Data East was on fire in the late 80’s into the 90’s. Almost every arcade game they put out would end up being a hit, from their licensed games like Robocop, to unique shooters like Nitroball, the publisher knew how to take a basic concept and make it amazing. This was also the case with their Neo Geo classic known as Windjammers. Windjammers takes a simple concept of a frisbee game and makes it epic, but also manages to reinvent the wheel at the same time.
Windjammers is in essence, an update of Pong done right. Two characters instead of two paddles, and there is a different point system but the gist is the same. Where Windjammers stands out is how it thoroughly embraced 90’s culture and extreme sports and mixed in creative character design to give us fun and addictive gameplay. You select one of six characters, each representing a country, and face off to be the best. Each character has a special move they can do, and the matches get very intense.
When playing a match, you cannot move while holding the disc, and you automatically throw it if you take too long. What this means is that you need to quickly think of where to throw the disc. There were be different areas to target, as you can get 3 points or 5 points depending on where you hit. You can also get two points if your opponent drops the disc, if they are not fast enough to get the disc for instance. First to 12 points wins, and the matches get more intense as you go on.
Windjammers is one of those games that has the IT factor. It seems like a silly concept but it not only works, its actually very fun and competitive. While the online was not available at the time of writing this review, I look forward to multiple matches with people from around the world. DotEmu did a great job porting this to Switch and even made excellent use of the HD rumble features in the system. I wish the lights wouldn’t flash as much, as that annoyed me a bit, but it was otherwise fine.
Windjammers is a classic that holds up well today. I highly suggest checking it out, because you will not regret playing this experience. It is one that has aged like a fine wine as the years have gone by.
Disclaimer: A review key was provided