The Sonic Wings Reunion I recently attended on the Nintendo Switch, hosted by Red Art Games, had a familiar air to it. No, I didn’t go to school with any of the pilots at the event, nor am I a pilot, but there was definitely a bit of deja vu going on. Wait a second: this is Aero Fighters!
Like the Resident Evil/Biohazard comparison, Aero Fighters has another name in the Land of the Rising Bum, and that is Sonic Wings – very well known in the shmup community – you know, those groups that meet up in the library every Wednesday until 7pm. This time, it’s brought to the PS4/5 and Nintendo Switch.
It’s only polite to have a simple narrative in a shmup, and Sonic Wings Reunion’s thread is based on the mysterious Fata Morgana, who has managed to hijack all of the Earth’s military power for ultimate destruction. Fortunately, eight crackshot pilots are immune to this corruption and set forth to blow them to smithereens.
While it has a futuristic setting, everything takes place on our trusty old sphere, spanning across multiple continents. Each country is very different, and aside from collectable currency (for points) in the local exchange, they’re not immediately identifiable. The pilots, on the other hand, are massively stereotypical.
We have our staple Mao Mao from Japan, adorned in JAL-modified attire, an English chap named River who is very what-ho, and the Swedish Kowful, who doesn’t come as a self-assembly, but is dressed in a Viking helmet. It’s all very innocent and quite amusing, but the moment I could play as a dolphin, the other characters may well have gone down the pub.
In a vertical shmup with eight stages, you’d be forgiven for thinking there’s not much in the way of variety. While Sonic Wings Reunion doesn’t have much in the way of features – Arcade, Highscores, and an unlockable Training mode – all of the eight characters are very different and not simply cosmetic. Besides replaying to get the best scores, and practising in Training mode to get there, it’s well worth experimenting with all of these to find your favourite.
Attacks are simple, and you’ll most likely have your thumb held down for the duration. Power-ups come from destroying complete waves, and consumable bombs come up for air when you need crowd control or to cripple the bosses. The latter are surprisingly easy, aside from the robo space ape, though gameplay is definitely bullet hell and will offer a good challenge with the varying difficulties.
In the solo campaign, you can have a wing person, which I thought would ghost alongside you or tag in for a special, though they’re there for dialogue at the end of a stage and for one of the multiple, brief endings. Popular at school? Bring a friend, as Sonic Wings Reunion is also a co-op, so that’s certainly worth it.
Naturally, there’s so much scope for a vertical shooter, so once you’ve finished the eight stages, that’s the core gameplay. The fun will come from experimenting with characters, co-op mode, and getting higher scores. With that Training mode, you can customise it with continues and even invincibility – making for a good sandbox for learning patterns. It helps, as my best result was 97% accuracy on <ahem> Normal mode.
What I like best about the Nintendo Switch version is the ability to flip to a vertical perspective. With genuinely over 800+ titles on my Switch, I have never properly played a shmup in vertical mode. It’s an absolute game-changer, though you’d need to detach the Joy-Cons as they don’t flip with the setup. It’s also advisable to put your screen on a stand!
I really liked Sonic Wings Reunion, and despite having a vast Switch library, the Switch 2 has been a waste of time as an early adopter. With this now on my expensive paperweight, I’m more likely to charge it up and play. And for the real icing on the cake, I can change the title from Sonic Wings to Aero Fighters. How accommodating is that?!
