Tell me About Sonic Wings Special - PS1

[Rob79]

What are your opinions of this game ? Yay or Nay ? Worth getting ?
Im thinking of getting it in PS1 NTSC-J format.

[Thunder Force]

Varied aircraft selection keeps things interesting, otherwise it's a fairly vanilla older (non bullet hell) style tate shmup. Certainly worth having in your collection if you can pick it up for a decent price, but the frequent slowdown using some planes was bad enough to hurt my enjoyment of the game in the long run.

[CIT]

It's sort of a "best-of Sonic Wings remix edition" kinda game, as a lot of stages, aircraft and bosses are from older Sonic Wings games, plus lotsa new extra content. Lots of unlockable aircraft, and different routes through the game give it good replay value. By far the best of all Sonic Wings games!

...

However that still doesn't mean it's a great shooter...

Think of it as a poor man's Strikers 1945.

[Rob79]

Thanks guys.
I cant seem to find anything on youtube to see if I may like it.

I love Vertical shooter as well as war shmups.

[Rob]

Cool signature, I think it's the biggest around here.

Game sucks.

[lgb]

Expecting a "METAL SLUG IS NOT A SHUMP" soon.

Never played it. Makes me a poor player I guess. Whatever.

[D]

SWS is plain awesome. Everybody is hating on it, but nobody can say really why. It might be a bit unbalanced, but so what?
I consider this game to be a prequal to Strikers 1945.

[Rob]

nobody can say really why.

Tons of bland ships, bland stages, bland everything. It's the most mediocre shooter series of all-time and this is the "special" version that unsurprisingly isn't any better than any Sonic Wings. Special = excuse for more bland crap.

[Herr Schatten]

If you like early Psikyo, SWS is fine. By far the best Sonic Wings / Aero Fighters game.

[spadgy]

I love Vertical shooter as well as war shmups.

I fit into that catogory too, and do really like this. To me it's not as good as Strikers and the like at alla nice average game!, but it's a decent enough war shmup.

My opinion might be influenced by fond memories as my favourite old club that was like a ska/dub/punk/skinhead place oddly had Sonic Wings in a machine near the bar (Any other Londoners here ever go to the Goldsmiths Tavern before it became a trendy wine bar?) and it seemed like a dream be able to dance like a twat and play shmups in the same room...

An average game, but

[Shatterhand]

If you like early Psikyo, SWS is fine. By far the best Sonic Wings / Aero Fighters game.

Yes.

It's on the same vein of the early Psikyo, but better crafted and more balanced. I had lots of good time with this game.

[Kaiser]

Heck yes, get it, it is a good game.... i did 1cc it already but it was so fun.... the another dimension final stage was hard as nuts, it WAS bullet hell, can't forget about it since the music makes you feel nervous and intensive only in that level

[captain ahar]

i think gameplay wise it is below the the classic psikyo efforts, but the game is still pretty fun.

its been awhile so i might be remembering wrong, but one of the more interesting things (to me) is that medals need to picked up at the very tippy-top of screen to receive max value. makes playing through the levels a whole other animal.

one thing that really irritated me about it though is the weapon system. for most all the characters "ammunition" is limited in the most powerful teir, some of the characters lose strength in the second highest (i think one even constantly degrades back "unpowered). in the end, not that big a deal, considering power-ups are usually quite plentiful (sometimes comedically so). i think there is a gauntlet in the game where you can earn a couple dozen powerup medals within a minute.

long story short, worth a try. i think ghegs was a champion of this game as well.

[professor ganson]

nobody can say really why.

Tons of bland ships, bland stages, bland everything. It's the most mediocre shooter series of all-time and this is the "special" version that unsurprisingly isn't any better than any Sonic Wings. Special = excuse for more bland crap.

And yet fun all the same.

[Shatterhand]

its been awhile so i might be remembering wrong, but one of the more interesting things (to me) is that medals need to picked up at the very tippy-top of screen to receive max value. makes playing through the levels a whole other animal.

Yes, there's a fair amount of memorization because of this, and also some crazy "playing at the top of the screen action". There's also some milking to do on some bosses, not to mention the "destroy each bit of the boss before destroying the core", so the game has something close to a score system.

[Ghegs]

long story short, worth a try. i think ghegs was a champion of this game as well.

I've cleared the game and I do like it, but I think that hardly constitutes me as a champion Unless you meant champion in the spokesperson-sense?

I think it was Herr Schatten who has cleared the game with (almost?) every character, I've only done it with Kowful the Viking.

[Shatterhand]

Yeah, I actually exchanged some tips with Herr Schatten that helped me on the game, when I was playing it a lot a couple of years ago.

[Ganelon]

If you like early Psikyo, SWS is fine. By far the best Sonic Wings / Aero Fighters game.

Yes.

It's on the same vein of the early Psikyo, but better crafted and more balanced. I had lots of good time with this game.

Agreed with these sentiments.

[Ed Oscuro]

So, which of the Sonic Wings arcade games is on this one?

p.s. I hate the characters

[professor ganson]

So, which of the Sonic Wings arcade games is on this one?

Sonic Wings Special had an arcade release, I believe. We just had a discussion of this elsewhere.

If you're enjoying SWS and have a Jap PS2, you may want to check out the Hamster release of the original Sonic Wings. It's a very nice package.

[Ganelon]

Sonic Wings Special had an arcade release, I believe. We just had a discussion of this elsewhere.

Nope, SWS is console-exclusive. You're probably thinking of Limited, which shares many of the same elements but isn't the same thing. The game itself is a splattering of all the arcade SW titles.

I think the characters (along with the boss-heavy gameflow) are what separate this game from just another vertical shooter and are far more interesting than Psikyo's later stuff.

[professor ganson]

Sonic Wings Special had an arcade release, I believe. We just had a discussion of this elsewhere.

Nope, SWS is console-exclusive. You're probably thinking of Limited, which shares many of the same elements but isn't the same thing. The game itself is a splattering of all the arcade SW titles.

OK, I was thinking that there might be a limited/special distinction, but my guess was that they were different names for the same thing.

[Rob]

Which characters are interesting?

[Baby Bonnie Hood]

If only it was in English...

Oh well, an English Limited will have to do. Now to find one, again.

[Rob79]

If only it was in English...

Oh well, an English Limited will have to do. Now to find one, again.

isnt the PAL version in English ? I just might buy it since my PS2 is modded.

http://cgi.ebay.de/Sonic-Wings-Special- ... dZViewItem

[Baby Bonnie Hood]

I don't think an English version of Special exists at all. I'd like to be proven wrong, even though I've already long since accepted this fact.

Besides, I was referring to the arcade version (hence Limited). That one does exist, and it's already been proven.

It just hasn't been dumped, is all

[D]

I think the english version has lots of screens missing, etc.
perhaps even unable to save or somthing crazy like that.
I would just buy the japanese version, just so you don't have to look over your shoulder to see if you are missing anything that might not be in the us/pal version.

[HardcoreOtaku]

Avoid SW, its simply eeerrr... crap

[nimitz]

Which version is the best PS1 or Saturn?

and why?

[CIT]

They're basically identical.

But the Saturn Version comes with a wacky Audio CD of Mao Mao singing some Sonic Wings tunes.