Top Gun

So does it have a beach volleyball minigame? Sadly not. Can you start a brawl with those pesky army types in the bar? Not in this game, I'm afraid. Can you shoot down planes while seminal cock-rock classic Danger Zone blares from your speakers and a wisecracking co-pilot whoops and yelps with every target hit? Well, yes, actually - much like the film, Top Gun is fuelled by aviators and testosterone, and when it hits the right notes (ie, when it belts out a guitar riff as you dart through exploding debris), it's an undeniably exciting arcade flyer.

Top Gun arrives from publishers Paramount Digital Entertainment and developer Doublesix, best known for their work on Burn Zombie Burn. It's convenient, if a little dismissive, to describe this as HAWX-lite. 11 missions span three campaigns - Prologue, Flight School and Indian Ocean. The script and the dialogue have been penned by the movie's writer, Jack Epps Junior, and loosely follows the same plot bar a few key changes. For a start, they've added a nemesis in Ivan, a devious Russian counterpart who'll appear as a "boss character" in the single player campaign. They've also scrapped the love story (convenient, as you play an unloveable and unseeable mute version of Maverick), and added a whole lot more firing at boats. If you're wondering which bit of the plot is left intact: it's the bit where Goose smashes his head and dies.

So, plot aside, the actual flying is light and responsive, handling much as you'd expect, with missile lock-ons and leading reticules in full swing. Six jet fighters are available, three American and three Russian, and each varies in its manoeuvrability and speed. HAWX comparisons arise again here, with a CFI mode effectively mirroring the "off" mode of Ubisoft's title - whack the circle button and your plane becomes more agile, but slightly less controllable, as the camera turns to face your target and your jet carves dramatic arcs in the sky.

Custom loadouts are also an option, though weapons don't extend beyond missiles and cannons - both of which are infinite. Your health regenerates over time, rounding off the game's arcade stylings and cementing Top Gun's place as a pick-up-and-play downloadable title. As well as this, a "Horde mode" features endless waves of enemies of escalating difficulty.

Fairly standard stuff, admittedly. A paucity of ambition is probably the biggest criticism I can muster against Top Gun in its current state, as it straddles that odd valley of quality between the cheap thrills of throwaway PSN games and full-price titles. Online options provide some longevity - 16 players across five game modes: Deathmatch, Team Deathmatch, Capture the Flag, Top Gun and Bombing Run - while the single player campaign itself is mooted to last somewhere between five and seven hours. The maps themselves, particularly the Arizona arena, provide more than just a 50 square kilometre backdrop: canyons and bridges can be used in multiplayer to shake off enemies, and in the Bombing Run game mode the defending team must destroy a bomber as it makes its way through the narrow canyon leading to the base.

Top Gun is coming to PSN, PC and Mac in the US on August 17th, with a UK and European release expected shortly after - the asking price is yet to be confirmed. While it might not be as bombastic as HAWX, or as pretty as Ace Combat, Top Gun can surely find its place in the sky as the only one of the three to feature Danger Zone in its soundtrack. And that counts for a lot more than you might think.