Fire Fight

Fire Fight is a Isometric Shoot Em Up developed by Chaos Works and Epic Games (when they were called Epic Megagames) and published by Electronic Arts (in the days when they went by their full title instead of just EA) in 1996. You control a white U-shaped fighter craft with a variety of weapons, and fly missions on various Single Biome Planets destroying ground and air targets and accomplishing specific other objectives, such as rescuing hostages. Simple enough.

The interesting inversion is in the plot- you work for The Empire, attempting to suppress the forces of La Résistance. In practice, The Empire is more The Federation and La Résistance are no heroic Ragtag Bunch of Misfits, so it winds up seeming like Gray and Grey Morality. But don't worry your head about that.

Fire Fight has some impressive-looking sprites, satisfying sound effects, excellent music, and decent dialogue. (You know, for a Shoot Em Up. Most don't have any.) Most importantly, it had a nice variety of missions, rather then just "blow up everything." Not that you can't do that, of course. Now get out there and show those rebel scum what's what!

Fire Fight provides examples of:

 * Bald of Awesome: Awesome is sort of stretching it, but your commanding officer isn't exactly a chump.
 * BFG: The Cannon. What more need be said? It's so potent that it blows your ship backwards when you fire it! Strangely enough, it's also the weapon with the least visual effects.
 * Boss Fight: Not as many as your typical Shoot Em Up, but they're around. They not only qualify as King Mooks, but also fire giant-sized versions of the lesser ships' weapons too.
 * Chase Scene: In one mission you must chase down a heavily-armored transport craft full of escaped prisoners through Techno Wreckage at high speed. Do you force it to land? No! You blow it up! Yeah! ... Wait.
 * Cool Shades: The player character.
 * Cool Starship: Your craft.
 * Deadpan Snarker: The player character.
 * Detect Evil: Rather then a radar display, you have a faint circle drawn around your ship made up of segments. If enemies draw near, one or more segments will light up.
 * Escort Mission: At one point your commander is ambushed while on a boat headed downriver. However, you need only destroy the mines in his way for success, the enemies aren't much threat to him and his ship moves fairly slowly, giving you plenty of time.
 * Eternal Engine: Some levels are equal parts this and Space Station.
 * Exploding Barrels: Even better, entire exploding fuel dumps.
 * Jungle Japes: The planet Jarventa.
 * Macross Missile Massacre: Your Swarmer weapon has this covered.
 * Mad Bomber: In some missions you work in conjunction with a demolitions specialist who really loves his job. Luckily, he's on your side.
 * Remilitarized Zone: The planet Darius is this, with a decidedly alpine bent.
 * Scenery Porn: considering the game's age, the small size of the developer studio and the intended market (nobody who made it is likely to have had illusions of Doom-scale fame), the scenarios are remarkably beautiful and the attention to detail in the artwork is amazing.
 * Space Friction: There are both in-atmosphere and space levels. Your ship can handle the same in both environments.
 * Stuff Blowing Up: Hoo boy
 * Voice With an Internet Connection: Besides the bald commander, you've also got a Sassy Redheaded woman who alternates with the commander giving you mission objectives and advice.