Everybody loves desert graves: Let's Play UN Squadron!

Yeah, you know what time it is.


No decisions for you guys to make right now; from here, it's going to be a straight shot all the way to the finale. Don't touch that dial!


Maaaaaaaaybe. Stay tuned for more exciting Secret Missions!

I can't believe you didn't use napalm on the (pseudo-)Blackbird. That's one of the high points of the game for me.

Or even conventional bombs really. Get in close and watch a stream of them disappear into the plane.

Everyone's a critic. =P

What, did you think this was over? No sir, it's time for some more


Greg likes to use the weekend to get a little shopping done. This morning, he's stopped off at the dealership, where he's had his eye on this baby:


The F-14D Tomcat: it's optimized for forward attacks! Note the maximum vulcan cannon level of 5 - it's nothing to write home about, but a good step above what we're used to with the A10A.


Here is the weapon loadout for the F-14D. The top right corner is the T.Laser, a fun and useful weapon that I'm quite fond of, and next to it is the Super Shell. We've also got the standard Mega Crush, plus some Cluster Shots. Judging by the price, we'll be getting 10 of those. Let's buy everything! But where should we go to take her for a spin?

Well, that's an idea. Off we go!


Here she is! It must be said, the F14D is a handsome plane, probably the best looking one that you can fly in this game (unless you're a fan of the Thunderbolt 2's vintage 70s design, which does have its charms). Let's get a look at the soft, white underbelly:


Woo! I never said this thread was rated PG-13. So she's a looker, but how does she fare against the Wolf Pack? Well, the level 5 vulcan is decent for taking out the planes that you come up against in the first part of the level, but the F14D isn't so well equipped for dealing with the guys who show up and stay at the back of the screen. Remember them?


The Crusader could take them out with one well-placed bomb each. The Tomcat, on the other hand, is forced to use the much more expensive Cluster Shots to take them out, ideally waiting to hit 2 or 3 with the same shot. Fun, but not economical.

On the other hand, when the boss stealth bombers show up, the F14D gets to break out the big guns:


Personally, I don't like the Super Shell very much for this level. It's too hard to hit those fiddly little bombers with it, since they weave all across the screen. In my opinion, it's a weapon better suited to bosses like the desert carrier and the forest fortress, who are pretty much stationary. The T.Laser, on the other hand, is fantastic, covering a huge portion of the screen and being less expensive per shot. If I was using the Tomcat for the middle levels of the game, you can bet that I would make good use of the T.Laser in pretty much every level.

That final blast of T.Laser puts an end to the stealth planes and Greg is victorious. Here's a shot of the Tomcat on the mission clear screen, along with Greg's fabulous smile:


You sure did, big guy! See you next mission!

Yay! It's been so hard to not bug you about this.

Oh hey, right, I made this thing.

God I hate that boss.

Every right-thinking person does. Oddly enough, it's not as awfully terribad to fight with the Crusader as you might think thanks to the plane's small size (still pretty bad though) - it takes a while to kill the damned thing, but at least you can relatively easily fit into the little room there to hit it. Also, I was practically yelling at my computer for you to take the lightning cannon, whatever it's called. That's largely because I never liked the gun pod much, but at least with the lightning you can hit the weak point from a whole two angles!

I always took forever to stop farming quartermasters and just do the final mission. I'm so paranoid about running out of little green trucks!

You will probably be pretty happy when we get to the final video!

That Lightning Cannon just TEARS SHIT UP in the final level. It's great.

I swear I've done this stage with the A-10 but after watching you play it again, I'm not sure. Keep on truckin', Mike.

It's possible, but my god would you need to be good to beat it with the A-10. The A-10 would at least make those launchers at the boss a bit easier to deal with; as the video showed, you oftentimes take more damage from them than the boss itself.

I would be flabbergasted if you didn't use it then. That would just be ridiculous.

The A-10 makes the beginning of the level a cakewalk, like it does for the rest of the game. The boss becomes an intimidating battle of attrition and precision flying, though.

I'm not sure I've ever taken damage from the launchers at the bottom of the screen, it's usually the flamethrowers that get me. I can't recall ever trying to beat that boss with the A10, but it seems to me that your best bet would be to hoard your napalm until the end up the level so that you could use it to destroy turrets coming in from the left side of the screen. Either way, it would be a total son of a bitch to make it that far with any fuel left, and the fight would be incredibly difficult with only a level 3 vulcan cannon to damage the boss with.

