0 to Z of Playstation 1 Games - Agile Warrior F-111X

         

Agile Warrior F-111X flight combat and flight simulation game released on the Playstation 1, the game was developed by Black Ops Entertainment and published by Virgin Interactive, the game was released first in North America on the 21^st of November 1995, and in January and March the following year in Japan and Europe,

In the total of six missions in the game, the player will need to utilize the experimental aircrafts features such as rockets, radar to uncover nearby enemy aircraft, as well as cloaking which is vital to later missions that require a stealth element to avoid hostile radars.

The story is based on the premise that with international conflicts and increasing dangers due to terrorist attacks the Air Force needs a new warplane that is adaptable, can be used for direct attacks and more stealthy approaches to conflicts, the result and mixture between the YF-23, the X-31, and the F-111, the player pilots one of these experimental aircraft over the course of six missions to solve the international conflicts and terrorist threat.

Several reviews exist for this game, with the majority of reviews around that average to above average rating area, with a couple of exceptions however, starting with the good exception which is GamePro (US) who awarded the game a 4.5/5 their review conclusion saying, With better realism and plane selection, Air Combat may remain the first choice for flight-sim fans. All pilots, however, will relish kicking in Agile Warrior: F-111X's afterburners to cut a path through the fun, frenzied action.

Joypad a French publication were the next highest scoring review with a 75/100 (sorry no further quote could not find a decent translation of their review quote) while Electric Playground in their 7/10 review were quite positive on the game with their review quote saying.

I had a good time playing Agile Warrior. It's certainly no leap forward, in terms of actually bringing us on board a real military aircraft, but it is never dull in the context of pure stimulation. There are a multitude of weapons options and things to destroy and, as pathetic as it sounds, that can provide for a pretty solid night's entertainment. You have to ask yourself, how many flight combat games have you played where you spent most of your time looking for action instead of actually being involved in it? Agile Warrior's greatest brushstroke is that it never leaves you with enough time to pick it apart as detailed simulation.

German publications Mega Fun and Video Games were both in agreement with this game with both outlets scoring the game 68/100, beyond this the review scores do plummet a 50/100 from Game Players while critical and generally annoyed with the game they did have a good point to add about the developer and how they are looking forward to what they do next.

However the 40/100 review from All Game Guide did not even have one good point in their review conclusion, with it saying Such is the case with Agile Warrior F111-X. Sure, it's a nice looking game but the lack of depth, originality, horrible controls, and seemingly impossible missions are a big turn-off. Needless to say, if you are a fan of the air combat genre, stay far away from this game and leave it to be forgotten in obscurity, IGN though were the lowest review score for this game with a 2.0/10, while praising the graphics engine and nice explosions they concluded with Agile Warrior serves more to frustrate and bewilder than entertain.

This is the part of 0 to Z where is visit five online retailers and see what the availability of the title is, and what price you would be looking at if you wanted to pick this title up, the sites that I will be using for this are Amazon.com,  eStarland.com, retrogames.co.uk and Gamedude.com I know the last one is very location specific, but from a podcast I listen to I’ve heard they have a huge stock of older games, I will also be including Ebay.com as well

So lets get down to business with Gamedude, if you are looking to trade in your copy of Agile Warrior F-111X don’t expect much for it with Gamedude offering just $1 for your copy, if you are in the market for a copy of the game from them you are looking at $5 from Gamedude.

Retrogames.co.uk sadly do not stock this title so quickly on to eStarland.com, where a complete used copy of the game is available for $7.75, eStarland also offer a trade in for the game, and are offering $3 for a copy, on to Amazon.com where two versions of the game are available, the North American version as well as the imported Japanese version.

Starting with the Japanese version prices start at just short of $10 for a good quality used copy of the game there is also a very good quality used copy of the game for a similar price as well, these copies come with free shipping as a bonus as well, for a good or very good used copy of the game you shouldn’t be paying more than $12 or $13 with most cheaper than that, at the time of writing this there are no new copies of the Japanese release available.

Onto the North American version of the game, where an acceptable copy of the game can be picked up for a couple of cents short of $5, this converts to £3.90 in the UK, in Euro zone countries it will cost you €4.25, while in Switzerland it will cost you 4.82 Swiss Franc, also please be aware these games are region locked so you will need a Japanese or North American console, or buy the European PAL version of the game.

A very good quality copy of the game is not too much more expensive one Is priced at $7.49 and comes with free shipping on orders over $25, there is another very good quality used copy available for just short of $10 and a used like new for just short of $11 this copy however is only shipped to the lower 48 states.

Moving on to Ebay.com, where just the disc of a PAL version of the game will cost you $6.42, this comes with free international shipping, another free international shipping copy is up for auction with an asking price of $9 this is a complete copy of the game, this is the best price you are likely to find on Ebay.com with shipping costs once again pushing the prices up with double figure shipping costs a common sight.

Written by

P J Gibbon