Aero Fighters 2

Introduction:

This humble little game quickly became one of my favorite shoot 'em up titles nearly a decade after it's release. Aero Fighters 2 (known as Sonic Wings 2 in Japan) reintroduced me to arcade shooters back in my scandalous emulation days, when I also developed a terrible addiction to Neo Geo.

The original Aero Fighters was developed by Video System and released on a standard arcade PCB and played on a vertically oriented screen as opposed to the standard horizontal orientation used in Neo Geo cabinets. At some point in time, upper management at Video System decided to shift their focus to making games for the relatively new MVS hardware.

The first game's main designer Shin Nakamura wasn't having any of that “horizontal crap” and left with a few other employees to found one of my favorite shmup developers Psikyo. Ironically they ended up bringing Strikers 1945 Plus to the neo geo in 1999.

Be warned, I reviewed this game with the most robust nostalgia goggles I could purchase online, but in the end I knew I had to give the game an honest score and not the score I personally feel it deserves!

Gameplay: 🕹️

Aero Fighters 2 predates bullet hell shooters and feels more akin to classic vertical shooters like Raiden, Fire Shark, or Twin Eagle. Old school shmup fans will feel right at home with the basic game design and simple setup.

The gameplay is pretty standard fare. The “A” button fires a normal shot and “B” button drops special bombs unique to each of the 8 selectable characters. There are collectible power ups that increase the power of your main weapon up to four levels, however, the fourth power level is a temporary boost. You have approximately 6 seconds of full power before your weapons return to the third power level but the time is cumulative and can be used in short bursts.

The main appeal of Aero Fighters 2 is the cast of wacky pilots with varied play styles. The characters and their bizarre chatter in between levels add an extra level of charm to an otherwise straightforward military style shoot 'em up. In two player mode the pilots even have different banter between each other and unique endings for every pair.

For the more hardcore shoot em' up fans, there probably isn't a whole lot to keep you entertained for a long time. The game isn't too difficult for veteran players, but it isn't a cake walk either so it presents a decent challenge for most people. The scoring system is pretty straightforward and may be a turn off for people playing for high scores, but this was common at the time. Simply blow things up for points and collect currency symbols from destroyed ground targets. The closer the currency symbol is to the top of the screen the higher the value up to 10,000 points.

Overall Aero Fighters 2 does everything right in the gameplay department, but plays it too safe and never adds anything new or special to the standard shooter formula.

Graphics: 👾

Let's be honest. Aero Fighters 2 doesn't look like it belongs on the Neo Geo.

Both Andro Dunos and Last Resort have top notch presentation and yet were released 2 years prior to Aero Fighters 2. Compared to all the other shooters in the Neo Geo library, Aero Fighters 2 barely looks better than Ghost Pilots. Sorry Ghost Pilots fans, but we're in the same boat here like it or not. Brothers in blandness forever.

The backgrounds are hit and miss. Both Paris and Australia are very basic, sparse and forgettable levels. Australia is mostly static water and even Ghost Pilots had water effects which put this game to shame. The first level, Japan, is probably the only impressive level in the whole game only because they crammed every cool idea into one level.

On the other hand, the bosses are generally pretty cool with plenty of animation and destructible parts. Fortunately the levels are pretty short and you get right to the meat of the game (bosses) without wasting too much time flying over boring clouds.

Sound: 🔊

One of my favorite traits in most Neo Geo games is the quality of the sound. Many of the early classics have a thumpin' soundtrack and high quality voice samples aplenty, which was flat out amazing compared to most other hardware at the time.

Aero Fighters 2 is absolutely not one of those games.

The soundtrack is completely forgettable. The boss theme is probably one of the best tracks but you are not going to be jamming out to this soundtrack ever unless you have trouble sleeping. On second thought, I guess you could fire this OST up if you needed to ever bore anyone to death or clear out a room of people.

On a positive note – the bullet sounds are at the perfect volume level and never get annoying like many other early shooters where the stream of shrill bullets threaten to give the player a brutal case of tinnitus.

Fun Factor:

Yes, after those last two sections Aero Fighters 2 may sound like somewhat of a turd. However nice the presentation may or may not be, I mostly judge a game by how much fun I can squeeze out of every moment. If you love shooters than you are probably going to find some value in this title especially with the wide variety of pilots to choose from and the difficulty curve.

Even with all the complaining you just suffered through, I absolutely have tons of dumb fun with this game! I love the pilots and the straight forward solid gameplay and have been coming back for years to this game.

Even if you just want to credit feed your way through the game with a friend and just blow some stuff up there's loads of fun to have here.

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Conclusion: 📊

While being one of the more affordable shoot 'em up titles on the platform, Aero Fighters 2 is a game that is difficult to recommend to everyone. It was pretty popular in the arcades after it's release but doesn't quite compare to several of the Neo Geo heavyweight shmups like Blazing Star or Last Resort. The presentation of the game and just plain boring soundtrack really hurt the experience. However, if you are into classic early 90's vertical shooters it may be worth giving the game a look. Despite all of the game's flaws it will always be one of my favorite shooters.

Your mileage may vary but it's pretty good if you need to scratch that shooter itch!