Desert Falcon

Desert Falcon casts the player as a legendary falcon flying over a desert landscape inspired by ancient Egypt, fighting hordes of enemies emerging from pyramids, temples, and sand dunes. The game combines smooth horizontal flight with the gradual collection of power-ups that upgrade weapons or temporarily change the falcon's appearance and abilities, giving the player motivation to experiment with different styles of flying through the levels and to search for hidden bonuses tucked away in individual scenes. In addition to direct shooting, enemies can also be destroyed by collecting special symbols scattered across the screen, which sets the game apart from purely shooting-focused titles and adds an element of collecting and planning.

On the Atari 7800 the game benefits from a colorful, thematically cohesive visual style, where Egyptian motifs of statues, hieroglyphs, and pyramids form the backdrop to a constant stream of enemies arriving in waves, giving individual levels a strong visual identity. The falcon's movement is smooth and controller response is immediate, which is essential for this type of action; the shot and hit sound effects are economical but functional, and the music enhances the exotic, desert atmosphere of the game throughout the flight. As the levels progress, the scenery changes from open dunes to the interiors of ancient structures, adding needed variety to the gameplay.

Desert Falcon was among the titles developed specifically for the Atari 7800, rather than a port of an arcade original, which set it apart in the console's catalog from many other games built on already-established arcade brands. The thematic setting in ancient Egypt was fairly unconventional among shoot 'em ups at the time and gave the game a visual identity distinct from the space shooters the genre was full of. Today the game stands out for its distinctive visual style and offers a pleasant, well-paced shooter for short play sessions, ideal even for players just starting out with the genre.

Why play it: For its distinctive Egyptian visual style and well-paced gameplay, suited even to players just starting out with the shooter genre.