I one-credited Wing Force!
I was recomended this one earlier today when I asked for more Raiden clones and it’s pretty rare for me to one credit games the same day I first play them so like hell I’m not going to brag about it. Wing Force wears its influence on its sleeves, wheter it’s the first stage over a humble pastoral abode (complete with cows) or a 2nd stage that bring to mind’s Truxton’s space station. The closest thing the game has to a standout gimmick is that collecting a power-up not only upgrades your shot type (among a selection of 4) but also gives an armor that protect you from a single hit.
Derivative doesn’t mean bad though, and Wing Force is certainly a cut above many of the game it could’ve potentially contended with. There are a lot of amusing background animations and trick to go with them - for instance, in the 2nd level, there’a sequence where a nuke is loaded on a device and dropped to earth, but if you manage to destroy in time, you’ll get a 1-up. In the third level, you can destroy some device, which will cause all nearby parked vehicles to be sucked into a hole. There are also a variety of funny hidden characters you can trigger for additional points. Bosses don’t look like much of anything but have mean patterns that’ll keep you on your toes and the 2nd loop is a proper difficulty increase.
“Potentially”, because Wing Force ultimately never saw a wide release despite having the semi-famous name of Atlus attached to distribution. From a purely detached fiscal perspective, it makes sense - it’s a short and easy game in a competitive genre with no gimmicks or outstanding production values to set it apart. Had it been mass produced, it would’ve certainly bombed and caused at least one salary man to commit sudoku. But it’s a fun and well-made game, and it would’ve been nice to have the developer’s handiwork appreciated by more than a handful of emulator users some 20 years after the fact.
