Over G Energy Airforce is Taito’s latest incarnation of the EAF series which has been trying to keep up with Namco’s superior Ace Combat series for several years. While the two series are very similar on both the graphical and gameplay front, Namco has always done things better. With Over G, Taito looked to gain some ground on its competitor but unfortunately did no such thing. Over G is a solid, somewhat enjoyable fighter sim, but ultimately lacks in many areas.

In Over G’s scenario mode you take on a long series of missions that play out on the world stage. From the menu you get a briefing where you hear about the objectives, choose your plane, and choose a wingman. Once all that is selected you head into battle. Every single battle ultimately amounts to destroying something in the air or on the ground. 99% of the time you do this by toggling your missiles, getting the enemy vehicle on the screen, and then pressing the A button when the words “SHOOT” appear above the enemy’s lock-on box. You can then target the next enemy in sight where you rinse and repeat.

Sure you can switch to other weapons depending on the plane you’re flying but the easiest method to take out everything in the mission in a hurry is to use missiles. I think I used the machine gun and a different kind of bomb maybe twice during the entire campaign because they just aren’t necessary. If you decide to play under the game’s “Expert” setting you’ll have to dodge more incoming projectiles and you’ll have to probably fire off more of your own missiles but the general rule of thumb still prevails.

Because of this odd mechanic most missions are extremely short. I made a video of the first mission in its entirety and from the loading screen to the after mission report it took about four minutes to complete. And while you might think that beginning missions are always short, in Over G every single mission is around the same length. That being said, the way you select your next missions is actually pretty cool and leads to a heavily branched storyline.