8.5 /10 2 Votes
Release date(s) 30 July 2007 Genre Flight simulator | 7/10 GameSpot Initial release date 2007 Platforms Microsoft Windows, Wii | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Distributor(s) Ascaron (UK & Ireland)
Atari (Germany)
SimBin (Scandinavia & Finland)
Akella (Russia)
Ecofilmes (Portugal)
Planeta DeAgostini (Spain) Mode(s) Single player
Multiplayer Developers Legendo, 3D People, 3Division sro Designers Björn Larsson, Chris Bateman Publishers Legendo, CDV Software, 3Division sro Similar Legendo games, Shooter games | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Attack on Pearl Harbor is a semi-realistic flight simulator in which players can have random dogfights or play in single player campaigns. The game was developed by 3DIVISION and published by Legendo Entertainment for the EU & Asia, and by CDV for the Americas.The game was first demonstrated at the San Diego Comic-con 2007 and was released the same year for PC. The game can be controlled via the mouse, a joystick, or an Xbox 360 controller. The WiiWare version was released on July 5, 2010 as Pearl Harbor Trilogy - 1941: Red Sun Rising.
Contents
The game is set on the morning of December 7, 1941, centred around the Attack on Pearl Harbor. The player, who plays as either USAAF pilot Douglas Knox or Japanese pilot Zenji Yamada, takes part in historically themed aircraft combat missions.
The game received average reviews upon release.
Gameplay
There are four single player campaigns, two for US and two for the Japanese, with cut scenes presented in a comic book-like fashion. Both start at Pearl Harbor and proceed through various battles, such as Wake, Midway, and Coral Sea in chronological order, including pre-Santa Cruz and pre-Okinawa operations for both the US and the Japanese. Unlike most games, it is possible to continue a campaign after failing a mission - however, planes are deducted from the player's reserve, and the campaign ends in defeat once the player runs out of planes. Coming into the end of the first half of the campaign, no new aircraft reinforcements will be added. This reoccurs for battles coming into the end of the second and final campaign, signifying the end of the war.
Dogfight mode is similar to 'Skirmish' or 'Instant Action' modes of play in other games. After selecting a venue, weather conditions (which do not affect controls, only visibility), aircraft type, and difficulty, the computer will endlessly spawn AI craft, always of the opposing nation, at the player. There are three possible victory conditions which the player can choose from:
There are two modes of LAN or Internet play - either a deathmatch in which last plane flying wins, or a team deathmatch in which the last team surviving wins.
Like Ace Combat, it is highly streamlined and skips realism in exchange for gameplay. Aircraft carry unlimited ammunition, limited only by overheating (machine guns) and reloading times (rockets, bombs, and torpedoes).
Reception
The game received a 64 out of 100 on Metacritic and 7 out of 10 on Gamespot indicating mixed or average reviews.
IGN gave 46/100 stating "Legendo has managed to take something as interesting as World War II's air battle over the Pacific and turn it into something as repetitive as bouncing a tennis ball against a wall."