Tiny Combat Arena

Tiny Combat Arena is a flight simulator, designed to be a much more accessible production than typical representatives of this genre. The project was developed by a developer known as Why485.

He began by creating modifications for Freelancer (e.g. Itano Circus) and Battlefield series, and later produced a number of small free productions such as Ivy Mike, Vector Fury or Vector Flight. Tiny Combat Arena is his first big commercial title and was produced in cooperation with MicroProse Software.

Game mechanics

The game lets you steer a fighter taking part in a fictional conflict from the Cold War period. Tiny Combat Arena has quite an extensive physics engine, which realistically reproduces the behavior of machines in the air, but the controls and gameplay mechanics are simple, so that even people for whom traditional flight simulators are too complicated to master can have fun.

Gameplay is facilitated by an extensive database, in which every unit taking part in the conflict is described, along with tactical advice on the best ways to eliminate them in battle.

Game modes

Tiny Combat Arena lets you play only solo and does not offer multiplayer. The main game mode is the Arena. In it, the game simulates a large armed conflict, shaped by the actions of both the player and the artificial intelligence. We can follow the course of the war on the strategic map and from this perspective we choose missions to execute, making decisions about which units to support and where our intervention is most needed.

The game also offers an extensive mission generator that allows players to quickly create standalone skirmishes.

Technical aspects

Tiny Combat Arena features unusual graphics, using purely vector graphics, with no textures. The production thus effectively recreates the atmosphere of PC flight simulators from the late 1980s and early 1990s. At the same time, the title offers numerous technological improvements, including a larger scale of clashes, more complex object and machine models, and smoother animation than what the computers of the time allowed.