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Genre: Arcade

Developer: Freeverse Software

Minimum System Requirements: Mac OS X

Price: Free

Demo: You don't need a demo...it's free!

It's just a coincidence that when I packed my bags and hopped a Greyhound bus for New York City that the person with whom I lived until I found an apartment happened to have an upright Time Pilot machine. I swear I had no idea until I got there. And although I did find a job within a week, it took me two months to move out, and I'll leave it to you, good reader, as to whether access to free Time Pilot had anything to do with the delay.

To this day, Time Pilot is one of my favorite arcade games. Perhaps this is why I'm such a fan of Freeverse's Wingnuts. I absolutely love Wingnuts 2 (see the Applelinks review), which I continue to play with frequency. And now that the original Wingnuts: Temporal Navigator has been released for free to the Mac community, it looks like I'll be getting back into that.

As the wingnut, you pilot a rather unique aircraft, ridding the skies of the the Baron von Schtopwatch and his time-traveling air force. You time-travel as well, and your airplane receives upgrades only slightly less often than those of his air force.

In the tradition of air battle arcade games of the past, gravity, altitude and physics are not of concern, meaning that quantity is. Wingnuts pits you against thirty levels of an air traffic controller's nightmare. Or actually, pretty much anyone's nightmare, since no one likes to fly when there a few dozen airplanes within one square mile. It's just not a pleasant thing to do, especially when the few dozen planes are trying to kill you. Your situation is made worse because you plane is not well equipped at the start. Your aircraft has some decent shields and wimpy bullets, and that's about it. Luckily, the enemy is also poorly armed, and their numbers are quite easily thinned out. They fly in squadrons, and the squadrons stay in formation until attacked. Two or three can usually be destroyed before they split apart, and those who do break away settle into straight flight patterns until they're again attacked. Their movements are easily picked up on the radar, and you have afterburners to get quickly to your targets.

The trick throughout all of this is to destroy these planes without becoming an easy target yourself. Lining up for a good shot makes you a good shot as well, so the game is actually easier when there are more enemies on the screen. Towards the beginning of each level, the enemy planes are so abundant that you can fire pretty much anywhere and be able to hit something.

Of course, it does get more difficult. Quickly. The enemy aircraft get stronger, their weapons become smarter, and targets are added to the ground as well. Unfortunately, these stationary targets are much harder to hit than the airplanes. Hovering a few inches in front of your aircraft is your drop target, indicating where your bombs will land. Destroying the ground targets requires almost pinpoint precision, and lining up a perfect shot makes you an easy target for just about anyone on the screen. You'd think if your Air Force staffed only one pilot they'd be able to afford some better bombs. Where's that defense budget being spent?

And hey, whenever you see that a game has X amount of levels, you know that means level bosses. The bosses in Wingnuts are doozies; huge airplanes armed to the teeth with a wide variety of weapons. I never developed a real strategy to taking these guys on, save for patience. Get in a couple quick shots, then duck away. You can't take too long though, or you stand to lose your time bonus at the end of the level. Oh, and down also becomes a concern when you run out of fuel.

The Baron doesn't hold all the cards, however. Your fuel concerns are easily addressed by the tanker jet that comes to refuel your plane when needed. If you line up behind the plane, you're automatically docked for a refill, which you can break off at any time if you believe you have enough fuel to finish the mission and get safely back to your aircraft carrier. Also hovering in the sky are various power-up parachutes. These contain extra shields, fuel, better weapons, etc., each indicated by a representative icon. There are also quite a few stray parachuters floating around, doomed to hover forever unless either rescued or shot down by you. Many of these people you many know, also. Pretty much the entire staff of Freeverse Software circa 2001 enjoys parachuting in war zones, apparently.

How do you know who you're rescuing? Jen tells you, of course. The always amicable and perky Freeverse mascot appears from time to time to offer warnings, give reports, and bolster your confidence. She'll sometimes chastise you as well, but not nearly to the extent of Baron von Schtopwatch himself. He hurls insults and threats with the rapidity of his planes' bullets, all of which contain the Freeverse sense of humor that is pretty much the staple of their games. Like classic Benny Hill, hearing the same jokes over and over doesn't really get old in Wingnuts.

In Baron von Schtopwatch, Freeverse gives us a solid enemy upon which to focus our attack. This makes the game more interesting than it would be if we were simply attacking a faceless army. They went one step further by making us like him. He's funny, he eats tacos, and he watches soap operas. Sure, he's trying to kill us, but so what? He's a good guy.

The graphics will seem dated by today's standard. Comparing Wingnuts to Wingnuts 2 will show how far we've come in five years. But that doesn't mean the graphics here are bad, they're just a little flat compared to what you're used to seeing. Also, they were designed for a 640x480 monitor resolution. Freeverse gives you some options on how to let your 20" deal with discrepancy, but things will most likely look pretty blurry regardless.

The music, on the other hand, holds up very well. It has a rousing quality you'd expect to find in a Spielberg funded war film, or at least yet another Michael Bay helmed mess of hyper-patriotism. It does get repetitive, I suppose, but the action in the game does a good job of diverting your attention away from this.

In the end, Wingnuts isn't so much a battle for life and death as it is a friendly competition between you and the Baron. And "friendly" here means "extremely difficult." Anything Freeverse could've done to make the game a bit easier, such as having larger explosion areas for the bombs or getting shield replacements when landing your aircraft between levels, they did in Wingnuts 2, not here. They were kind enough, however, to allow you to save your game between levels, so you don't have to start at the beginning after quitting a game or losing all your lives. Be warned, though, that booting up a saved game leaves your aircraft in its same condition and with the same number of lives. If you didn't kick major butt on the previous level, there's really no reason to save.

If the game holds up so well, why is Freeverse giving it away? Because Wingnuts 2 is that much better. Play this for a while, and you'll want Wingnuts 2, either because you love what this game can do and want more of it or because you're frustrated by what it can't go and want a version that can. You can get the demo for Wingnuts 2: Raina's Revenge, but Wingnuts: Temporal Navigator is free, it's tremendous fun, and it's playable on just about any Mac with a grey or white Apple on it somewhere.

You won't have to move to New York to play it.

Download Wingnuts: Temporal Navigator.