New Sonic Wings/Aero Fighters game by SUCCESS

[Jeneki]

Careful, Spanky may notice this discussion.

[Steven]

Yeah, sealing is when you get close to enemies to prevent them from shooting. Some games have it and some don't, but it's been around for a long time; the earliest game that I know of that has it is Gyrodine from 1984 (also the earliest game that I have played that has practical internal autofire), but I wouldn't be surprised if there was something earlier that has it. Battle Garegga's rank famously increases when you do it in that game.

Each ship has a different speed, though, with I think Whity the dolphin being the fastest. I agree that the only meaningful choice is to pick a fast ship in this case.

As for sealing, I am actually not sure, since it can be hard to read the screen clutter at times. I haven't rigorously tested whether or not there's bullet sealing. I can say that there is no bullet sealing in the 1997 Sonic Wings Limited

Yeah, that makes whatever ship is the fastest the best ship in the game for scoring. I'm guessing that getting a pacifist 1-ALL is automatically going to give the player a higher score than whatever the most optimal non-pacifist 2-ALL is (I'm guessing 100% destruction rate, no miss, least bombs used, and 2X multiplier for as much of the game as possible). That is... highly questionable game design, I think. At least it should be pretty easy to test sealing on the ships and turrets on some of the stages.

I'd be lying if I said the discovery of this pacifist bonus hasn't intrigued me and made me interested in playing the game some more for the lolz. Maybe I'll try to pick up whatever version I can find cheapest, whether on a Steam sale or a used console version. Maybe I'll get the Switch version and not patch it just so I can try to crash the game! I enjoy kusoge if they are the type that can be enjoyed for how bad they are and I'm not sure if this game qualifies, but it might.

[xEbb1993x]

I don't care how much shit you people throw at this game. I'm still gonna get this game regardless.

[EmperorIng]

For what it's worth, I have put many hours into this game

[Steven]

For what it's worth, I have put many hours into this game

But were those hours worth it? I guess it's (probably) better than most of the STGs in the NES version of Action 52, at least. Not too familiar with the Genesis version. Maybe that one's better!

[xEbb1993x]

As always, you people are way too negative...

[Steven]

Realistic and sarcastic, not negative or sardonic.

Having actually spent money that I earned to not only play this game but to spend time and additional money to physically travel to a location where I could play what should have been the coolest and best version of the game, the arcade version, this game is terrible and not deserving of that money for the reasons that were mentioned earlier. Here is the recap:

• extremely low visibility because the enemies blend in too perfectly with the background

• either enemy HP is way too high or the player is always too weak even at max power, resulting in external autofire being recommended even though this game has internal autofire over 30 years after internal autofire became standard

• the graphics and animations make the game look unfinished

• the scoring system is an unnecessary mess that contradicts itself

• the Switch version supposedly barely works properly and can crash. They knew about this prior to launch, as noted on the official website, which means they knowingly shipped a partially defective product. At least this can and will be patched and can be avoided until then. Hope you don't use Mao Mao's bomb by accident when the boss dies in the meantime!

• the arcade version, which should have ideally been the best one, or at least lived up to the standards of the previous arcade Sonic Wings games at bare minimum, has massive input lag, enough stuttering to get the player killed when the game just stops updating the screen entirely for at least one full second and makes the player think the game has crashed, and performance issues that would be considered unacceptable for an arcade STG, making it most likely one of the worst non-bootleg STGs ever released in Japanese arcades, and I know of and have played at least one bootleg that was released in Japanese arcades that is actually a better game than this.

BTW I'm kind of looking for the PCB for this bootleg game, and quite unsuccessfully, so if anyone has it and doesn't want it, let me know~

There is also the issue of the low difficulty. Not everything needs to be Inbachi and it's cool to have some entry-level games, but it would be nice for this game to actually try to kill the player prior to the stage before the last stage, so the game feels really empty and boring most of the time. It is hard to call this a fault outright, as this may have been intentional and the game gets much harder later in the game, though I have no idea why this difficulty design would be intended, especially for an arcade game, unless this game was specifically meant for beginning players, and if it was, I'd redirect new players to RefRain, Kamui, Hishouzame, Thunder Force AC, Battle Garegga Premium (with optional bullet color change if desired), Crimzon Clover novice, or Saidaioujou novice instead, as those are all much better beginner games that have none of the problems that this game has. Maybe even regular Daifukkatsu, as that game's one of the easier arcade STGs around, even with those infamous laser wheels, and the novice mode on that is basically a free clear on your first time.

I guess this game has music. I could not hear it over the noise of the arcade, so I don't know if it is good or bad or if it is even there at all, so at least I can spare it that criticism.

