Wing Commander Movie Recognized By SI

Strategy Informer has published a refreshing article on vide game-based movies. Rather than the usual cliche bloggle, they've taken a positive spin and looked at five video game movies that did something right. Wing Commander shares the spotlight with Tomb Raider, Final Fantasy, Silent Hill and Mortal Kombat. I'm not sold on all their picks & points, but this is a nice change of pace.

The fact that Wing Commander starred Freddie Prinze Jr. as Christopher Blair notwithstanding Wing Commander isn't a poor flick if all you want is some nice space action tied together by a plot that miraculously makes a semblance of sense. The game follows the exploits of rookie pilot Blair as he and the crew of the TCS Tiger's Claw try to relay information about an impending attack by the catlike Kilrathi that could save Earth from complete destruction. It predates Firefly and Battlestar Galactica so you'll see a lot of the space ships flying like they're in atmosphere. As well a lot of the film is pure fluff, but really that isn't much of a complaint when you think about it. Most mainstream film is fluff, and Wing Commander smartly doesn't try to be more than it is, a cheap, but fun series of thrills centered around some nice action sequences that never slip into the sort of pure ridiculousness that often dominates action films today.

Making the Game: Mission F4b

If you fail Mission F3 then you go to Mission F4b instead of F4 (confused?), a patrol which becomes a Midway defense mission. The interesting thing you can barely see reflected here is that the path was originally that you would fly F4b if you failed F4 -- an extra mission instead of an alternate.

These updates are thanks to John "Captain Johnny" Guentzel, who provided several CD image archives of material used by the Wing Commander Prophecy development team!

Mission F4b Download (61 kb) Date: November 25, 1997 Project: Wing Commander Prophecy Donated By: John Guentzel Pages: 5