Top Gun: The Second Mission (NES) Playthrough - NintendoComplete

A playthrough of Konami's 1990 license-based combat flight simulation game for the NES, Top Gun: The Second Mission. This video shows a full play of the all three missions in 1P mode. After the ending (at 21:00) I play through the VS. mode. Top Gun: The Second Mission is one of those Konami games that a lot of people in YouTube Land really seem to dislike, and the majority of their ire seems to stem from the stiff challenge the game provides - it's a reputation that seems to also follow Mission: Impossible, Metal Gear 2, and Rollergames. It may well be that I just like punishing NES games more than the average guy, but like those other Konami titles, Top Gun: The Second Mission is a thoroughly well made flight sim/shooter that makes no apologies for its difficulty level. It does seem odd that they kept the Top Gun license on it, though. There really doesn't seem to be any connection whatsoever to Top Gun (or it's non-existent movie sequel) but for your character being named Maverick. Whatever. They did finally drop the Top Gun name for the third game, at least. Many also seem to pass Top Gun 2 off as a mere clone of the original game, and that couldn't be further from the truth. They share the same basic game play setup, and that's about it. The presentation was pretty weak in the original Top Gun game: the graphics were hampered by featureless sprites, somewhat choppy scaling effects, and boring, simplistic backdrops. The sound isn't great either: you get a nice rendition of the Top Gun theme at the title screen and a catchy little tune during the intermission scenes, but the rest of the game is nothing but zaps, booms, and pows, all simulated with white noise. The sequel really amps things up. The graphics have received a massive upgrade for this one - the scrolling is much smoother, there are some new fun scaling effects (check out the cool flourishes during take off!), more varied and better detailed enemies, smoother animation, and some really slick effects get used for the forest section of Mission 2 and the lightning storm and laser fire parts of Mission 3. The Second Mission also has music playing throughout, and it is just as good as any other classic Konami NES soundtrack, which is actually a bit surprising considering that the drums were sacrificed in order to have the engine sound running in the background. Mission 2's BGM is still among my favorite songs from an NES game. You also get a couple of cheesy voice clips and some seriously sweet slap bass samples in the music. The game's controls are much better in TG2 as well. The Tomcat is more easily controlled than it was before, and you can now do a barrel roll (to dodge incoming fire) a good few years before Fox McCloud ever even existed. The smoother animation improves the controls by making them less sensitive and easier to target with in the sequel, and this improvement was absolutely a necessary one - no matter how hard you might have found Top Gun, Top Gun 2 is much harder. Huge swarms of stuff will fly at you regularly from the second mission onward - it's not uncommon in later areas to have three or four missiles and enemy fighters all coming at you at the same time from different directions, and sometimes it can feel virtually impossible to avoid it all. It's doable, but it requires some pretty extreme focus. It's stressful, and I think that's what I enjoy so much about it. The landings, though, are way easier this time around, if that was a sticking point for you with part 1. As unlikely as a good arcade-style flight sim seemed on the NES, Konami certainly delivered on Top Gun 2: The Second Mission. It plays a whole lot better than you would think if you've only played the first, and the improved controls and graphics, and the stellar soundtrack make it one of the best games of its type on the NES. I give it two thumbs (somewhat bloodied) up! And it's not worth beans, so if you're the slightest bit curious, go grab yourself a copy. It's easily worth the change it goes for. *This is a new playthrough to replace my original Top Gun 2 video on my NES playlist. The original was uploaded quite a long time ago, and I wanted to redo it with better gameplay and higher (60fps) video quality.* _ No cheats were used during the recording of this video. NintendoComplete (http://www.nintendocomplete.com/) punches you in the face with in-depth reviews, screenshot archives, and music from classic 8-bit NES games! Visit for the latest updates! http://www.facebook.com/pages/NintendoComplete/540091756006560 https://twitter.com/nes_complete