Review: F/A-18F Super Hornet

Score: 68

OK, so I'm cheating slightly with this review. Super Hornet is a Game Boy Advance title, but as the DS and DS Lite play GBA games so well and as there's no equivalent flight sim for the DS Lite...

Yes, so it's a GBA title and only plays on the top DS screen, but it's still damn good fun and has more depth than many dedicated DS games. What you need to know is that F/A-18F Super Hornet is nearly, very nearly, a proper flight simulation. On a Game Boy! Er... I mean a Nintendo DS Lite! There's a full 3D world, Migs screaming round your ears, targets to bomb and missions to accomplish.

Now, obviously, there have to be a few compromises, not least because you really wouldn't want the full complexity of a traditional flight sim on the tiny video console screen and its small number of control buttons. While you're in the air, the flight controls work as you'd expect and you can do loop the loops and generally throw the plane around and it's only when coming into land that some of the limitations of the flight model become apparent.

Still, one shouldn't complain. With a variety of target types, numerous weapons options and, if anything, an over-complex targetting system, you can really enjoy throwing the F18 around the skies. As you can see from the screenshots, there are several weather/time-of-day options too, just to give even more atmosphere.

Yes, this is a GBA game running in a compatibility mode. Yes, it's not perfect. But it's now cheap and in bargain bins across the world and is as much fun as any flight sim fan can have on the Nintendo DS Lite at the moment. Snap it up when you spot it!!