Pacific Wings (Android - XBOX 360 - PlayStation 4)

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Sturmvogel Prime
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Pacific Wings (Android - XBOX 360 - PlayStation 4)

Post by Sturmvogel Prime »

More "Trash'em Up" reviews.
This time is Pacific Wings.

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Another failed trip to the Old-school shooting.

Pacific Wings is a vertical shooter that borrows elements from Capcom's 194X series, in particulary 1942 and 1943 in a less funnier way as we're received with a mindless shootout against the enemy planes. Wish I could say 1941 Counter Attack which this game tries to resemble, but it lacks of all the cool features like the bomb attack and the super shot (charge) and leaves us with a boring vertical shooter where the objective is to reach the goal at the end of each stage. For some strange reason, the power up level of your P-38 Lightning is linked to the life bar, if you take a hit your firepower will lose power. But you don't have to worry about losing power since the game is extremely easy and you'll be finishing it without taking a single hit. You don't have bombs, but you have a 5 way shot that provides front and back fire along with the diagonal spread fire. The game is 20 stages long and to make things less fun, there's no bosses to fight on any of those 20 stages, it's pure waste and makes the task of finishing the game not worth the effort.



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CONGRATURATION
THIS STORY IS HAPPY END.
AND YOU ARE SPLENDED SPPERRIOUR CONSPCUOUS AND PERSISTENT PLAYER!
LET'S TRY ANYTHING ELSE WITHOUT THE VIDEO GAME.


After 20 levels of boring shmup action, this is all what you get. Even 1941 Counter Attack was more rewarding than this.
With the gameplay said an done, there's one last thing to talk about; the trophies. If you were expecting 12 or so, prepare for a great letdown since the game only has 4 trophies, just like the PS4 port of Star99, making the game a waste of money, space and time.

Graphically, it aims to be like Capcom's 1941 Counter Attack due to the bright, colorful palette resembling the CPS-1 hardware. This is mostly notorious on the Lightning's sprite. None of the ships are animated to give them the impression that they're flying as they look like fixed images sliding across the screen, killing the few positives of the graphic department of the game, the same goes for the modern "Stencil/military" font used rather than recreating the pixel made fonts.

The sound department treats you with one single song which is an attempt to make a suspense tune in military style which feels more like a poor man's version of John William's Star Wars score, to make things worse is the only thing you'll be hearing in 20 stages. The sound effects are a mix-up of things compared with the chiptuned 16-bit games which this game tries to be; the bullets sound like a crappy GameBoy game while the explosions sound like your typical popcorn enemy explosion.

An "Extra" feature of the XBOX/PS4 is the inclusion of a background that resembles an arcade cabinet in the arcade room, probably to justify the porting of an Android game to a console.


PACIFIC CURIOSITIES
- "Extra Life" is mispelled as "Extralife".
- The Energy Bar/Power Up relation is similar to the Shield/Ex. Shield mechanic in the Arcade Mode of Natsuki Chronicles.




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I guess I'll appreciate Nina's words this time.

In the end, Pacific Wings is not just trash. It's trash with a somewhat absurd price since it doesn't justify its cost with its very low play value and few trophies, although it has some Capcom-esque graphics that can be compared with 1943, good graphics alone doesn't make a good product.
If you're looking for "Apps for the mobile world" then is not with Sprakelsoft, behind that green, happy logo, there's trash hiding behind its disguise, waiting to steal your cash because 4 trophies aren't enough to justify its purchase.



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Painful to play and even to watch.
I know that, Lea.
Fan of Transformers, Shmups and Anime-styled Girls. You're teamed up with the right pilot!
Bringing you shmup and video game reviews with humorous criticism.

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