Someone could look at this and say "this game is good!", or maybe even "this game is not completely terrible!", although I have absolutely no idea how, and maybe that's you, but I think most humans are going to nope out of this game for these reasons, if at least only mentally, partway through stage 2 or 3 at the latest. I'm not trying to be mean or whatever, but this is how the game is in its current state and it is extremely hard (or impossible) to deny this when the list of good things about the game consists mostly of "the non-Switch versions probably don't crash" and not a whole lot else. Where are the other positive aspects of this game? I guess the stage design isn't too bad, at least when I can see what is going on.

The confusing state of this game is its sole redeeming aspect, I think; it should not have been released in this state, yet it was. Someone somehow looked at this and said it was okay to release in this form even though they probably shouldn't have. I have mentioned my love of bad games before many times, such as Sonic R, and I actually enjoy bad games because they are bad, as that makes them fun, albeit in a strange and unconventional fashion, and this is a bad game. That doesn't mean that you can't have fun with this game, but most of the fun here is not from enjoyable gameplay but at laughing at how broken and dysfunctional almost every aspect of this game is.

As I said earlier, this game could be fixed! It probably wouldn't even be exceptionally hard to do so as the base game is mechanically sound in most aspects! This is probably the most frustrating thing about this game, at least to me. As I also said earlier, I think deleting loop 1 and starting in what is currently loop 2 and improving both the player's ability to kill things and also the visibility of everything would be a good start, and it wasn't that hard to come up with this idea at all. Whether or not it will be fixed is another matter, and doing so would have to be financially viable and sufficient to overcome the game's already negative reception.

[xEbb1993x]

Maybe not so negative on this thread, but on other threads I see a lot more negativity…

[PC Engine Fan X!]

Realistic and sarcastic, not negative or sardonic.

Having actually spent money that I earned to not only play this game but to spend time and additional money to physically travel to a location where I could play what should have been the coolest and best version of the game, the arcade version, this game is terrible and not deserving of that money for the reasons that were mentioned earlier. Here is the recap:

• extremely low visibility because the enemies blend in too perfectly with the background

• either enemy HP is way too high or the player is always too weak even at max power, resulting in external autofire being recommended even though this game has internal autofire over 30 years after internal autofire became standard

• the graphics and animations make the game look unfinished

• the scoring system is an unnecessary mess that contradicts itself

• the Switch version supposedly barely works properly and can crash. They knew about this prior to launch, as noted on the official website, which means they knowingly shipped a partially defective product. At least this can and will be patched and can be avoided until then. Hope you don't use Mao Mao's bomb by accident when the boss dies in the meantime!

• the arcade version, which should have ideally been the best one, or at least lived up to the standards of the previous arcade Sonic Wings games at bare minimum, has massive input lag, enough stuttering to get the player killed when the game just stops updating the screen entirely for at least one full second and makes the player think the game has crashed, and performance issues that would be considered unacceptable for an arcade STG, making it most likely one of the worst non-bootleg STGs ever released in Japanese arcades, and I know of and have played at least one bootleg that was released in Japanese arcades that is actually a better game than this.

BTW I'm kind of looking for the PCB for this bootleg game, and quite unsuccessfully, so if anyone has it and doesn't want it, let me know~

There is also the issue of the low difficulty. Not everything needs to be Inbachi and it's cool to have some entry-level games, but it would be nice for this game to actually try to kill the player prior to the stage before the last stage, so the game feels really empty and boring most of the time. It is hard to call this a fault outright, as this may have been intentional and the game gets much harder later in the game, though I have no idea why this difficulty design would be intended, especially for an arcade game, unless this game was specifically meant for beginning players, and if it was, I'd redirect new players to RefRain, Kamui, Hishouzame, Thunder Force AC, Battle Garegga Premium (with optional bullet color change if desired), Crimzon Clover novice, or Saidaioujou novice instead, as those are all much better beginner games that have none of the problems that this game has. Maybe even regular Daifukkatsu, as that game's one of the easier arcade STGs around, even with those infamous laser wheels, and the novice mode on that is basically a free clear on your first time.

I guess this game has music. I could not hear it over the noise of the arcade, so I don't know if it is good or bad or if it is even there at all, so at least I can spare it that criticism.

Someone could look at this and say "this game is good!", or maybe even "this game is not completely terrible!", although I have absolutely no idea how, and maybe that's you, but I think most humans are going to nope out of this game for these reasons, if at least only mentally, partway through stage 2 or 3 at the latest. I'm not trying to be mean or whatever, but this is how the game is in its current state and it is extremely hard (or impossible) to deny this when the list of good things about the game consists mostly of "the non-Switch versions probably don't crash" and not a whole lot else. Where are the other positive aspects of this game? I guess the stage design isn't too bad, at least when I can see what is going on.

