[ソニックウィングス/Aero Fighters] JP Mao Mao Stage 2-3 (Rapid Fire: ON) (Score: 725,000) [CC Commentary]

Sonic Wings smells very Psikyo. I love it! It is on the slightly harsher side of the Psikyo formula games, though, if you use Mao Mao. And boy, the DPS balance is even more wack than like, Strikers 1945!

Your next line of thought is: "Hold it! This is not a Psikyo game! It's a Video System game!". Correct. The key difference is the Main Designer: Shinsuke Nakamura. He understood the Psikyo formula the best. After all, as far as I know this is his very first Psikyo formula game! Psikyo STG Episode 0, so to speak. That's why Sonic Wings 2 felt off: It prioritized adaptability platform-wise by forcing itself into the strictly 4:3 Neo Geo and also made itself longer than ideal. It followed the surface-level stuff of Sonic Wings 1 well but not the intimate details. Not even Sonic Wings 1 at max rank has bullets as fast as Sonic Wings 2, at least, you have much more vertical screen space to react and read what's going on! It doesn't even really care about pointblanking strategies. It's called Sonic Wings probably because its vision was to be very fast-paced at the game's skill ceiling. Have I mentioned that Shinsuke Nakamura left Video System at the time and formed Psikyo? I don't mind Video System made Sonic Wings sequels without him. It's just they didn't understand much of Shinsuke Nakamura's vision.

The controls is Sonic Wings: Move, shoot, bomb. Done. I believe this game was their take on Toaplan formula but with multiple characters, perhaps to adapt to the fighting game craze? And to condense the gameplay further to make arcade operators happy while giving the illusion to the players that this game gives a lot per run. This game's 1 loop is shorter than Tiger Heli: Around 12 minutes. It's a good formula, really! But they were very aware of it. When you continue as a single player, you start the stage all over again. It's more affordable to your pocket to learn the stages than brute-forcing the game using continues :P

At this point it doesn't have the crazy Psikyo mecha bosses, though. It seemed like a more grounded take of the military-style shooter, goofy pilots aside. It does have stage designs that are aware of the possible bullet properties like super strong but has low bullet limit count and piercing shots. Knowing well where to shoot safely will decide your survivability. Simple is best! The early stages can be a bit too easy, though, crazy bosses compared to its thick hitbox aside.

The most annoying thing in this game is the Power Up system that got recycled both by Psikyo and Video System for several titles in a row. The default power is at Lv. 3. You can go to Max, but it's temporary. Actually, it's ammo-based! If you don't shoot, it will last longer. With Mao Mao, at least, it's nicely implemented with the stage design! It feels super good to melt down bosses with the Max shot at the right time! And you know, the Gradius Syndrome. When you die, you'll be very weak. Bosses don't drop any Power Up, so any mistake on boss fights can prove quick game overs out of sheer lack of DPS. Awful.

When anyone says Sonic Wings 1 is the best Sonic Wings game, even with Reunion taken into account, I'd agree. Sonic Wings Reunion is a close second, IMO, but Reunion fumbled big time on how they handled the Rank. It's just not pleasant! Sonic Wings 1 has some HP boosts at higher ranks? But not to a notable degree. Sonic Wings 1 is still great to play today especially if you crave the Psikyo flavor. Give it a shot! Note that to access the other 4 characters you must be on the Player 2. I initially thought the game only had 4 characters.

This is played on Nintendo Switch 2. Obviously not much glow up at all. But the quick loading is welcome. Saved my sanity for each retries with Mao Mao!

#stg #shmup #nintendoswitch2