Is Wing Commander [SNES] Worth Playing Today? - SNESdrunk 

"You must be DRUNK. I'm Shotglass."

"You must be Drunk. I´m Shotglass" I hear wedding bells already

When I was a child i rented this game often and never knew you could do missions. I only played the training arcade machine...

Wing Commander: The Secret Missions was my introduction to the franchise. Came with a nice little poster, too. Absolutely blew my mind with the coherent storytelling (this was before I got into RPGs!) and the sense of scope was amazing. One time I destroyed the Tiger's Claw just to see what would happen, and I felt... hollow about it. A video game had never made me feel anything but thrills and joy beforehand - that should be testament to its ability to effect emotional impact on an imaginative 11 year old's mind! ;) I would spend time looking at the box art, drinking in the details of the Claw's interior, etc. because it had me so mesmerized. Only Star Wars and Star Trek have had that kind of pull on me. TL;DR: Great franchise, check it out.

I love how you start in a bar and the first line of dialogue's all "You must be DRUNK, no?"

Oddly enough, this was my very first game when I bought my SNES. I didn't have enough to by the console with a pack-in game, so I bought Wing Commander used, because of how much fun I had playing it on a friend's PC. This PC game is the type of game I played before I had a SNES, and everything about it was great: the music, the story, characters, the hilarious dialogue, the cut scenes. So many good memories of this game. People talk about roots... this is what roots are.

For those struggling with Asteroid Fields, and Mines: A funny little bug causes the game to NOT track Asteroids/Mines that are off-screen. So simply fly towards your objective, and pitch up or down enough to clear your screen of asteroids then pitch back up/down to find the objective again and keep doing this. You'll never smack into another asteroid/mine again.

You have a great rest of YOUR day!

What this failed to mention is that the original PC Wing Commander 1 & 2 (plus The Secret Missions and a WHOLE lot more) is available in a bundle on GOG for $6. With this in mind, it doesn't seem worth it to go out of the way to get the SNES version unless you had nostalgia for it or if you found it at a yard sale or if you're 100% your collection etc...

Your videos are awesome. This is just a simple comment encouraging you to keep doing what you're doing! Please know you have many fans that appreciate these nostalgic, informative, interesting videos. I always enjoy getting to watch a new one! Cheers.

Honestly you are probably better off with the PC versions on GOG. The keyboard shortcuts are a lifesaver. As well as there being less slowdown.

That story structure sounds like the best thing about this game. I wonder how that could be implemented in other types of games. Other games have permadeath, but they don't have that mission structure based on your performance. It's like a self balancing difficulty.

Never liked 1 and 2 but 3 and 4 on the PS1 were awesome! Mark Hamill was amazing in it and it blew my mind playing a game that then had movie sections with Luke fucking Skywalker in them. If memory serves the 5th ship you got in WC4 was an OP MONSTER!

Those Wing Commander games were my top favorites on the SNES back in the 90s, when I got this game I was stuck on a hospital bed during the holidays, the nurses and the doc were ok with me having my SNES console around but it still sucked to be in the hospital, my parents were ok with me getting me that game, even as an early Christmas present, I loved it and played it for a really long time... It felt pretty much like being stationed on a US Navy Aircraft-Carrier somewhere out there in the Pacific during WW2 against Japan ( Empire of Kilrah = Japan ) only that it was in space... Obviously, I was just a teenage kid back then...

Renting this game as a kid lead me to playing every Wing Commander game on pc until EA buried it. Still my favorite game franchise of all time. Looking back the SNES game is pretty amazing for the time but incredibly hard to play now that I’m used to a flight stick and keyboard but this is the one SNES game I still own in box because of the amazing memories this was the catalyst for. : )

Thank you! I hope your day is great too. :) Always love watching these videos.

Is Star Citizen on the SNES worth playing, when it comes out in 10 years?

Your reviews are getting better by the day. I want to thank you for reviewing and I hope you have a great rest of your day.

Wing Commander is a series that needs to make a comeback. I mean, it is perfectly set up for VR.

Also worth mentioning, the music in this game is amazing

I love your channel bro. I love how you single out titles and ask the real ultimate question, is it worth my time. These games have aged, but you keep me from aging not having to go through them all. Only the worth whiles, thank you.

One of the few reasons I watch this channel (besides personality), is that you don't review things according to scale, and while you do use a good review structure, you don't hold yourself arbiter of whether games are worth it or not in the end. Keep up the hard work, its quality.

I just played this game the other night. Your review is spot on. I remember it from my younger years as being great but now after playing it not so much but the story line is good and interactive. Good job!

Love your videos. Keep this amazing work going! I didn't know there was a Wing Commant for SNES.

big fan of your vids! Also super happy you are active on instagram lately!

You're good at this. Great review.

One of my most played snes games from when I was a kid loved it to bits

This game was my childhood. Once I got into PC gaming I got more into space sims like Freespace, Descent and Freelancer but this one will always hold a special place in my gamer heart. I played both games a ton as a kid on SNES. This game was super cinematic and it sucked me right in. If you are interested, the entire series is on GOG. Later games had FMVs starring Mark Hamill.

