AGH Lynx Review: WARBIRDS by Atari Aerial dogfight fans rejoice! Warbirds is, without a doubt, one of the very best air combat games around, bar none. If you've ever fancied yourself as the Red Baron piloting a WWI fighter bi-plane, this game's for you. Warbirds enables complete freedom of movement. You can climb, dive, roll, strafe and turn like a real bi-plane. The smooth controls are augmented by wonderous scaling, thanks to the Lynx's built-in hardware scaling capabilities. You'll notice the landscape rotate around you as you turn, or objects approach from the distance as you speed forward. The realism of presentation in Warbirds is breathtaking, and it only gets better from there. In the single-player game, your objective is to kill all your enemies (duh!). Shoot down the requisite number of foes and move onto the next mission. That might seem quite repetitive on paper, but that's as far from the truth as you can be. The artificial intelligence of the opposing planes are mind-boggling. They swerve, duck and swing away from view as if they know your every move. And every chance they get, they'll come around to your rear end, forcing you to play the mouse and maneuver out of range. Even when focusing on a given fighter plane, it'll take every ounce of skill and strategy to down the opposition. Don't try going banzai by unleashing your entire arsenal, however, as you've only got a finite number of ammunition! Run out of ammo, and you'll be forced to land and reload your guns. While Warbirds is simple enough for even novices to fire the game up and play, achieving true mastery in your combat skills will require the accurate reading of all the gauges in your cockpit. The in-plane instrumentation consists of your flight speed, remaining ammunition, altitude, direction and even oil pressure, and they're all very crucial. Only when you have everything down to a science will you manage to put up a decent fight against your opponents. The real fun with Warbirds begins, however, when you link up with up to three other human players using the ComLynx cable. You'll be treated to an epic battle royale that is perhaps unprecedented in portable gaming. You can almost consider it a flight combat equivalent to Bomberman -- it's that addicting. So next time you make your vacation plans, invite your friends, and bring along a couple of Lynxes and Warbirds carts. You won't be disappointed! Title Warbirds Publisher Atari System Atari Lynx Graphics 8 Sound 7 Gameplay 9 Overall 9 Reviewer Keita Iida