Flying Heroes, Aerial combat with a fantasy twist.
The game takes place in a fantasy/legend age, when humans could ride on lizards into combat, great feathered birds, mechanical zepplins, and even teapots and baby carriages.Each of these flight modes are specific to one of four combat clans.The clans, and your character withn his clan, meet a selected number of times in different settings to see who is the best of the clans in (non-fatal)combat matches.You try to win the League Matches in an effort to elevate your Clan. The Lizard Riders, Magion, Sky Kights and Hammercraft Clans all vie for control of the skies in various combat leagues.The Sky Knights (Bird fliers) and Hammercraft (Zepplins) clans only become available to your character to join AFTER you have mastered flying in the easier to maneouver Lizard Rider and Magion (magic carpet and teapots) Clans. You must win 1st place in the ranks of these before moving up to the Hammercraft (High Power weapons!) and SkyKnights (Blazing speed-BIG fun to fly). The Leagues are Iron League-only 4 opponents,very easy challenge, but pitiful $$ rewards, at least the first level of upgrades is cheaper too. You have 4 Combat Matches here. Silver league-this has 6 opponents in each Combat match, and you must survive 6 Combat sessions and earn 1st place at the end of the season, to move onto the final League. Gold League. The money rewards are HUGE here, but so is the price tag for upgrades! AND you are given a 'wingman'- a newbie partner from your clan to help you out-Gold League is hardest! I found the wingman part to be a little unecessary, you are not in control of his flying, but you can 'program' him during the combat match to help you with gaining the upperhand-the other opponents ALSO have wingman here. Worst part- YOU have to use YOUR winnings to upgrade this fellow...Gold League has 10 Combat Matches to get through.
There are many smaller challenges or missions within each of the Leagues, occuring between Combat Matches, each are optional, but to get experience and $$ you almsot Have to participate in them.These sub-missions offer more $$$ to upgrade your weapons or flying machines and also gain you level experience to utilize magic spells,or tricks as a professional pilot, as you go into the next combat session.
Controls are a fairly simple-compared to flight sims-combination of Mouse and Keypad Arrow buttons. The various weapon triggers, and flight tricks or spells are keyboard driven, and fully customizable by the user.This also applies to Internet Play. I found the game to move quite nicely during play, with an uninterupted sensation of flight throughout-except for times that my ride got shot down in flames, that is. Oh well, just reappear, with all weapons though no ammo!-that you have to collect and other temporary power ups within the combat sessions. There is an abundance of combat arena backgrounds you can fight inside, and each has obstacles, cover, and many hve 'secret' areas inside them. I find all these backgrounds very nice in their rendering, and lend themselves well to the whole flying aspect of the game. It is an old game, so there
is no Gore (but your transport will catch on fire) and no poor language-it is a family friendly game- how many of those are really out today? Another good thing for me,-it is one of hose terrific games that can be installed completely on your hard drive, so you need never have the CD to run it!
Overall Flying Heroes has become one of those Old Favorites in my game collection. It is one that I frequently replay even years after the world has forgotten it.There is lots of action, nice scenery and it never plays exactly the same every time, giving me a new challenge.Even though I thought I had mastered it before, there is always some new way to run the game, or a different clan to champion. Definitely a high rating for replayability on this. You will find Flying Heroes in the bargain bin more often than not, but don't let that fool you about this game- Snatch this puppy up if you chance to see it somewhere!