Game 27: Mig Alley Ace

Name:Mig Alley Ace
Number:27
Year:1983
Publisher:Microprose
Developer:Microprose
Genre:Flight Sim
Difficulty:3/5
Time:Under 1 hour

Once again, its time to go back to the really primitive past where my complaining sounds like complete assholery. That's right, the Microprose flight sims that only early '80s kids will remember! Mig Alley Ace takes us even further back to the Korean War, making this game rather unique in setting. I play as a pilot of the F-86 "Sabre" shooting down MiG-16 "Fagot" planes. I hope in multiple ways that that wasn't chosen because they're tailpipe bandits.
As an aside, the C64 version of this seems to have been released after F-15 Strike Eagle. Interesting.

As the game starts off, I am bombarded with dead silence. Takes a good minutes to load up, but its smooth after that. Starts off with an annoying demo, but otherwise no complaints....well, the menus have the worst possible use of color possible given the C64's palette. I don't understand the font choice. Okay, I have a lot of complaints.

I eventually make it to a fight. Its like Hellcat Ace, except the enemy moves fluidly. That's literally all I would say if the game didn't have a bad crack job. Who would have thought, almost forty years later someone would be complaining about someone's inability to properly crack the game. Works fine up to a point, you shoot, you get one burst out, but that's it. Did I mention there's enemy AI this time? Oh, I'm sorry, it is cracked, but it flashes by so fast it might as well not be there the first time you play. Did I also mention this takes a minute to load? Even when I got the gun working it was really, really, lame. Its really slow.

Also, there are wingmen now, and multiple enemy planes. That's interesting, but it doesn't really improve the game.

Weapons:
A single gun that fires like complete ass. 0/10

Enemies:
They're actually capable of giving you a challenge. 1/10

Non-Enemies:
There are wingmen. They're the same as the enemy planes, basically. 1/10

Levels:
Non-descript green plains. 0/10

Player Agency:
Hey, there's no eject button anymore! It still feels like crap. 3/10

Interactivity:
None. 0/10

Atmosphere:
I felt nothing. Absolutely nothing. It was mildly unsettling. 0/10

Graphics:
I guess the enemy plane looks better. 1/10

Story:
Random scenes from real life. 0/10

Sound/Music:
There are two sounds, that of gunfire, and that of the plane dropping. It might as well be silence. 0/10

6, which means it beat Hellcat Ace. I've got nothing more to say, really.