Aero Fighters

Aero Fighters arcade flyer
Developer(s) Video System
Publisher(s)
  • EU Phoenix (PlayStation)
  • JP Hamster Corporation (PS2)
  • NA Mc O'River (Arcade, SNES)
Designer(s) Shin Nakamura
Composer(s) Naoki Itamura
Platform(s) Arcade, SNES, PlayStation 2
Release date(s)
Genre(s) Shooter game
Mode(s) Single player, 2 player co-op
Arcade system Main CPU : 68000, Sound CPU : Z80, Sound Chips : YM2610
Display Vertical, Raster, 224 x 320 pixels, 1024 colors

Aero Fighters, known as Sonic Wings (ソニックウィングス Sonikku~uingusu) in Japan, is a vertical-scrolling shoot 'em up arcade game originally released in 1992 by Video System and ported to the Super Nintendo Entertainment System in 1993. It was the first in the Aero Fighters series, and a spiritual successor to the 1991 Turbo Force.

Gameplay

This game uses basic shooter mechanics. Press button 1 to fire normal weapons; this can be upgraded by collecting P or the rare F items, though the maximum power level has a hidden ammo count, after which you will return to the previous power level. Press button 2 to use a powerful special attack; uses are limited to how many B items you've collected (every life starts with two). Some ground enemies will drop score items when destroyed; interestingly, they appear as the currency of the selected character's nation. By default, you start with three lives, and can acquire one more at 200,000 points.

Aero Fighters is famous for its large cast of characters, unheard of in 1992. Each pair of characters represents one of four nations. The two player sides may only select the four characters given (one for each nation). In a two player game, only a single nation can be chosen.

Country Player 1 Player 2
United States Blaster Keaton (F/A-18 Hornet)Keith Bishop (F-14 Tomcat)
JapanHien (FSX)Mao Mao (F-15 Eagle)
SwedenKohful The Viking (AJ-37)Tee-Bee 10 (JAS 39 Gripen)
United KingdomLord River N. White (Tornado IDS)Villiam Syd Pride (AV-8 Harrier II)

The game has seven stages divided into two parts. The first three stages are selected randomly from a group of four, with one for each character's nation; however, a character will never go to its nation's stage. The second four stages are fixed. After beating all seven stages, you see the character's ending, then play much harder versions of those stages, after which the game truly ends.

Release

Aero Fighters was ported to the SNES in 1993. This version is different from the arcade original, but based heavily on it. It adds Rabio (player 1 side) and Lepus (player 2 side) from Video System's earlier Rabio Lepus as playable characters, through a code; this code is given after completing the game. Rabio and Lepus do not have a nation, and go to all four random stages. Strangely, the Japanese version of this port loops, but the North American version does not; instead, the second loop is an unlockable difficulty ("Super") through a code. The port also adds a boss rush mode through a code; in the North American version, this code is given out, command by command between stages, when playing as Rabio or Lepus.

An emulated version of the game was released in 2005 for the PlayStation 2 as part of the Japan-exclusive Oretachi Geasen Zoku Sono series.

Reception

GamePro gave the Super Nintendo version a negative review, saying the weapons are imaginative but the game suffers from slowdown, mediocre graphics, weak sound effects, and "monotonous" music, concluding "Aero Fighters' action won't stay with you - it's a temporary thrill that eventually retreats to the hanger."[1]

Sequels

See also: Psikyo

Shin Nakamura, the main designer of Aero Fighters and a number of other Video System games, disliked Video System's plan to start developing on the Neo Geo. He wanted to make more vertical games like Aero Fighters, but found it hard to do so on a horizontal monitor. He and other like-minded employees left to found Psikyo, with the similar Samurai Aces being their first game.

Back at Video System, other employees teamed up with the remaining Aero Fighters staff to begin work on sequels. Aero Fighters 2 and Aero Fighters 3 were released for the Neo Geo. Sonic Wings Special, a sort of "dream match" game based on the three previous entries, was released for the Sega Saturn and later for the PlayStation. Soon after, Special was reworked for the arcades into Sonic Wings Limited. A few years later, Paradigm Entertainment developed Aero Fighters Assault for Video System.

Ironically, Sonic Wings Special and Limited were both made for a vertical monitor like the first game. Similarly, Nakamura would make Strikers 1945 Plus for the Neo Geo a few years later.

In popular culture

YouTube celebrity and famous author John Green, having coming across the game in the Savannah Airport, mistakenly read the title as "Nerd Fighters" while filming a video post addressing his brother Hank Green on the popular YouTube channel Vlogbrothers on February 17, 2007 . "Nerdfighters" and "Nerdfighteria" eventually became the collective title of the Vlogbrothers' fan community.[2] In September 2013, he was given an Aero Fighters arcade cabinet as a gift.[3]

References

  1. ↑ "ProReview: Aero Fighters". GamePro (61) (IDG). August 1994. p. 60.
  2. ↑ Dean, Michelle (March 13, 2013). "A Note on Nerdfighters". The New Yorker (Advance Publications). Retrieved October 25, 2014.
  3. ↑ Green, John. "Secrets of the Movies: Thoughts from The Fault in Our Stars Set".

External links

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