This is why I like your reviews. You don't have a ratings system or anything to try to pigeon hole games into, when some games are so odd or unique they just really can't be nailed down. It's like someone tasting a food, and then just showing the ingredients and giving your opinion, rather than getting bogged down in pretense. Thanks, and I hope you have a great rest of your day.

I remember renting this because I had WC 1-3 on PC and loved them. WC 1 & 2 and the Kilrathi's Revenge expansion were my favs.

I never had this one but my friend did. I watched him play it. I did have Super Wing Commander and Wing Commander 3 Heart of the Tiger, On 3DO. Great games. One of my other friends had Wing Commander 4.

This series is amazing on PC. I played the heck out of the first Wing Commander with my dad back in the day. If you have a chance, grab this series on PC and play through it if you're a fan of space flight games. I would not try this on SNES though. I remember when it came out and I kinda laughed. There is no way this could be anywhere close to the PC version. Years later I tried it. Yeah, I was right. There were also a few spinoff game in the series as well. One in particular, 'Privateer', is simply amazing. To this day, it's still one of my favorite games of all time.

Happy to see a deeper dive on this one. I remember renting it and with no manual and being an impatient 11 year old, I don't think I made it past the first 5-8 minutes of the game. Thanks for the motivation to go back! There were 69 comments when I got here. There's now 70. I'm sorry.

One of my favorites as a kid. Played it again last year and it held up, really enjoyed myself. However, I can see how what Drunk says - that a little nostalgia is needed - may be true.

Feel like we are not talking enough about the music! It still sticks in my mind today!

I still love this game to this day. It's flawed, yeah, but I still think it's worth for me.

I agree with your assessment in just about every way. However, when this game came out on SNES, almost no one I knew had a computer, let alone one that would run the PC version of Wing Commander. So when a good friend of mine invited me over, popped this game into his SNES, put his Marvin the Martian helmet on my head, and told me to have a go at it, it was absolutely mind blowing. I had never seen anything like it before. After that visit to his house, I went out and found my own copy with absolute haste. I still love it on SNES today and I've been considering buying it for PC, since everyone seems to think that version is tons better. Excellent review, SNES drunk!

Man, I remembered playing this on the PC...it was awesome!

I always enjoyed playing this game it was so much fun I never gave up on it I keep on playing thru it was so good I loved the music and ambiance in here as well

Wow, I played this a good amount as a kid, and never knew or realized it was first made with a mouse in mind, makes so much sense

Damn that looked dope! Cant believe we never played or heard of this game though.

this was an amazing game back then beat it couple times over, the story and music really drew you into the world.

Excelente work . Thankssss

The minefields and asteroids are pretty easy to fly through. Throttle down to less than 200 kps and just pull back and then forward about 20 degrees or so. Basically once any new object has left the screen, change directions and rinse and repeat. Always make sure the fast moving mines are off screen before changing directions as they are the only real threats when doing this

"some of your copilots are like Slippy from Starfox" *Maniac has left the chat.

My cousin had all the Wing Commander games for PC. Even back in the 90s it was difficult to find a PC that could use those type of disks, so I was never able to play them myself.

I remember playing this version of Wing Commander and its sequel on the PSP EA Replay compilation back in 2010. My favorite game in the series is Wing Commander Prophecy (1997), which is the game in the series, in my opinion.

I loved this game on the SNES as a kid. Secret fact: The L and R buttons on the second controller let you roll. I used to rubber-band the controllers together.

That dismised scene at the end fits perfectly

Solid review. Have you seen any of the coverage of the upcoming Rebel Galaxy Outlaw? Not only is it a Wing Commander/Privateer-style game, but it has a much more robust space station bar implementation, complete with being able to play pool and darts for cash and ship upgrades.

I really did not think the SNES had games like this, some really cool details to it.

This is one of my favorite SNES games, it's fantastic. I say it's worth checking out it's lesser known sequel - the Secret Missions as well

I remember seeing the big adverts of wc in gamepro

I played this a lot on DOS, back in the day. Played all the Wing Commander games, actually. Part 4 is my favorite. Although 3 and 5 had Ginger Lynn...

I had this game as a kid and I loved it. When Wing Commander III came out for the PC, I was super psyched and even upgraded just to be able to play it. Then I promptly got Angel killed without realizing the story was supposed to be mainly about her (people apparently thought she was always hitting on the MC in the first two and the devs went with it?) and there was pretty much no story after that (aside from the "xenophobia is just self-preservation" sub-plot with whats-his-face). I remember being super annoyed when I figured out that I missed half the plot because a pilot died.

Used to play this with my dad taking turns on SNES. By dad loved this game.

Ah! Enjoying my coffee with a new SNES Drunk. Happiness. Have you done Larry and the Long Look for a Luscious Lover?

Loved Wing Commander then, still love it now. Great game.

Awesome video! I agree wholeheartedly with the assesemnt. The game is actually not bad for something that plays optimally with a mouse or joystick. Origin's ports werent too bad for the SNES, up until the Ultima 7 port, which just sucks. The Ultima 6 port is fairly solid though!