The confusing state of this game is its sole redeeming aspect, I think; it should not have been released in this state, yet it was. Someone somehow looked at this and said it was okay to release in this form even though they probably shouldn't have. I have mentioned my love of bad games before many times, such as Sonic R, and I actually enjoy bad games because they are bad, as that makes them fun, albeit in a strange and unconventional fashion, and this is a bad game. That doesn't mean that you can't have fun with this game, but most of the fun here is not from enjoyable gameplay but at laughing at how broken and dysfunctional almost every aspect of this game is.

As I said earlier, this game could be fixed! It probably wouldn't even be exceptionally hard to do so as the base game is mechanically sound in most aspects! This is probably the most frustrating thing about this game, at least to me. As I also said earlier, I think deleting loop 1 and starting in what is currently loop 2 and improving both the player's ability to kill things and also the visibility of everything would be a good start, and it wasn't that hard to come up with this idea at all. Whether or not it will be fixed is another matter, and doing so would have to be financially viable and sufficient to overcome the game's already negative reception.

Here's a Comad Gulf War II jamma pcb that needs to be fixed -- it was definitely sold & distributed by Comad of South Korea and is a genuine jamma pcb through and through (in fact, it was sold in the USA through a certain arcade distributor by the name of "Four J International Co." back in September of 1991): https://www.ebay.com/itm/256582808027?_ ... R8LA1_rvZQ

and another one for cheaper listed here: https://skdg.mednude.mom/index.php?main ... s_id=28349

PC Engine Fan X! ^_~

[Basil]

Maybe not so negative on this thread, but on other threads I see a lot more negativity…

Here's my two cents, though I can't speak for everyone: I'm very passionate about STGs, but that doesn't mean that I'll be willfully blind to a game's flaws, even if I like it. Rather, I think being able to recognize where a game (or any other media) falls short and still accept and love it anyway is the mark of a true, genuine fan. I'll tear into a game, sure, but that's usually from a place of affection, not disgust. The fact of the matter is that nowadays we have a deluge of options when it comes to shoot-em-ups to play from both contemporary releases and yesteryear. I was keeping an eye on this Sonic Wings release because I had fun playing one of the older games back when I was just emulating oldies on my laptop. Looking at the final product presented here, this just ain't it, chief. My free time would be better spent playing something else. Not because it's bad, but because it's mediocre, which is arguably even worse.

[xEbb1993x]

Maybe not so negative on this thread, but on other threads I see a lot more negativity…

Here's my two cents, though I can't speak for everyone: I'm very passionate about STGs, but that doesn't mean that I'll be willfully blind to a game's flaws, even if I like it. Rather, I think being able to recognize where a game (or any other media) falls short and still accept and love it anyway is the mark of a true, genuine fan. I'll tear into a game, sure, but that's usually from a place of affection, not disgust. The fact of the matter is that nowadays we have a deluge of options when it comes to shoot-em-ups to play from both contemporary releases and yesteryear. I was keeping an eye on this Sonic Wings release because I had fun playing one of the older games back when I was just emulating oldies on my laptop. Looking at the final product presented here, this just ain't it, chief. My free time would be better spent playing something else. Not because it's bad, but because it's mediocre, which is arguably even worse.

That so? I still want to get this game when it comes out here in October.

[EmperorIng]

As I suspected, someone on twitter used a cheat engine to see what happens with the stacking pacifist bonus, and lo!


That's right! Now that is what I call a nostalgic throwback! We got loops! We got lots of characters! We got ass graphics! And we even got an ass scoring system! It's the dadshmup you've been waiting for!

The race for the legit counterstop is ON now! "Survive" to 2-5, and use your stockpile of lives and bombs to steamroll the last few stages. Then JHA can close the boards on this game forevermore

[Tokyo-J]

Honestly, I love this POS game. I keep coming back to it. Not really playing for score. Beat the first loop on 2 creds without involving myself much. Just mindless fun at this point.

[Hazuki]

I guess the game can still be played for score. Just add a subcategory that bans pacifist bonuses. But ass scoring isn't the only problem with the game...

[PC Engine Fan X!]

With the Switch port of Sonic Wings Reunion, what 3rd-party external 30Hz auto-fire device is used to blitz through it?

PC Engine Fan X! ^_~

[Some-Mist]

I'm waiting for a discount. when watching one playthrough the only thing that bugged me a lot is how easily/fast the bosses were dying.
sucks if the scoring system isn't that great, but I still wanna check it out

[Shatterhand]

I don't know if anyone cares about this, but as this was a point of discussion on the Truxton Extreme thread.

