Weekend Slowdown: Why don’t they make a new game out of SWAT Kats?

Just wondering: any of our readers actually old enough to remember this early-to-mid-’90’s cartoon? (Or, anyone been watching Boomerang recently?)

For those too young to be sentient back in the rolling ’90s, the premise of the Hanna Barbera “SWAT Kats: The Radical Squadron” has a couple of hotshot pilots turned vigilantes take down the unfriendly skies in an advanced aircraft which looks similar to an F-14 (duh, TomCAT). Taking Top Gun and the A-Team under its wing – or claws, the edgy, flashy cartoon scored surprisingly high in the ratings, although it sadly only lasted a couple of seasons.

Sigh. Those were the days. Still, the show, for all its unbelievable premise and camp (hard-edged casualty-filled camp, but camp nonetheless), resonates with its fans, though – you should see the IMDB forums. Or me. Where do you think I got my love for Ace Combat and Warhawk (besides Top Gun)?

It’s got a megacity full of vicious criminals and their lemmings, it’s got high-tech gadgets, sky-high dogfights, and street-dirty brawls – oh, for heaven’s sake, this cartoon ought to be a game! Wait – it is! It was an SNES game! And, given that there were games like the flight shooter Turn ‘n’ Burn: No Fly Zone and the Mega Man X series which carried parts of the concept, and carried it well… the SWAT Kats SNES game by Hudson Soft ended up a fade-to-black generic shooter.

… Do you hear that? That must be the sound of ejection seats popping. Maverick is not pleased with his afterburn. (Okay, to be fair, the SNES game was a fair challenge, but still uninteresting in the end.)

Alright, so this article isn’t going to be a RE-GEN; I’m just skimming here. Need more time to throw a SIXAXIS around before a full RE-GEN can be made out of this. Same principle applies, though: next gen power, next gen promise. And this time, full exploit of the show’s premises and mechanics, no short-changing due to “limited processing power.” Some of us kats would hate it if such a promising license was re-botched on the re-gen.

Speed of Heat after the jump.

Just wondering: any of our readers actually old enough to remember this early-to-mid-’90’s cartoon? (Or, anyone been watching Boomerang recently?)

For those too young to be sentient back in the rolling ’90s, the premise of the Hanna Barbera “SWAT Kats: The Radical Squadron” has a couple of hotshot pilots turned vigilantes take down the unfriendly skies in an advanced aircraft which looks similar to an F-14 (duh, TomCAT). Taking Top Gun and the A-Team under its wing – or claws, the edgy, flashy cartoon scored surprisingly high in the ratings, although it sadly only lasted a couple of seasons.

Sigh. Those were the days. Still, the show, for all its unbelievable premise and camp (hard-edged casualty-filled camp, but camp nonetheless), resonates with its fans, though – you should see the IMDB forums. Or me. Where do you think I got my love for Ace Combat and Warhawk (besides Top Gun)?

It’s got a megacity full of vicious criminals and their lemmings, it’s got high-tech gadgets, sky-high dogfights, and street-dirty brawls – oh, for heaven’s sake, this cartoon ought to be a game! Wait – it is! It was an SNES game! And, given that there were games like the flight shooter Turn ‘n’ Burn: No Fly Zone and the Mega Man X series which carried parts of the concept, and carried it well… the SWAT Kats SNES game by Hudson Soft ended up a fade-to-black generic shooter.

… Do you hear that? That must be the sound of ejection seats popping. Maverick is not pleased with his afterburn. (Okay, to be fair, the SNES game was a fair challenge, but still uninteresting in the end.)

Alright, so this article isn’t going to be a RE-GEN; I’m just skimming here. Need more time to throw a SIXAXIS around before a full RE-GEN can be made out of this. Same principle applies, though: next gen power, next gen promise. And this time, full exploit of the show’s premises and mechanics, no short-changing due to “limited processing power.” Some of us kats would hate it if such a promising license was re-botched on the re-gen.

• The entirety of MegaKat City to save? We’ve been down this road already! Pacific City, Metropolis, and from the direction of NOT saving the city, Liberty, Vice, and San Andreas. Mission-based gameplay, open-world sandbox gameplay… yeah, it may risk becoming a GTA clone, but last time we checked, GTAIV doesn’t have fighter planes – any planes at all (and neither did Crackdown).

• Did we say “entirety of MegaKat City?” That means inside and out. The SWAT Kats kicked tail with wings, kicked tail with wheels, kicked tail on foot, kicked each other’s tail at times. That’s in-air combat, on-the-ground vehicular combat, (maybe even underwater combat), at one point suborbital combat, and on-foot, indoors fights. All-terrain combat just got redefined.

• The show’s premise is perfect for a live co-op jump-in. Someone plays T-Bone, mach-speed hotshot on the joystick, and someone plays Razor, eagle-eyed sureshot with them missiles. Of course that’s just in the Turbokat – imagine co-op gameplay with the rest of the SWAT Kats arsenal. Or pawing it on the ground.

• Dogfighting action courtesy of Ace Combat! Or perhaps Warhawk or SCEE’s Dropship: United Peace Force (PS2) because of the Turbokat’s ability to hover and VIFF (vector in forward flight) dogfight.

• Octopus Missiles, Matchhead Missiles, Drillbit Missiles, cement guns? The SWAT Kats’ unconventional weaponry and even more unconventional enemies are a recipe for the same kind of physics-challenge air and ground combat featured in the cartoon. Go watch a few episodes to see why. Toss in the Havok Engine, and it’s an a la carte banquet!

• Enemies? What other hero or benighted savior in any console had to face: robots, cyborgs, aliens with motherships, mummies, mutants, bacteria, the undead, dinosaurs, oil-sucking worms, a mythical volcano creature, rogue AI bots, criminal masterminds, net hackers, time travelers, mirror dimension mirrors, pirate pilots, giant spiders… oh, you get the idea.

• But why make things easier for the SWAT Kats? Back to the show’s premise: they’re vigilantes, not benighted heroes. Their antics don’t exactly please… well, at least the head of the paramilitary Enforcers, Commander Feral. Imagine a threshold you cannot breach, a line you cannot cross, even in the name of justice – beyond which, the city turns against you and the Enforcers are all-out APB for the Turbokat.
• Of course, any excuse for Feral to request for “more… chopper… backup.” Again.

• KATS! For caturday’s sake, kats! How can you argue with kats?!

• If they’re going to make a game out of Biker Mice from Mars, certainly they can make a game out of the SWAT Kats. Scratch that – they ought to.

• Finally, and as a shout-out to fellow Kats out there: the best argument for Cartoon Network (or someone else, if it gets to that) to pick up the series once again is to prove it has the power to resonate with the audience, both past and present. What better way than with a game?

(Credits: “SWAT Kats” caps primarily from “The SK Zone” by Kish Kat; LOLcats image macros from I can has cheezburger?. YouTube videos for Seasons 1 and 2 intros for “SWAT Kats: The Radical Squadron” uploaded by BloodShed and LadyMizu, respectively.)