This gameplay has its limitations, every game has its shortcomings. If you are looking for Ace Combat 3, go and play Ace Combat 3. Rebel Raiders is going in a different direction than the conventional fight/combat game. It's more of an arcade-style shooter where every target has the same goal: to fire the enemy's vehicles until they're blown into thousands of tiny little pieces. Rebel Raiders is pulling off this dated gameplay with something that's only seen in games like this: good controls. I almost felt like I was playing Star Fox, leading to environmental equality. None of the levels are high enough to scare you, or even big enough to impress you this day and age, but unlike Fox McCloud's classic adventures, you have the freedom to experience them whenever you want. Is there something in the way of Miss? The Raiders of Rebel are not on the roads.
Besides exploring, this free-roaming gameplay often lets you take down your enemies in a variety of ways. There are conventional rockets that can be locked on near targets and launched for up to eight hits. When eight missiles are launched, your aircraft will go through a one to a two-second period of retrieval, bringing the missiles into the firing bay. It will take as long as missiles are launched to hit their target, so when you see them strike, you'll be able to fire again.
Missiles can also be shot without a precise target in mind. These attacks are much riskier, but they are necessary for the battle against stationary opponents. Sometimes the enemy will have massive cannons hiding in the mountains, waiting for the next hero to come along. Of course, they don't look at us as heroes, they think we're the bad guys. Crazy villains, they really owe us a poor name.
Machine guns are common and last over a hundred rounds. You've got to refill it for that. Just 24 warheads can be loaded at once. They're both plunging pretty quickly. Ammo is endless, but when you are surrounded by six planes, every second count. The time it takes to refill your shield could cost you a lot of money. The shield starts at 100%. In some arcade games, that means you've got a lifetime meter to go around before you have to think about protecting your aircraft. In Rebel Raiders, that's the only health meter you have. You're toast before you reach 0 percent.
The best aspect of Rebel Raiders is undeniably its commands, which make sailing the skies an enjoyable and thrilling activity. Players will rotate easily by clicking L1, or turn upside down by pressing or pulling the analog stick to the left. Holding speed while flying in an unfamiliar position is remarkably straightforward. I'm not a flight/combat specialist, and I didn't have any trouble maneuvering the tightest spots in and out of the game. From small mountain passes to massive ships that had to be circled and targeted repeatedly before they were defeated, it was just as easy to get a hold of Rebel Raiders' controls as to learn to play Afterburner for the first time. With all the exposure most players have had since then (there have been a lot of Flight/Combat games released), it would seem simpler.
The downside of Rebel Raiders and this may not be that big of a deal for some at a price but is that it doesn't sound like a PS2 game. It plays at higher resolution and has fewer pixel and fog problems than the PS1 game, but the rest of the experience cries out in 1995. This isn't the worst thing that could happen to a game. Right now, we wouldn't have a lot of it if it weren't for the PS1. There's bound to be at least one player out there who'd rather not buy a PS2 title that looks like it's coming from another generation.
It's faster than other PS1 titles, and I'm going to give it a good frame rate. I guess you would presume that some of the enemy ships are bigger than the PS1 would have been likely to be. And the lighting is definitely better, but by now, the content needs to be simplified. It was supposed to be standardized five years earlier. Graphs are basic 3D objects, including clearwater, dated explosions, and clear environments. They're not ugly, but they don't have a lot of them.
