Sometimes it’s very clear when a game is built out of love for a franchise, or if the license was thrown in because the developers or publishers (usually publishers) because they think it will make more money. If you took out the logo from the title screen, I don’t think a single person would identify Combat Zones as a Top Gun game. A huge part of that is due to the presentation, or lack thereof.
When you start a mission, most of the screen is a fairly useless map. At the bottom is a small amount of text describing the mission, and it scrolls in an annoying way that makes it frustrating to read. This small bit of text is all you get in terms of any kind of story: there’s no dialogue, or cuts-scenes or anything to explain the overall narrative. There’s no substance to the game at all. To make matters worse, the graphics are just muddy and the music just exists. These wouldn’t be quite as major a complaint if it were just a random fighter jet game, but basing it off a film sets some expectations.
The missions themselves are also very, very dry. You blow up a certain number of enemies. Sometimes you have to blow up a few more enemies. And then the mission ends. Even protection missions involve killing a set amount of enemies. No matter the background or tiny bit of “story”, every mission feels exactly the same, and it gets tiring extremely fast. There are no major issues with the controls, which has a simpler option and one that uses both sticks to enable more advanced manoeuvres, although slightly touching the ground or another object is instant death and means you have to start the level from the very beginning. This is as fun as listening to Danger Zone on mute.