Overview:

Based on the hit movie that was all the rage back in the mid 90s, the game allows you to try to save the Earth [and its cities] from the dastardly aliens looking to exterminate us.  You take control of a number of plans going from city to city doing little missions.  You also get a nice dose of FMV to put you in the Independence Day spirit.

Visuals:

These visuals are fucking awful.  Ok, maybe I’m being a little dramatic.  They’re not bad…they’re just bland.  There isn’t really anything to wow you.  The ground is just a flat texture with some cube buildings [or in the case of the Washington D.C. map, there is a Pentagon] and the upper portion of the screen is the 20 mile in diameter space ship.  So, get used to seeing these same things over and over again.

Audio:

There really isn’t anything to speak of here.  You hear “You got tone” over and over again as the little ships go in and out of your view.  I didn’t have any background music playing as all I heard was the tone.  And it’s so shrill you’ll just wish you could play with no sounds whatsoever.

Completion:

Backstory time!  I was a big Independence Day movie fan.  I couldn’t wait to see it in the theaters or get it at home.  I was so flabbergasted there wasn’t a video game for it as I thought it would make a perfect game adaptation.  Then I saw a Next Generation magazine article about how the Sega Saturn was getting it. I so wished I could get one so I could play, what I assumed, would be the best game over.  Then I saw the screenshots and read the review and my hopes were dashed.  Fast forward to almost 30 years later and I finally played it.  Everything those reviews and screenshots were true.  As I said to my girlfriend, “What a sad little game.”  I played two missions and was done with it.  I guess I can mark this off my regret lists because I finally got closure on it.