Gaming Target - Dreamcast: Propeller Arena

Written by Ryan Smotherman on June 25, 2001

First Impressions: Propeller Arena

Few surprises came the way of the Dreamcast at this past year's E3. With the system reaching its last few months of existence (sigh), and there being barely any 3rd party support left, no one expected any new and exciting titles to be introduced. But there was however one shiny new game revealed for the Dreamcast at E3. It's AM2's dogfighting (where talking planes here) extravaganza, Propeller Arena.

Propeller Arena is set in the year 2045, but it seems to have a lot of inspiration from World War II. You're a fighter pilot who takes to the skies to go at it against other opponents in a full on free for all battle. The game doesn't seem to break any new grounds, but it's looking to be one of the most entertaining Dreamcast games to come around in a long time. You get to pick from eight very distinct characters, who each have their own WWII inspired fighter planes, and go at it against the computer, up to four different friends (split screen), or even online with up to six players at once. And taking a page out of Alien Front Online's book is the microphone peripheral support, which should take trash talking to its limits.

The gameplay in Propeller Arena consists of some old school dogfighting, just as you'd find in any respectable WWII flick. Basically, you fly through the skies blasting any and everything you see with your machine guns, missiles, and a diversity of other weapons. A long the way you'll encounter the much needed power-ups that contain certain things as homing missiles, a speed boost, or even a repair kit to replace lost life. The power-ups should add the much needed diversity so the game won't stale so quickly. Like I said earlier, nothing groundbreaking here, but the games entertainment factor should be quite high. Look for more gameplay details once I take the game for a test flight.

Propeller Arena is also set to have a solid graphical outing. The game runs quite smoothly at 30 fps, even in the intense split screen multiplayer modes. Each of the eight fighting environments is breathtakingly beautiful and diverse enough from each other that they'll keep your attention for a long time to come. Other graphical flares such as smoking planes, weapons effects, and the massive explosions are also fairly impressive. All in all, it's shaping up to be one fine-looking game.