Curse You! Red Baron

A Sopwith Camel with training wheels

Dynamix's Red Baron franchise has been a standard bearer for the WWI flight sim since it first hit the shelves in the early '90s. The most recent chapter--1ast year's Red Baron 3D--brought a much needed facelift to the series by adding overdue 3D acceleration to complement the 22 flyable aircraft, dynamic campaign and multiplayer environment.

The hardcore stick-and-rudder set ate up these features but, for a lot of casual flight sim fans, it was all a bit too challenging. RB-3D rewarded novices with death and embarrassment, whether at the hands of the sim's highly proficient AI pilots or deadlier human foes.

Enter Curse You! Red Baron, a de-fanged and reconstituted version of the old warhorse with a friendly flight model built with the gamepad crowd in mind. (The box proclaims proudly that no joystick is required). Although an unabashedly stripped down version of RB-3D with only eight flyable planes and no campaign or multiplayer support, it still has enough going for it to merit the consideration of casual pilots.

Four easy-to-play modes are provided: Training, Dogfight, Red Baron Challenge and Hot Seat (in which up to six players take turns replaying the same scenario for top-score bragging rights). By simplifying the flight model and offering arcade gameplay options, casual gamers can experience the immersive Red Baron dogfighting environment without the need for hours of training.

Despite Dynamix's claim that Curse You! is "fun for the whole family", the game shouldn't be confused with conventional action/adventures. No splashy pyrotechnics or special effects accompany your attempts to down an AI opponent and terrain graphics are singularly bland and unexciting (as befits the war torn French countryside during WWI). You control a single aircraft and your only goal-- regardless of what game mode you choose--is to shoot down another plane or planes before you get shot down yourself. Although this activity might be appealing to closet flight-sim fans who consider hard-core titles too difficult and inaccessible, gamers seeking coin-op style eye and ear candy should look elsewhere.

Neverthelss, Curse You! Red Baron may well be the beginning of a new trend among flight sim publishers. By generating extra mileage from the expensive graphics and physics engines developed for their signature titles, additional revenue can be created to seed development of new, full-featured sims. In this respect, games like CYRB can offer a win-win situation for everyone involved. Hard core sim fans get better titles and the arcade crowd an combat flight game-one in which the dogfights are actually winnable.

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