U.N. Squadron
System: SNES
Release Date: September 1991
Developer: Capcom
Publisher: Capcom
Genre: Shoot ‘em Up
You’re a one man wrecking crew once again trying to save the world in U.N. Squadron! It’s been a year since the ruthless Project 4 mercenaries took over the kingdom of Aslan. But they didn’t get everyone. The world’s finest pilots of the U.N. Squadron are left and they’re going to do whatever it takes to get their homeland back. Can you beat back the mercenary army and save the day?
You begin by choosing which of three pilots you want to take control of. Shin Kazama is a native of Japan and powers his weapons up quickly. Mickey Scymon comes from San Francisco and is the middle of the road between powering up and defense. Greg Gates is from Denmark and is able to take more hits than the others. Any of them are just as capable as the others, so choose whom you prefer.
You’re then taken to the map of the area where you choose your mission from. Each level is side scrolling and ends with a boss battle. You earn money by killing enemies and completing missions and can use this before your mission begins to outfit your plane with secondary weapons. Is this guy missing an arm? I used the bombs the most, but it’s imperative to have the ceiling and even the gunpod for the boss of the later cavern level. The bosses are huge, but they have weak spots and areas where you can be safe from attack.
Enemies spawn in the exact same spots in their respective levels. But even knowing where they’re coming from doesn’t always guarantee your safety. If you get hit, you are vulnerable to another attack, which will kill you, but if you can avoid more damage, you’ll regain some health for another chance. Your vulcan cannons shoot up to ten shots per press of the Y Button. This means you can’t just hold it down, but you don’t have to wear your button out through repeated presses either. In order to power your cannons up, you need to seek out red enemies and kill them to reveal powerups. It takes an increasing number of them to level up and Shin maxes out the quickest.
Outside of buying secondary weapons, you can also upgrade your plane to new models. Different models have different max power for the vulcan cannons. The first plane is slow and has a low max level, but the more expensive planes can be quicker and/or have a higher max power level. They also seem to have different secondary weapons available to them to make them more or less useful in some levels.
Graphics: 3.0
There’s not as much slowdown as I would expect from the shoot ‘em up genre. The scenery looks pretty solid.
Sound: 3.0
I like the music, but Capcom has spoiled me with better tunes on the NES.
Gameplay: 2.5
It’s nice that you get hit points, but you’re going to get hit a lot.
Difficulty: 2.0
Enemies are everywhere and you only get three continues.
Fun Factor: 3.0
I had a good time with this one and would go back to it again.
Overall Rating: 2.7
U.N. Squadron earns a B-. This is a solid entry for the early SNES and I wish I would have played it when I had it in my collection years ago.