Sonic Wings

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Sonic Wings

Promotional Flyer
Katakana ソニックウイングス
Developer Video System
Publisher Tecmo (JP)
Mc O'River (NA, as Aero Fighters)
Designer Shin Nakamura
Composer Naoki Itamura
Series Sonic Wings
Release date 1992
Genre Shooter
Control 8-way Joystick, 3 Buttons
Orientation Vertical
CPU Motorola 68000 @ 10 MHz
Sound Z80 @ 4 MHz
YM2610 @ 8 MHz
Display 15KHz

Sonic Wings (ソニックウイングス), known as Aero Fighters outside of Japan, is a shooting game made by Video System and released in 1992. It is the first game in the Sonic Wings series. Sonic Wings is considered the prototype game for Psikyo, as designer Shin Nakamura would go on to found Psikyo shortly after release and most of the creative team that worked on Sonic Wings would follow Nakamura to Psikyo.

Story

"The world's hope hinges on your combat skills and sheer determination as an 'Aero Fighter'. Defend the world from unknown alien forces that are attempting to take over the world. You must extract these unknown forces before they can execute their plot for dominance. After conquering the unknown forces, the battle continues into space where the 'controlling intellect' dictated the take-over attempt. You must seek and destroy this evil force to prevent it from seizing other worlds."[1]

Characters

There are a total of eight selectable characters, however players do not have completely free choice of which characters they may select. The pilots come in teams of two, and in a two-player game, both players must play as that team. Pilots are also locked to the 1P or 2P side.

Nation Player 1 Player 2
United States Blaster Keaton (F/A-18 Hornet) Keith Bishop (F-14 Tomcat)
Japan Hien (FSX] Mao Mao (F-15 Eagle)
Sweden Kohful The Viking (AJ-37) Tee-Bee 10 (JAS 39 Gripen)
United Kingdom Lord River N. White (Tornado IDS) Villiam Syd Pride (AV-8 Harrier II)

Gameplay

The first three stages of the game are randomly selected from the countries not of the pilot's origin. After the first three stages have been completed, the game becomes linear with every team completing the same stages in the same order.

The players' normal shot can be upgraded up to four times, however the fourth power level is only granted for a limited time. Players can carry a maximum of four bombs.

The game features a second loop with different endings for each loop.

Sequels

Sonic Wings ostensibly has two sets of sequels; one is the direct line of sequels released by Video System and the second is the Nakamura-released Psikyo spiritual sequels.

References

  1. Aero Fighters English SNES manual, as found at Sonic Wings - Sonic Wings Wiki

External Links