Help identifying a game

[m0ng00se]

Hi! First post! I mostly suck so don't expect anything terribly interesting from me for a while. Also I apologize if there was somewhere more appropriate for this post, I couldn't really tell.

At a local movie theater, they used to have an arcade cabinet with some old shmup on it. I can't really remember the title, it might have had the word thunder in it but I don't know.

It had a bunch of characters that you could change when you continued, I remember a German guy who looked like a generic anime type (there were little flags next to their names) and a Japanese guy who I think had goggles. All the planes would look and shoot differently.

You could hold shoot down to charge up a big shot; the German guy would summon a big fire bird thing when he did it. I never got particularly far and now the cab is gone so I can't go back to put 5 bucks into it and beat it now. Does anyone have any idea what game I'm talking about?

[CIT]

Sounds like Aero Fighters 3, a.k.a. Sonic Wings 3

It has some German and Japanese characters, and one of the Japanese ones can charge to summon this firebird:

[m0ng00se]

Thanks a lot! That bird looks exactly right, but for some reason the characters are all wrong. The art looked really terrible, with generic kinda-lumpy anime people, and the first and second player could pick whatever planes they wanted instead of being restricted. Can't really remember what the ships looked like, and I don't remember there being a ninja or I definitely would have picked him. Seemed a little less goofy, too.

It was probably some ridiculous hacked up pirate bootleg thing or something, considering how well this game matches the description. Kind of absurd.

I'm looking for mostly sentimental reasons, sorry for being difficult.

[BPzeBanshee]

Not Batrider? Has a bird thing for one guy's bomb.

[Cers]

STAGGER I (jp) / RED HAWK (us)



you are welcome...

[Obiwanshinobi]

Sky Adventure? Had memorable characters and plane/weapon selection was quite a feature. Vertical monitor, though.

[HydrogLox]

STAGGER I (jp) / RED HAWK (us)

I thought the opening music sounded kind of familiar
Stagger 1 / Red Hawk(ARCADE)

hhmmm...
Repeated Tragedy - Raiden IV OST

... I guess I shouldn't be surprised.
Hardcore Gaming 101: History of Korean Gaming

[trap15]

Raiden IV is way newer than Stagger 1. But that song was just a cover of the Raiden II stage 1 theme, so it's still a copied theme

[KAI]

"homage"

[KyoKusagani1999]

Going into the Chronicle, I've pulled out the games that have "Thunder" in their name...

Thundercade (1987)
Thunder Cross (1988)
Thunderforce AC (1990)
Thunder Cross II (1991)
Thunder Dragon (1991)
Thunder Blaster (JP) / Lethal Thunder (WORLD) (1991)
VARTH : Operation Thunderstorm (1992)
Thunder Dragon 2 (1993)

These are all that have "Thunder" in their name released in the arcades.
If you remembered the word correctly, you will recognize it when you look at one of these.

[HydrogLox]

But that song was just a cover of the Raiden II stage 1 theme, so it's still a copied theme

I was pretty sure that the theme had appeared much earlier in the Raiden franchise - predating Stagger 1 - but the Raiden IV version was the only one I zero in on.

[KAI]

The attract music is a cover of Level 1 music from "Raiden II".

"homage".

[Herr Schatten]

STAGGER I (jp) / RED HAWK (us)

I just tried it. It was ...interesting.

Apart from the player's flag inexplicably obscuring the upper part of the screen, at first I thought it wasn't completely terrible. Unfortunately, the later levels are an extremely uninspired mess and offer just the same bunch of generic formations over and over again, with former bosses appearing as normal enemies. Additionally, you seem to be supposed to use the charge shot almost exclusively, because you won't get anywhere with your normal shot.

[m0ng00se]

STAGGER I (jp) / RED HAWK (us)



you are welcome...

This looks much more accurate, it's gotta be it. I wasn't really expecting it to be anything spectacular but I gotta have a go at it anyways.

[m0ng00se]

Late update (shoulda posted this last weekend sorry)

It was totally Stagger 1. Thanks a lot everybody. I wonder where I got thunder from? Maybe it was a hacked cab and on the side but most likely I just invented that out of nowhere.

It does suck as bad as anyone who mentioned it in the thread says. Normal shot is mostly pointless, charge shots solve most problems. Nostalgia factor means I had fun with it anyways. Probably gonna try all the other ones mentioned here at some point when I stop being total butt at these games.