Sonic Wings Reunion was also made in Unity.

[BareKnuckleRoo]

With the Switch port of Sonic Wings Reunion, what 3rd-party external 30Hz auto-fire device is used to blitz through it?

Any rapid fire controller that has this function should work. I don't think there's many native Switch options for that, but I've had tremendous success with a Mayflash Magic NS adapter to use 360 arcade sticks with the Switch when playing docked, so something like that would open up controller options with rapid fire support.

[EmperorIng]

I am thinking about this game less and less, feels good! Looking forward to the first counterstop made.

Sonic Wings Reunion was also made in Unity.

Made in Unity, and doesn't even have keybindings! I have worked on Unity indie games where the devs have enough sense to let you bind keys to your liking, lol.

[Shatterhand]

I am thinking about this game less and less, feels good! Looking forward to the first counterstop made.

Sonic Wings Reunion was also made in Unity.

Made in Unity, and doesn't even have keybindings! I have worked on Unity indie games where the devs have enough sense to let you bind keys to your liking, lol.

I'm ok with a shmup not giving me the option to change the key bindings.... as long as you use the obvious arrows + ZXC.

I asked here about a year ago if anyone would use WASD to play a shmup and the general answer was "Of course not, that's a dumb question"

[Light1000]

I am thinking about this game less and less, feels good! Looking forward to the first counterstop made.

Sonic Wings Reunion was also made in Unity.

Made in Unity, and doesn't even have keybindings! I have worked on Unity indie games where the devs have enough sense to let you bind keys to your liking, lol.

I'm ok with a shmup not giving me the option to change the key bindings.... as long as you use the obvious arrows + ZXC.

I asked here about a year ago if anyone would use WASD to play a shmup and the general answer was "Of course not, that's a dumb question"

This always confused me... arrow keys are pretty un-intuitive for any person who has always used controllers where the movement controls are on the left side and not on the right. Even on PC, WASD is universally used for movement in every game aside from shmups as far as I can see...
For games without key rebinds I use external software (microsoft powertoys) to re-route my keyboard keys.

[Shatterhand]

I am thinking about this game less and less, feels good! Looking forward to the first counterstop made.



Made in Unity, and doesn't even have keybindings! I have worked on Unity indie games where the devs have enough sense to let you bind keys to your liking, lol.

I'm ok with a shmup not giving me the option to change the key bindings.... as long as you use the obvious arrows + ZXC.

I asked here about a year ago if anyone would use WASD to play a shmup and the general answer was "Of course not, that's a dumb question"

This always confused me... arrow keys are pretty un-intuitive for any person who has always used controllers where the movement controls are on the left side and not on the right. Even on PC, WASD is universally used for movement in every game aside from shmups as far as I can see...
For games without key rebinds I use external software (microsoft powertoys) to re-route my keyboard keys.

I only see WASD being used on FPS, or games that requires keyboard + mouse.

Every 2D platform game i've played on PC that I tried keyboard control that I can remember uses arrow keys. Every 2D beat'em up. Every racing game. Every fighting game. Every sports game. It's something that's the normal since the MS-DOS gaming days. I just don't know when the action buttons switched from CTRL/ALT/SHIFT/SPACE to Z/X/C/V (sometimes QWEASD, sometimes Space Bar/Shift, but Z/X/C/V is the more common).... I first saw Japanese games using ZXCV, but then at some point it became very common. I guess adding the Windows key between Ctrl and Alt made that option really bad for gaming.

[EmperorIng]

I know some people who use WASD, I know some people who use the numpad to move and use other buttons to do stuff. The point is that a game (especially in an engine that easily allows keybinds) SHOULD let you do just that!

[Steven]

There is absolutely no reason that any game released after like 1990 shouldn't support complete control rebinding on every system without having to use external software to do so. A surprising number of Genesis/MD games have it, and of course Super Metroid has it, and now console games have regressed in basic control remapping since then. Meanwhile on PC you do can whatever you want, which is how it always should have been, although you may have to use Joy2Key or something, which is still better than nothing.

I got Death Stranding 2 and of course Kojima decided to change the controls from how they are in Death Stranding and now my muscle memory is all messed up and I don't think the game allows custom controls. What an annoyance...

And yes, WASD > arrow keys.

Sonic Wings Reunion was also made in Unity.

Made in Unity, and doesn't even have keybindings! I have worked on Unity indie games where the devs have enough sense to let you bind keys to your liking, lol.

...you may have just unsold me on getting the PC version, and therefore the game itself. Whyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy do they do this... I guess I can use a Saturn controller or something, at least.