Wing Commander Prophecy: Hands On

I got off work at 4:00 today -- and had my copy of Prophecy plugged in by 4:01. Here's my first thoughts:

What's great?

The 3D video sequences are unbelievable -- I watched the intro and a losing endgame, and they're both far more amazing than I would have thought possible on a GameBoy. The graphics are sharp and detailed.

Once you get used to flying with a GBA keypad (which took me about twenty minutes -- though I'm used to a complete HOTAS setup for Wing Commander), the action is great! The Nephilim ships are harder to down than they were in the original version -- making destroying a target seem like more of an accomplishment (like in the original Wing Commander). They did an excellent job of streamlining controls to make the game playable with the GBA's few buttons. There are two control sets to learn, normal and 'advanced'... and many aspects of the game (like autopilot) have now been automated.

It has speech! Anderson telling me my fighter was ready for takeoff took me completely off guard. The comms, though more limited in number than they were in the original game, are animated and have accompanying speech. Unbelievable!

The music is all new -- by an Italian composer. In my mind, it's pretty darned good.

The only complaint I have so far is an issue with spelling -- "Maverick" became "Maverik" for some reason.

I'll have a full review in the near future... after I get some more flight time in! If you have anything you'd like me to check out, please drop me an e-mail.