I totally get if somebody owned this game, or it was something from their childhood, and it carries fond memories. For me...all I remember is that it was one of the first SNES games I had rented from my local video store (after Smash TV), and after one night with it, I couldn't care less. It all just was over my 12-year-old head. When I played X-wing on PC over a year later, that was much more my style.

I remember this game well. I was excited to be able to finally be able to experience a game all the richer PC-owning kids at school would always talk about and I played the hell out of this to the point that I finished every training and campaign mission, and still went back for multiple play-throughs. I never did pick up the Secret Missions stand-alone, though. I think my attentions had moved on elsewhere by then, but it did leave me with a lasting love of space sims.

Wow the scenes on that game look fantastic.

Joe from the Upper Memory Block podcast loves this game and still plays it. You should listen to UMBcast.

I had no idea they even ported Wing Commander to SNES. I don't think I ever saw this in rental stores when I was a kid in the 90s.

The fuel is used for the afterburners. You can still play without it. And the TCS Tiger's Claw is a _ship,_ not an outpost.

I didn't know this port existed until I played it in my uncle's house in 2003. impressive game for its time, but has not aged as well. for a space combat simulator it was neat though

I got this game for my birthday when k was a kid and immediately lost the instructions. It took a couple years to figure out how to actually play. I couldn’t figure out how to land back at the ship at the end of a mission. Finally after a bunch of button mashing I figured it out and could play the whole game. I loved this game. I wonder what else is in the manual that I never learned….

It'd be neat to see what you think of Starfleet Academy on the SNES.

Classic game i played a lot on snes... the controls were a little clunky but still fun to play every now and then. I still have the secret missions for dos on 5in floppy disk weirdly enough

Always loved this franchise. I can play it for hours.

Friggin loved this game.

I played the SNES version with the SNES Advantage controller. Much more enjoyable than the joypad...

Speaking from personal experience when I was a kid. My brother got this game and I was blown away simply because I had a NES and graphics like these were just simply unheard of. Mind you, he had a very limited 386 at the time with no sound card. However, this game had atmosphere and a heavy performance based mission tree. Blew my child mind. You could play til the last mission and be on a losing path with its own cinematic. Took some real guts by the devs to decide to do that

Bought this game in a bargain bin as a kid, and we all found it fascinating (the cutscene graphics blew our minds at the time), but the game just never really made a lot of sense to our young minds. It was a bit difficult, and since we had no instructions (bargain bin was cartridge only), we never knew or understood any of the button combinations to do many of the functions properly, so we kinda fizzled out on the experience. No internet to turn to for hints or info in those days. The mysterious dark days of early gaming ;)

Almost 100k subs my man!🍻👍👊gonna give us something when you hit it???

The entire Wing Commander catalog is awesome.

i love love love this game no matter the port,

Wing Commander was also the nickname I was given at the bar I frequented from ordering so many chicken wings on my many visits.

Heads up RU-vid unsubscribed me from you. I would never do it on my own so it could be another weird glitch. Thanks for all the awesome videos!

With that mention of the source code being released, there's a Windows source port called WCDX, which requires the Kilrathi Saga complication Also for anyone looking for a similar game but more modern, FreeSpace 2 and its own source port covers that

I think this is pretty cool this was on the snes

Would you consider doing a similar video for some of the ports on more common systems like the Sega CD one you mentioned?

I have Wing Commander 4 for my flash drive on my PS Classic! That games a GEM!!! Mark Hammil and Malcom McDowell in the cutscenes! Even Biff is in it! Sooo sick! 🤘🎸🤘🎸🤘🍻🍻

Bar simulation? Well, there's VA-11 Hall-A, but that's really more of a visual novel with a drink mixing mini-game. Bar-tending should really be a mechanic in more RPGs.

Wing Commander IV was my jam.

Wasn't there a wing Commander 3 on the Panasonic 3DO? I don't know if I'm thinking of the same game but the game I'm talking about I have downloaded to my PC through Origin

Still buthurt we don't have a modern version

The scramble animation is badass given the limitation of the technology that time, it manage to produce a believable atmosphere.

I never could get into the early WC games. But I loved the later ones with FMV acting with Mark Hamill and Malcolm McDowell. And the animated series.

wing commander 3 for the 3do must be my favorite game of all time

Top review

This game was hard as shit. Was always my pop's game, and he would regularly say it "wasn't nearly as good as the original". Some of my best gaming memories is watching my dad play this, Landstalker, Shining in the Darkness and Obitus. Never understood the whole "life is short" thing, but I swear 1998 was last week.

Ah good. Early morning snesdrunk.

Thank you sir!

WC on SNES was much easier than on the other systems. Why? Because it used the 3D chip to render enemy ships. And because the 3D chip can handle only one object at a time you never had to worry about being chased by multiple enemies. You could take them down one by one.

I remember Wing Commander.I played a rental of the snes version.Everything he said about the combat is true.But it was still a fun game none the less. :)

Fyi I could be wrong but the fuel is only for after burners. You can still fly when fuel is empty.

Wing Commander's highest legacy was its film release intro'd the very first (The) Phantom Menace teaser.

I LOVED THIS GAME!!

I wish there was a DOS/PC style "snesdrunk" like channel