Now of course, this game features the board game as a play mode, but that's secondary gameplay. What could possibly be better than electronic Battleship (not be confused with the version of the board game featuring sound effects and flashing lights, of course)? How about a full campaign of turn-based naval strategy?
Here's the basics of the game:
1. Turns are passed between the human player and the AI controlled enemy player, during which the active player commands their entire fleet.
2. On a ship's turn, it can move or fire a weapon (more on this later).
3. When a ship takes damage to its systems (radar, sonar, bow guns, rudder, etc.), the player can order the crew to repair one system per turn.
4. Each mission has an objective and a time limit.
That doesn't seem like much, but there are several features that really make this game shine.
Movement
Movement in this game is true to nautical maneuvers. A ship that is rushing across the waters at 32 knots per hour cannot suddenly turn around or come to a stop. Odds are it won't even be able to turn at such high speeds. In order to turn, the ship must slow down first, though some highly maneuverable ships can make a high speed turn with a wide radius. Turning a ship around or bringing it to a stop takes a few turns.
This movement system adds authenticity to the experience. Its a simple mechanic that could have been easily overlooked, but its inclusion adds depth. A player must take care to keep his or her ships from colliding due to some oversight, providing increased tension and strategy into the most basic of mechanics. Also to be avoided are landmasses - if a ship hits land, it will be grounded there.
Firing
When the player moves in close enough to fire on an enemy, there's a percent chance that the main guns will hit. If luck is on the player's side, the ships will engage in active combat, changing the game screen from the overhead map into a minigame based on the fired weapon.
Main Guns and Torpedoes
The player is brought to the combat screen with the selected weapon and must aim at the enemy ship carefully while being fired upon. Successful fire may damage the enemy ship and take one of their systems offline (such as guns, ceasing their fire, or engines, stopping their movement across the screen). Main guns fire quickly, but damage to the player's guns will cause long pauses between each shot (or shut down the guns altogether). Torpedoes speed along the surface of the water, dealing a fair amount of damage if aimed correctly. Unlike the main guns, the player may fire several torpedoes in quick succession, but must wait for all torpedoes to hit or miss before firing another shot or adjusting the aim.
Missiles
Missiles are long range, instant kill strikes that require a fair amount of skill to score a hit with. Upon firing a missile, the screen changes to a chase camera following the fast-flying payload toward the enemy ship. However, the missile veers left or right at all times, and it's up to the player to keep it on course. There is no HUD, no targeting cursor, no direction to the target painted in 16-bit glory. The player must estimate how straight the missile is flying, correct it, and guide it in once the spot the ship. All in all, the only lasts a few seconds, but they are truly exhilarating ones.
Depth Charges
When the player encounters a submarine or decides to clear out a group of mines, depth charges come into play. The depth charge screen consists of a profile view of the player's ship passing over the dangers lurking below (the speed of this ship is based on the speed of this ship's last move on the top-down map). The player can set the desired depth to detonate the charge and launches the charge with the press of a button. If the charge explodes within range of its target, the enemy is destroyed.
All three of these combat mingames keep the game fresh, alive, and exciting, especially due to the enemy's turn - the enemy may also engage a ship within range of its main guns, launching the player into the combat screen. This forces the player to remain aware and alert at all times, especially during the enemy turn. Also, each weapon has its own ammo count. Once empty, that weapon cannot be used.
Sensors/Fog of War
During a ship's turn, only nearby ships are visible on the map. However, the player's limited vision is aided by radar and sonar, which share a small display in the bottom right of the screen that serves as something akin to a minimap. Distant ships are visible as green blips when the radar is active, while mines and submarines can only be seen as green blips when the sonar is active. The player can only view one sensor at a time, but it shows blips on both the main view and this little minimap.
Early missions require little use of these sensors, but as the player progresses, these sensors become increasingly important. One mission in particular takes place at night, cutting the player's vision almost completely, forcing the player to rely on their radar. If the player doesn't watch the sonar, a ship may haphazardly hit an underwater mine or come under surprise attack by submarine. Late missions take place over larger areas, requiring radar to view ships at the extent of a battle cruiser's range.
This feature really distinguishes Super Battleship due to it's ominous effects. There is no background music during a mission, only the blips of other ships and the rhythmic pings of the sonar (when in use). If the player is not wary of his own ships, he could fire upon himself. That alone is enough to make the player hesitate to fire. Only having one sensor active at a time allows submarines and mines to slip by undetected, bringing a victory tumbling down to a crushing defeat. All in all, the sensors add tension to a genre often lacking it.
The Minor Details
There's a plethora of minor details in this game that really make it shine. The time limit is a set number of turns to complete the mission, which prevents a player from "turtling." The time limit, while generous in most missions, keeps the player focused on their objective. Each turn also has its own (generous) timer that keeps the player involved. Taking too long on a turn can cause the remainder of your fleet not to act. The player is able to stop the timer by pausing, but can do nothing but view the current screen.
When the player gets too close to a shore battery controlled by the enemy, their ship comes under fire. A hit deals a set amount of damage. Destroying any building in a city is enough to capture it, turning it to a friendly harbor, offering the player the benefits of these shore batteries, as well as the ability to dock in the harbor. When a ship is in harbor, its weapons are restocked, allowing it to get back out into the fight.
The entire concept of ship damage adds an extra layer of strategy in combat. Does the player choose to take out the enemy guns first? Maybe they shoot out the engines first to make the guns easier to hit? This strategy is two-fold however: When the player's ship is damages, what should get repaired first? Fixing the guns allows the ship to defend itself, but without the fire control system, there's very little chance of landing a hit when going on the offensive. What if the sonar is out in mine-infested waters? How about the rudder? Each repair takes a full turn (the player's ship still gets to act, but the repair orders must be made in order to fix a damaged system), and which repair is done can be the decisive moment in the mission.
Another little detail that really sells the authenticity of Super Battleship is the map. When the player presses the button to view the world map, text appears for a few moments before transitioning to the map screen, "Communicating with satellite..."
The Bad Side
While I thoroughly enjoy Super Battleship, I must fault it for its control scheme. It has the slight excuse that it was a very early SNES game (thus, it came before certain standards arose), the buttons seem to be almost randomly assigned. The A Button and B Button both act as accept, moving cancel functionality to the Select Button. The X Button toggles your sensor, the Y Button cycles through weapons, and the R Button brings up the world map. While on the base menu for controlling a ship, pressing the Select Button switches to a secondary menu, offering the player a forfeit option, as well as the ability to view their entire fleet (a very useful menu screen, as it allows the player to issue repair commands to each ship all at once, ensuring that no ship sits idly by, remaining damaged unnecessarily). All in all, the controls are just screwy.
In Conclusion
All together, Super Battleship is a fine little gem from the early days of the SNES. It suffers from terrible controls, the complete lack of a tutorial (the standard of the time), and a mean difficulty right off the bat, but these flaws are easily overlooked once you get a feel for the game. It's a solid tactical game with a solidly nautical experience. In a word, it's authentic, so if you still have a SNES kicking around and wouldn't mind picking up a naval turn-based strategy, I'd strongly recommend grabbing a copy of Super Battleship. It'll take a bit to crack its shell, but there's quite the prize inside.
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