“B4”

“You sunk my battleship”

That doesn’t sound very enthusiastic naval experience. However, when visually seeing your decision unfold as your missile launching towards the selected space, sinking a battleship can be fun even if it's just stock footage. Radar Mission is a spiritual predecessor to the 3DS launch title Steel Diver. While Radar Mission doesn’t have a campaign mode, it does have the other two modes that are similar to Steel Diver without the 3DS functions of course. For those who have played Steel Diver, there’s really no need to download Radar Mission. For those who haven’t, playing this game will determine if you’re enthusiastic about launching unlimited amounts of missiles or not.



Game A of Radar Mission is Nintendo’s version of the board game Battleship. Placing your fleet on the grid and each vessel are horizontal or vertical space fillers that will sink unless every space hit. The goal is to search and destroy your enemy fleet, targeting one space at a time. Before starting, there are options of whether to have Aircraft, Near Miss, and Lucky Shot during gameplay. Aircraft is an extra life to add to your fleet unless your aircraft carrier, the ship that takes up the most spaces, haven’t sink after a certain number of turns. Near Miss is a feature during the visuals of a missile launch and plunge to the sea instead of the target will produce a large alarming splash meaning that the enemy ship is in the adjacent space. Lucky Shot are special attacks that activate when hitting a specific unoccupied space for one turn that will really make you to rethink your "group the vessels together" strategy. There’s also an option to increase the grid playfield however that’s only for the first stage while the second and third stages stay with the 8x8 grid. Your standard radar only detects the spaces that are already been target. Game A improves the formula of strategic fleet placements but, sadly, eliminates challenge when using the Restore Point feature.



Game B of Radar Mission is an arcade version of Battleship. Instead of commanding a fleet, you are right in the action as a front line submarine. The goal is to destroy the opponent’s submarine before it destroys you or your entire fleet. The other enemy vessels in the background are optional to rank up points and they can be a threat depends on the difficulty setting. Ranking big points will help to improve your submarine's performance for the next stage. Good luck with that though, the enemy sub is a pain and wastes no time in devouring your fleet. The game starts at the surface, scoping out the side-scrolling, infinite loop, waters and a given direction of locating the enemy sub. Pressing down on the slide pad will submerge your sub, protection and using the radar determines the enemy’s movement while you travel in the opposite direction to confront them on sight when surfacing again by pressing up. Game B is a one-man army juggernaut that really comprehends the Game Boy capabilities in short, three stage, bursts.

Radar Mission provides a handheld naval experience unfortunately with little payoffs. The gameplay is there but completion is prosaically unsatisfying. Both modes worn out fast and the 2-player option is a dud when it’s on the 3DS Virtual Console. The only redeeming quality is the soundtrack with the emotional title screen,the confidence during Game A, and the prepare assault from Game B are musically well done. technically, Radar Mission is very impressive for the most part, however, the fun factor might not last long.

6.5 / 10 Skyward points

6- Decent This game has flaws or major flaws such as, poor controls, bad gameplay elements, poorly implemented gimmicks, minor sound or graphics issues etc. But can be fun, but not necessarily as fun as you'd hope.