barrel rolls, and other tricks you could do.
Then, there was the A for machine gun and B for the freaking missile launcher.
Of course, there was the X-Y for perspective change... either for the front cockpit for all the speedometers and whatnot then the hyper RIO-esque view for all the 3rd-person viewing glory.
Golly! It was going to be hard to master all this but looking at the picturesqueness of his jet on his television... Fanboy felt that he could really do many epic things.
Without a shred of doubt, this is turning out to be quite the game already!
------
With such a selection egging him on and the Top Gun soundtrack putting him in such a mood... Fanboy jumped right into First Mission right away!
His special unli-ammunition-ed F-14 was now on a carrier's runway ready for takeoff.
Mission was still unclear but a radio-esque voice sounded. With subtitles as a game perk.
"Welcome back, Maverick!" Wasn't that Stinger?
"Glad to be back." Maverick, which should be every player's character, answered. "Tell me, why am I here again? Are you so short-staffed that you need an instructor help you out?"
"Very funny." Stinger answered with sarcasm. "Just take down this annoying bogey as warm-up for now. You're going to need it with all that you're going to be ordered to deal with!"
"Roger that." Maverick answered.
As if to answer his disappointment of having no Top Gun comic book story and clarification on what Mr. Counterboy meant... this video game could actually be an entire story!
Just this radio communication was already hyping Fanboy up. Clearly, Mr. Creed wouldn't disappoint!
Was this the sequel in the form of a video game or what?
With narrative and plot, this was no block-stacking, trash-bone-throwing, cacti-jumping, or some flapping birds. This was was sure to be something else...
------
And something else, it was!
Fanboy pressed L-R at the same time and his jet thrust out of the carrier and unto the skies above the sea.
Where was the bogey though?
Hence, he had to take a press X into cockpit view and sure enough, the radar was beeping where to go!
Y was pressed... cause he knew the general direction and charge his thruster went...
The bogey could be spotted in the distance and Fanboy was off to his very first in-game dogfight!
It wasn't too dramatic. He just lined his target and pressed A.
It tanked most of it and moved around for maneuvers, so to finish it off... he pressed B.
B must be for Boom 'cause that jet really exploded into kingdom come.
"If you're done, then get back to base, why don't you?" Stinger's radio voice then sounded. "I'll be having none of your circus fly-bys, you hear?!"
"Loud and clear." Maverick answered and Fanboy playing him was feeling confident.
First Mission done!
Or was it?!
He wasn't... because like everyone else, he had to take a crash course into landing!
And "crash" was what almost everyone did.
If anyone crashed, they'd have to do the whole mission all over again and everyone wasn't too happy with that. Especially the radio communication sequence playing all over again.
Fortunately, there was a skip for you're second and onward tries.
It was part of the fun and everyone was more than happy to try it out again.
Again and again and again. These landings were just that hard!
Of course, most players did notice they were getting better and faster at getting rid of the enemy jet.
A fact that is most important... because when they finally landed and got a chance to check the First Mission leaderboards... no score was posted.
However, there was still a rank. A rank of minutes and seconds.
This was now a leaderboard on who finished the game in the shortest time.
Fanboy was shocked!
Every new player was shocked!
This game didn't just introduce them to the concept of story mode...
This will also induce them into the video game concept of speedrunning!
-----
Onwards to the Second Mission.
The mission this time was to bomb a boat trespassing American waters.
Fanboy as Maverick did as told. He bombed the thing right away.
This was even easier than the first mission. The boat was just floating there and didn't even bother to fight back.
If anything, Fanboy was just more worried about doing it again if he crash-landed.
The radio comms kind of chilled him though.
"No hesitation, eh, Maverick!" Stinger sounded. "Those in the boat could have children for all we know. Illegally immigrating but still."
"Just following orders, Stinger." Maverick answered.
"As a soldier should." Stinger's radio then cut off for another landing sequence.
Fanboy kind of chilled with that though.
The movie was inspiring but wasn't this game kind of cold...
With this, Fanboy and others really forgot their dismay about the lack of a comic book publication.
Wasn't this video game more than compelling enough?!
-------
If the video game-playing masses were shocked, the video game-developing community were much more so!
Who the heck has the dedication to incorporate both first-person and third-person perspectives at the same time?
It even has so much synchronicity that you are allowed to change in-between perspectives while you are on missions.
It even tells the finishing time.
Gosh! Creed Games, we know you're advanced but do you have to be that advanced?
It even has story via cinematic cutaways. Probably voice overed by the real movie stars.
Okay! We now know that you also have a movie company, you don't have to brag about it!
Of course, they complained but truthfully, this whole Flight and Fight game was scaring them.
Creed Games was just too much!
-------
Alexander, the main culprit was still wondering.
If anything, he was just reminiscing about the two-player mode that he decided to take out of the game release. Last minute.
Since the console allots for two players, he wanted to open up the options for Top Gun buyers to play the game as a duo.
If there was Maverick, then there was Iceman. A tag-team wingman scenario will make the playthrough much easier.
The first two missions were destroying a bogey and a boat... the next missions weren't going to be so easy.
Anyways, the two-player mode would have an interesting mechanic. Different cinematic sequences, split-screen, ranking system, and whatnot.
As for the question on where he got the monologues... well... post-production of the film had dubbing. He just hijacked that.
Anyways, two-player mode was about the lesson learned during the in-movie hops...
Never leave your wingman!
An extra immersion as Alexander would consider it to be...
However, when testing it, things got messy.
Especially when the two players testing the game were Milla and Drew.
In-game, Maverick and Iceman, had already gone through bro-bonding events...
However, Milla and Drew's rivalry was just getting started.
They broke off their formation and found a glaring bug. A bug where teammates can take each other down.
"Jovo-bitch, why are you even playing an American pilot?"
"Shut up, Shrew Barrymore!"
They really messed up something that wasn't supposed to have many faults, code-wise. Game-wise, they made one.
Trouble and other complex issues could only arise from that, so Alexander was quite quick to scratch his special two-player mode out.
He wondered how much better the flight and fight experience could have been...