Battlestations: Midway

Battlestations: Midway offered an unusual combination of strategic command over a naval fleet with direct, action-based control of individual ships and aircraft, making it a hybrid between a tactical simulator and arcade action. In the campaign, the player follows the key battles of the American-Japanese war in the Pacific, deploys ships and squadrons on the map, and at crucial moments can switch into the cockpit of a torpedo bomber or onto the deck of a battleship to fight from the perspective of a single unit, before returning to the overall battle overview to decide the fleet's next move.

This link between the two layers of gameplay gave battles a dynamism that purely tactical simulators of the time didn't offer — the player could personally pilot a fighter squadron covering their own bombers, or directly man a battleship's anti-aircraft guns during a Japanese air raid and repel a wave of torpedo bombers before they could reach the player's own carriers. The graphical rendering of giant battleships, aircraft carriers, and dozens of simultaneously flying planes was impressive for its time, underscored by bold music that emphasized the epic character of the Pacific clashes. The campaign followed historical milestones from Pearl Harbor to the Battle of Midway, after which the game is named, with the player gradually working their way from early defeats to the decisive victories of the American navy.

Battlestations: Midway was received as a fresh and accessible take on naval warfare that managed to appeal even to players who would normally shy away from a typical strategy simulator. It's still valued today for its inventive genre mix and visually spectacular battles, even though it leans more toward fun action than deep simulation. For many players it was their first encounter with the subject of the Pacific naval war and served as an accessible gateway to the less arcade-like simulators of the same period. The quick switching between the strategic and action viewpoints also became a hallmark of the whole series and inspired the sequel, Battlestations: Pacific.

Why play it: For players who'd be put off by a classic strategy simulator but will appreciate an inventive mix of action and strategy, plus visually spectacular Pacific battles, as an accessible gateway into the subject.