Okay, neat trick time: you can fly *under* the launchers against the ceiling boss if you hug the ground and you won't take damage. The same goes for the flamethrowers when they aren't currently shooting fire.

Well hey there, Shin! What have you been up to while the rest of UN Squadron was out saving the free world? Not too much, huh? Well, dust off your helmet and let's hit the runway, for old time's sake!


First things first, note that Shin only needs a paltry 2 POW capsules in order to upgrade his vulcan cannon to level 2. Mickey needed 3 to do the same job, and Greg would require a whopping 4. This trend continues up to the maximum vulcan level, so Shin arrives at level 7 well before his peers. But that's not what I'm here to show you today, no sir.


No, today we're going to be buying Shin a plane that we haven't seen before, the F20 Tigershark! Max vulcan level is the same as the Crusader, but let's take a look at its weapon loadout:


As one of the three mid-game plane options, the F20 most resembles the F14D. Instead of the delightful T.Laser, the F20 has the extremely useful Phoenix missiles, as well as the powerful Bullpup for destroying everything in front of you. Both options have their charms, but for my money, the Tigershark is the better choice (though still not as amazing as the A10A, of course). It also has one unique advantage:


It's freaking tiny. The F20 is the smallest plane in the game, and there are a couple of spots where that can really come in handy, such as the ceiling boss in the CAVE mission.


Shin puts her to bed, and...I'm sorry, I can't stay serious while looking at that win screen. Let's just move on.


As a sort of sub-bonus, let's see what the F20 can do against the Wolf Pack. The Phoenix missiles make short work of pretty much everything in the first part of this level. But what happens when we use them against the bosses?


They don't track! Why? CAUSE THEY'RE STEALTH FIGHTERS! It's a small detail that you might not ever notice, but I love Capcom for thinking to include it. When you fire Phoenix missiles in the presence of stealth planes, they simply fly straight forward, heedless of your targets. So make sure you bring your Bullpups with you on this mission!

Well, that's it for this Secret Mission. Shin, time to get back in your box.

HOLY DANG

I... wow. That is a really impressive detail to include. Who would ever have the money for Phoenices and a plane that can equip them at that point anyway? Though if we're going to get really detailed and realistic, the F14 should be the only plane to equip a Phoenix. But why let realism get in the way of all the fun?

Wh-what's this??


It's the final mission! I've been drawing this out, because I know everyone would be just so sad to see this Let's Play end, but it's time for Mickey to face down his ultimate rival and put Project 4 to bed. It's normal to feel emotional at a time like this, don't worry. Thanks to everyone for watching and reading, hopefully you've enjoyed this trip through one of the best games on the Super Nintendo Entertainment System. Catch you next time on Everybody Loves Let's Plays! In the meantime, this adventure is finished. Or is it?

Nice LP, Mike.

From Youtube:
Damn that looked pretty hard Mike. Also what would have happened if you didnt buy all sorts of special weapons for that boss? It would be impossible to hit the middle, how unfair!

It isn't completely impossible; you simply have to fly inside the boss. Easier said than done, obviously, and it takes forever since you can only land a couple of hits on the forward pistons in each circuit around the boss even if you don't have too many bullets and planes to dodge on screen - you have to move as close to the front of the boss as you can so that when the pistons are fully extended they'll be hit by the back edge of your vulcan.

Congrats on finishing a rollicking good LP, Banjo. It would have been nice to see some more napalm on some more bosses, but other than that little quibble it was aces.

I cleared UN Squadron this weekend, and enjoyed finding this old thread about it. Great read!

Especially, finally finding out what Mickey's special ability is.

Thanks, balder! Seeing your post also got me motivated to fix as many of the image links as I could, so at least the Secret Missions are back online (this is particularly relevant if you liked the bit about investigating Mickey's ability). I also added YouTube embeds to each post, since that's a thing we can do on this forum now. There are still a few various images that I'll have to track down if I want to completely restore the LP, though. I'm sure I'll get around to it eventually!

Thanks! The screenshots look great.