With Top Gun on its way back to movie theaters and licensed games better than they've ever been, it's the perfect time for the two to come together.
It's been 36-year long years between the release of Top Gun and its upcoming sequel, Top Gun: Maverick, but fans of the original film are finally getting their wish. However, gamers haven't seen any sign of a new Top Gun game coming their way. It's been a decade and two console generations since Top Gun: Hard Lock was released on the PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, and PC to middling reviews.
It's oddly appropriate that the last time a Top Gun AAA video game was developed, the vast majority of blockbuster movie adaptations were less than satisfactory to players and critics alike. Still, the upcoming movie release might make fans nostalgic for the days when it would have had an accompanying AAA video game. As game adaptations of films have drastically improved over the years, there's no reason why there shouldn't be a new game based on the Top Gun franchise.
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Since games like the Nintendo Entertainment System's Top Gun and its infamous landing sequence frustrated gamers in the '80s, things have gotten markedly better for AAA licensed games. Instead of being based on a specific entry in the franchise and having to match its release date in the case of movie tie-ins, games like Marvel's Spider-Man and the Batman: Arkham series have shown it's possible to make excellent licensed video games that offer experiences that are true to the properties on which they're based.
One advantage games based on Spider-Man and Batman have is that they slot easily into a currently popular genre, the open-world action game. A Top Gun game would need to capture the thrill of being one of the fighter pilots at the heart of the series. While that's not an overrepresented genre in modern gaming, there are some games that could serve as a solid framework for a new Top Gun game.
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The most obvious source for a new Top Gun game would be Bandai Namco, publishers of the long-running Ace Combat series. First appearing on the PlayStation in 1995, the Ace Combat series has endured due to a combination of fast-paced yet realistic gameplay and dramatic storytelling. The game's stellar writing is best illustrated by Ace Combat 4's tragic antagonist. That combination is a perfect fit for Top Gun. Its main two attributes, excluding iconic volleyball sequences, are white-knuckle action and melodrama.
A collaboration between Ace Combat and Top Gun could be a game unto itself. Given Bandai Namco's love of crossover DLC in its fighting games, a Top Gun-branded DLC might also be a possibility. If nothing else, a Top Gun expansion of a new Ace Combat game could add some of Top Gun's real-life fighter jets like Maverick's F/A-18E Super Hornet to the game's roster of fictionalized planes.
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EA is another publisher who would be a good fit for a Top Gun game. One of their internal studios, Motive Games, developed 2020's Star Wars: Squadrons. Squadrons showed Motive's ability to work in the space combat sub-genre, which is similar enough to a game like Ace Combat to make the studio a good fit for Top Gun. Squadrons also featured a story-driven single-player experience that would be welcome in a Top Gun game. It doesn't hurt that they have experience working in licensed games either.
A Top Gun game doesn't need to come from a developer connected to a big publisher. Project Wingman, developed by Project D2 and published by Humble Games, brings the Ace Combat formula to indie gaming and adds some new wrinkles to it, including a roguelike mode called Conquest. Top Gun fans interested in Project Wingman can purchase it for a discount on Steam as part of Humble's second-anniversary sale, which ends May 20.
If the early critical reaction is anything to go by, Top Gun's return to theaters will be worth the wait. A well-executed Top Gun game could make a similar impression on players looking for another way to engage in virtual dog fights. If done right, the game could breathe new life into an air combat genre that has subsisted on Ace Combat games for decades. If nothing else, the franchise deserves better than to have its main gaming memory remain a frustrating NES title.
Robert Curran lives in Deep South Texas. He is a life long fan of comic books, video games, and pro wrestling. He spent five years in the trenches of his local comic book shop. His work has appeared in WWE Magazine (when WWE had a magazine), Comics Should Be Good, and Inside Pulse. Follow him on Twitter @RBCURRAN.