Cheap Thrills

Let’s face it, not all of us can afford to spend upwards of $100 on a good flight stick. But we still want to play the games, and not have to worry about our joystick crapping out. Most cheap sticks are uncomfortable, have poor button placement, and generally don’t feel solid. The Thrustmaster Top Gun Platinum seems to defy the industry by giving the gamer a great joystick, without the high price tag. The Top Gun boasts a proven grip design, emulating the venerable F-4 Phantom. There are 4 buttons, a 4-way hat switch, and a throttle wheel. The base is wide, and heavily weighted to prevent tipping during heated dogfighting. Button placement is about as perfect as it can get, giving the gamer access to the 4 buttons as well as the 4-way hat switch without changing grip on the stick. All of this comfort comes at a price, as left-handed pilots will have to look elsewhere. 

Jester’s dead

I must say, the reference to the 80’s smash hit movie, Top Gun, may be getting a little weak. Sure Maverick and Goose were pretty damn cool then, but it may be time to find a new logo. Cheesey marketing aside, does the Top Gun Platinum make the grade as a flight stick? Well, that depends on what kind of a gamer you are. If you find yourself faulting a flight sim for not accurately modeling the drag induced by an external fuel tank, well, perhaps the Top Gun Platinum may not be for you. But you probably already knew that. The Platinum is for the more forgiving, casual sim pilot, who wants something more than a 2-button standard joystick from Wal-Mart. If this is you, then the Top Gun might be your stick.

How does it fly?

The Top Gun Platinum installs just like any other Windows 98 joystick. Thrustmaster provides an installation CD-ROM, and after a few mouse clicks you’ll find the Top Gun listed under the controller menu. The stick attaches via the standard joystick port. I would have liked to see the USB option, since hot swapping controllers is the only way to go. After I finished the installation, I launched the calibration utilty. After the standard “full left, full right, click this button” routine, I was ready to try this thing in a game.

The first game I tried was the genreal aviation sim, Fly! by Terminal Reality. The stick proved to be smooth and accurate, but the lack of any rudder control was disapointing. The software allows for the throttle to be remapped as the rudder, but I found that to be a pointless trade-off. Otherwise, the Platinum performed well. I noticed very little drift, and the calibration remained crisp throughout the session. Though a yoke would have better suited the game, I found this stick to be a fine substitute.

After a few landings, I loaded up Jane’s USAF. This would be tough test for the Platinum, since this sim is focused around modern fighter jets. Spending a lot of time hunting for keys will spell certain death in this game. Again, the most nagging problem was the lack of rudder control, but this is not a problem of the Platinum. Most stick don’t have rudder control, the exception being the Microsoft Sidewinder series. Rudder aside, the stick was adequate, with the 4 buttons, and the hat-switch providing just enough control to aleviate a lot of the keyboard hunting. The Platinum was more at home in the fighter role, and it looks the part, too. Throughout both flying sessions, the stick performed flawlessly. The buttons gave a nice click when depressed, and the throttle had a wide enough range of motion to allow subtle adjustments of power during those critical phases of flight. The heavy base kept the Top Gun firmly planted on my desk, not tipping even under the most rigorous manuevers.