Video System
| Aero Fighters | |
|---|---|
Aero Fighters arcade flyer
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| Developer(s) | Video System |
| Publisher(s) |
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| Designer(s) | Shin Nakamura |
| Composer(s) | Naoki Itamura |
| Platform(s) | Arcade, Super NES, PlayStation 2 |
| Release | |
| 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 |
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| Public | |
| Industry | Video game industry |
| Founded | December 1984 |
| Defunct | 2001 |
| Headquarters | Kyoto, Japan |
| Website | www |
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.
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.
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.
Although Video System's main headquarters opened in Japan, they eventually opened a U.S. branch office. Sometime in 1992, Video System's U.S. office changed its name to McO'River, Inc., and was given the licensing rights to distribute Aero Fighters arcade machines throughout the United States. Aero Fighters was ported to the Super NES in 1993, first released in Japan. 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. The same year, McO'River was supposed to publish 3 Super Famicom ports of arcade games in the U.S. While Video System developed and published numerous titles in Japan, McO'River was only able to publish 2 of them in the U.S.: Hyper V-Ball in June, 1994; and Aero Fighters in November, 1994. While the former is an easy-to-find game, the latter is considered by video game collectors to be one of the rarest games ever released on the Super NES.
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Wikipedia