Wing Commander™: Academy

Wing Commander Acadamy allows you to choose all the paramaters of the combat experience from the first two WC games. There is no plot, only the tools to create your own battle situations. You can stack the odds against you and try to win out, or fly smooth easy missions. On the up side, this becomes a great solution for a "quick game" of WC. On the down side, it's not engrossing like the other entries in the series. I really like this game. Makeing up battles and my own story lines to go with them was a lot of fun. However it's a mistake to buy this before any of the other entries in the series. Good luck cadets. Make us proud.

This one's for die-hard fans or players who want a quick retro space battle without investing time in other Wing Commander games. You can fly every fighter from the Wing Commander 2 series, along with a couple of unique additions. The only preconfigured content is the Gauntlet. Otherwise you'll be picking and positioning all the ships for each battle. It has the usual Origin polish, but there's no mission structure, no cutscenes, nothing to add to your Wing Commander 2 experience besides the 2 new ships and a few tiny graphical improvements. Get it only if you want a WC2 sandbox arena. Even then, I'd wait for a lower price.

It is what it is, a mission generator without any kind of plot attached. If you like the combat of Wing Commander 2 and just want more of that, you'll get some enjoyment out of it though it's probably not worth its full price. It should have been part of Wing Commander 2 back in the day as the in-game simulator like in other entries of the series and it probably should have been released alongside Wing Commander 1&2 on GOG as an extra. It's a fun distraction especially because the sprite graphics Wing Commander games are my favorites but it doesn't really stand on its own as a full game.

To all you people who haven't played the old Wing Commander games yet: don't start with this one. The captivating stories, lively characters and epic space battles are to be found in Wing Commander 1 & 2 (which are graphically comparable) and of course in the later installments of the series. "Academy" offers a full-blown construction kit for own missions plus, naturally, a simulator in which you can fly them. You can also fly randomly generated missions, so if the first two "Wing Commander" games (and the mission disks) weren't enough for you: here you go! Additionally, the game has a "Gauntlet" mode which is quite similar to the simulator on the Tiger's Claw in "Wing Commander 1" and let's you play a marathon of Kilrathi-blasting goodness. One of the most interesting features of this game being on GOG is that it might be the foundation of a solid "trade your own missions" hub – so let's get to it! The only downside to this game (apart from the fact that it doesn't have any story or real characters) is the fact that it still uses the old flight engine. Only a year later, "Wing Commander Armada" was released which featured a completely new 3D flight engine. But still: this way, "Academy" has the feel of the original two "Wing Commander" games.