Fighter & Attacker

In-game screenshot

In Fighter & Attacker, players control one of sixteen different aircraft as they must complete each of the game's eight areas. Each aircraft are based on real-world fighter jets, including the F/A-18E, F-15J, F-117A, and F-14D. They also have their own unique weapon loadout and playstyles; some are slower but fire more destructive shots, while other are much faster but fire weaker shots. There are no power-ups or screen-clearing bombs. Players also have a heath meter that can sustain three hits before being destroyed. Similar to the Xevious series, the player can launch powerful bombs towards ground targets to destroy them. Some enemies will leave behind captured prisoners when destroyed, which can be picked up for additional points. A boss must be defeated at the end of each level, which increase in difficulty and have more sporadic movement patterns as the player progresses.[1]

Known as F/A in Japan, Fighter & Attacker was programmed for the Namco NA-1 arcade board, which supported titles such as Tinkle Pit and Cosmo Gang the Puzzle.[2] The game is notable for its soundtrack, which was composed jointly by Shinji Hosoe and Takayuki Aihara. During production, Namco executives requested that the music be diverse and not sound similar to that in other games of its kind from the time. Hosoe went with a mixture of techno and rave, which for the genre was unheard of during its release. Namco demonstrated Fighter & Attacker at the 1992 Amusement Machine Show exposition in Japan, shown alongside Final Lap 3 and Bubble Trouble: Golly! Ghost 2. It was published in both Japan and North America in October of that year.

• Fighter & Attacker at the Killer List of Videogames