Anyone who talks to me about videogames for any length of time will soon learn that one of my favorite games of all time is U.N. Squadron for the SNES.


I freaking love this game and due to the excessive amount of time I’ve spent playing it, I’ve gotten ridiculously good at it. No kidding, if I had to point to one game that I can legitimately say I’ve mastered, it would be U.N. Squadron.

Heck, it’s even gotten to the point where I add restrictions to myself to make it more challenging. Why not trying to beat the game on Hard with only using the worst plane? How about beat it on Gamer mode? Okay, now beat it on Gamer mode without using Greg? Okay, now beat it on Gamer mode without using Greg AND without Special Weapons? And now, beat it on Gamer mode without using Greg, Special Weapons, or getting a single weapon powerup?

Alright, you caught me, I wasn’t able to complete the last two of those challenges. I honestly don’t think it would be possible to do those last two. But, you get the idea.

Because of my love for U.N. Squadron, the Arcade version has been sort of my own personal Moby Dick. I vaguely remember playing it a few times at the arcade in the mall, but that was before I was even in middle school. My only recollection was of how much harder (and how different) it was from the SNES version.

Since those days, I’ve always checked every (increasingly rare) arcade that I run across to see if they have the cabinet, but alas, they never do. I have seen a few clips of people playing online, but they are almost always using an emulator.

Needless to say, I had pretty much resigned myself to the realization that I would never really be able to experience this game on my own.

...Until I found someone asking way too much for one on Ebay! So, I did what any reasonable person without a job would do, I bought it - and it is glorious!