There are also hidden items that let you pause the game and select a new wing. The difficulty is also much lower, so you can actually play around with the different weapons. Many levels, including the first, allow you to equip the wing before you even begin playing (or upon respawn). There are also three secret wings found throughout the stages: SS (Staring Silver), AH (Aurora Harrier), and OB (Oct-Blaster). The biggest change is the addition of several extra wings: Hammer, Dyna, and Fire. The manual adds a brief backstory, too, giving the name FX-1 to your ship, as it fights against the evil Gobunasu. It’s not a direct port, but rather a heavily revamped (and improved) take on the same concept. It’s not an attractive game, but it is a unique one, and one that gives the impression that you’re fighting a frighteningly foreign menace.ī-Wings was ported to the Famicom in 1986. More disconcerting is how angular everything looks – even the round objects have 45 degree angles, which give the enemies, particularly the multi-segmented bosses, a particularly robotic look. Most of the levels have a dim, golden brown color palette, which changes slightly through the areas. You’ll usually need some kind of wing in order to hit them, though, as your default weapon just can’t reach the mark.ī-Wings is a bizarre looking game. Most of the larger enemies have big, glowing weak points, either on the front or the side, and targeting these is the only way to kill them. The controls are also floaty, as your ship has a small sense of inertia. Enemy attacks are relentless, and just being able to grab the first wing in the initial stage without getting killed in the process is a minor accomplishment. In fact, considering the wings are the game’s central feature, it seems to go out of its way to make sure you don’t get to use them. The wings also make your ship a larger target, and if any enemy or bullet scrapes it, it’ll become damaged and make the whole ship difficult to control unless you ditch them. If you try, you’ll simply jettison your wing, leaving you in your default, feeble state. The Ground weapon lets you attack them with bombs, and is the only way you can easily destroy these enemies.Ĭomplicating matters further, you can’t dive with a wing equipped. You can only fire a single shot when you dive, as well, which makes these foes difficult to hit. There are also enemies that inhabit the ground layer – these are technically harmless as long as you stay in the sky, but you need to watch out for them when you swoop down. However, the landscape is filled with walls and fortresses, so you really need to be careful when doing this, otherwise you’ll crash. By pressing the secondary button, your ship will temporarily swoop to the ground, which is handy for dodging airborne enemy shots. As with Xevious, the screen is divided into two layers, the sky and the ground. While the wing concept is a great idea, the rest of the game is a mishmash of designs that don’t really work. Compare this to Tehkan’s Star Force, for example, which only offered one power-up that enabled rapid fire. The number of weapons is mighty impressive for an arcade game from 1984. The Barrier is short range but has a thick spread that can propel enemies before they get too close. Most of them fire in multiple directions – for example, the Anti weapon fires two shots forward and one backwards, while Side will fire one bullet up and two shots to the left and right. There are eight wings in total in the arcade version: Multi, Side, Ground, Anti, Cannon, Jump, Wide, and Barrier. You begin the game unequipped, but you can find them during gameplay, and certain levels will let you select one at the start. As the title suggests, the main draw is the ability to equip your ship with a number of wings, which affect both your ship’s shape and its weapon. B-Wings (which stands for “Battle Wings”) is an early vertical shoot-em-up from Data East.
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