AirCars

Moby ID: 9972

Description official description

AirCars takes place in the future after a nuclear holocaust. The large organization E.B.N.E.R.S. is plotting to take over the world and has developed advanced forcefield and teleportation systems, and nuclear powered AirCars. To stop the plot, your group steals plans, builds its own AirCar, and sets out to destroy all of the bases, 28 known and countless unknown ones, stationed around the globe.

You can choose to play a single player game, the 2-player game using a JagLink, or up to 8 players using ICD's CatBoxes. On screen and on radar, each player's AirCar is displayed in a different color to help identify the good guys from the bad guys. There are 3 difficulty settings. You will be using the cockpit's instrument panel to fly the AirCar, select weapons and view radar, as well as combating the enemy in the air and shooting ground targets.

Features include true 3D sound, a computer voice (which can be turned off if desired), and music during the introduction and level intermissions.

Spellings

  • Air Cars - Common Spelling

Groups +

Screenshots

Promos

Credits (Jaguar version)

32 People (26 developers, 6 thanks) · View all

Reviews

Critics

Average score: 47% (based on 8 ratings)

Players

Average score: 2.0 out of 5 (based on 5 ratings with 1 reviews)

Just an okay game; there are much better for the Jaguar.

The Good
Your mission is to pilot an armed hovercraft around an unfamiliar terrain and destroy several enemy targets. Along the way you run into MANY battles with tanks, missile batteries, and other hovercraft. Once you've destroyed your primary targets, you can leave the map for the next 'world' by driving through a transporter portal.

The Bad
My impressions of the game? Meh. It's not that AirCars is a bad game, but it just doesn't do anything to stand out from the crowd. Take the game play of Jaguar's Hover Strike and strip away the "floating" controls so that the vehicle drives more conventionally. Now, change the graphics for the landscape and the enemy vehicles and buildings so that they're created with Gouraud shaded polygons rather than textured (think of the landscapes in Cybermorph or IWar), and you've pretty much got AirCars. Yeah, to me it feels pretty much like a Hover Strike or a ground-hugging Cybermorph with different maps.

The Bottom Line
Do I recommend buying AirCars? Frankly, for a new Jaguar fan I'd have to say 'no': for $40-plus dollars, you can easily pick up two or three of the more common carts for the Jaguar. This is really only a purchase for the more serious collector who already has a substantial collection of Jaguar games, and is looking for either completeness or simply a new Jaguar game experience. On a scale of 1 to 10, I rate Aircars a 6.5: only its unusualness and rarity lift it slightly above average. If you are new to the Jaguar scene and don't have a large collection, I recommend picking up cheap copies of Cybermorph, Hover Strike, or IWar instead.

Jaguar · by Bruce Clarke (60) · 2006

Trivia

Release

AirCars was designed in 1995 but not published until 1997. An extremely rare game, the publishing license only included 300 copies. The cartridge and 20-page manual came in a shrink-wrapped package inside a normal-sized Jaguar box insert with the cartridge label facing out. No additional cover art was produced.

Analytics

MobyPro Early Access

Upgrade to MobyPro to view research rankings!

Related Games

AirCars 94
Released 2010 on Jaguar
KA AirCars
Released 2010 on Jaguar
Lamborghini: American Challenge
Released 1992 on DOS, 1993 on SNES, Game Boy...
F40 Pursuit Simulator
Released 1989 on Amiga, Atari ST, DOS...
Super Cars II
Released 1991 on Amiga, Atari ST, 2019 on Antstream
War Cars Construction Set
Released 1987 on ZX Spectrum, 1987 on Amstrad CPC, 1988 on Commodore 64
Dodge 'Em
Released 1980 on Atari 2600, 2010 on Xbox 360, 2022 on Antstream
TOCA 2: Touring Car Challenge
Released 1998 on PlayStation, Windows
Air Warrior
Released 1990 on Amiga, 1991 on Atari ST, 1992 on DOS...

Related Sites +

Identifiers +

  • MobyGames ID: 9972
  • [ Please login / register to view all identifiers ]

Contribute

Are you familiar with this game? Help document and preserve this entry in video game history! If your contribution is approved, you will earn points and be credited as a contributor.

Contributors to this Entry

Game added by Jeanne.

Additional contributors: Patrick Bregger, Roberth Martinez.

Game added August 13, 2003. Last modified February 22, 2023.