''Propeller Arena: Aviation Battle Championship'' is a

video game Video games, also known as computer games, are electronic games that involves interaction with a user interface or input device such as a joystick, controller, keyboard, or motion sensing device to generate visual feedback. This fee ...

for the Dreamcast console. It was originally titled Propeller Head Online, and was to be released on September 19, 2001. The game was trademarked on August 14, 2001. It was developed and completed by the development team Sega AM2, but the game was never officially released. The release was cancelled just days after the

September 11 attacks The September 11 attacks, commonly known as 9/11, were four coordinated suicide terrorist attacks carried out by al-Qaeda against the United States on Tuesday, September 11, 2001. That morning, nineteen terrorists hijacked four commercia ...

, citing both similarities in game packaging and design to the events of that day as well as the Dreamcast's declining market share resulting in projected low sales numbers. The game was on display at E3 on May 19, 2001. After it was postponed, they were working to change the game cover art to remove sensitive images. Hopes of a port to another console never materialized. However, a

disk image A disk image, in computing, is a computer file containing the contents and structure of a disk volume or of an entire data storage device, such as a hard disk drive, tape drive, floppy disk, optical disc, or USB flash drive. A disk image is us ...

of the game was eventually

leaked A leak is a way (usually an opening) for fluid to escape a container or fluid-containing system, such as a tank or a ship's hull, through which the contents of the container can escape or outside matter can enter the container. Leaks are usuall ...

, and became a popular download on many

peer-to-peer Peer-to-peer (P2P) computing or networking is a distributed application architecture that partitions tasks or workloads between peers. Peers are equally privileged, equipotent participants in the network. They are said to form a peer-to-peer n ...

networks.

Plot

In 2045, there is an air combat tournament with planes from the

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

era.

Characters

Several pilots join the tournament, each with their own reasons.

Gameplay

''Propeller Arena'' consists of quick

dog fight A dogfight, or dog fight, is an air combat manoeuvring, aerial battle between fighter aircraft conducted at close range. Dogfighting first occurred in Mexico in 1913, shortly after the invention of the airplane. Until at least 1992, it was a ...

deathmatches Deathmatch, also known as free-for-all, is a gameplay mode integrated into many shooter games, including first-person shooter (FPS), and real-time strategy (RTS) video games, where the goal is to kill (or "frag") the other players' characters a ...

in limited areas. The game has four modes: the main game, Championship, which is a sequence of dogfights; Quick Battle, a single dogfight; Training Arena, a number of training missions and minigames; and Network, the online mode. Beating the game and the training missions unlocks extra characters and levels. The game features force feedback via support for the Dreamcast Jump Pack.

Soundtrack

The game's soundtrack, consisting of punk rock, was created by both "branches" of Sega: a Japanese team (Sachio Ogawa and Tomoya Koga) had 13 songs composed and produced in-house, while an American team arranged a deal with the Fat Wreck Chords label to license nine songs from the bands Consumed,

Zero Down Zero Down was an American punk rock trio formed by former Strung Out bassist Jim Cherry, former Down by Law (band), Down by Law drummer Milo Todesco and former War Called Peace guitarist John McCree. Frontman Cherry (who was also guitarist and so ...

No Use for a Name No Use for a Name (sometimes abbreviated NUFAN or No Use) was an American punk rock band from Sunnyvale, California, United States formed in 1986 by Chris Dodge (guitar), Steve Papoutsis ( bass) and Rory Koff (drums). The band's sound evolved con ...

, Mad Caddies, and

Rise Against Rise Against is an American punk rock band from Chicago, formed in 1999. The group's current line-up comprises vocalist/rhythm guitarist Tim McIlrath, lead guitarist Zach Blair, bassist Joe Principe and drummer Brandon Barnes. Rooted in hardcor ...

. Some of Sega's original songs were remixed as instrumental versions and reused in their 2006 sports game ''

Virtua Tennis 3 ''Virtua Tennis 3'' (''Sega Professional Tennis: Power Smash 3'' in Japan) is the second arcade game sequel to Sega's tennis game franchise, ''Virtua Tennis''. The arcade version of ''Virtua Tennis 3'' is powered by the PC-based Sega Lindbergh a ...

''.

References

{{Reflist Action video games Cancelled Dreamcast games Dreamcast-only games Impact of the September 11 attacks on the video game industry Multiplayer and single-player video games Sega-AM2 games Video games developed in Japan Video games set in the 2040s

Plot

Characters

Gameplay

Soundtrack

See also

References