Aero Fighters/Sonic Wings 2 FAQ v. 0.6 By Penguin -------- Table of contents: 1. What's Aero Fighters/Sonic Wings? 2. Items 3. Controls & General Information 4. The planes 5. Enemy bullets 6. Stages 7. Misc stuff 8. Update history 9. Final words -------- 1. What's Aero Fighters/Sonic Wings? Aero Fighters is a top-down shooting game that started with the Jamma system and the SNES in 1992. Then it moved to the SNK MVS for it's sequel, Aero Fighters 2 & 3. I haven't seen Aero Fighters 1, but I have played both 2 & 3. Both were pretty good games IMHO. Aero Fighters 2 was published in 1994. Aero Fighters 3 was published in 1995. Sonic Wings is just the same game with a different name in Japan. -------- 2. Items There are 3 sorts of items: P item - Increases firepower by a level. 2000 points added when received. F item - Increases firepower to the highest possible level. (Don't know about the score yet) B item - Adds a bomb. $/Cz. etc. - Can't move, it's just basically extra points. You need to destroy enemies and various scenaries (duh) to get them. -------- 3. Controls & General Information The arcade stick (or directional pad) is used to control the direction of your plane. Your plane only faces up regardless of whichever direction you choose. The A button is normal fire, while the B button is bomb. You start with 2 bombs and of course, the lowest level of normal fire. There's no rapid-fire, so you need to tap the A button like crazy. Note that when the normal shot level reaches its max, it'll go down a level after a certain period. -------- 4. The planes You can choose between 8 planes. When in 2 player mode, you can't choose the same plane that the other has chosen (or where the other's cursor lays). *** F-117 (Robo Keaton) Normal Shot: Lvl 1: 2 lines of laser beams Lvl 2: 2 longer lines of laser beams Lvl 3: 4 lines of laser beams and a missile-thingy dropping from plane Lvl 4: 8 lines of laser beams and the missile-thingy drops from plane as well Missile-thingies: They are "delayed." So if you shoot, the missile drops, then after a second or so it turns into a small fireball. Goes straightward. Bomb: Description - An inverted V-shaped laser 'shield' that goes from bottom of the screen to the top of the screen. Then a few explosions here and there in the screen. Usefulness - Good against regular enemies, but for bosses it's so-so. Good points: All around average, good speed Bad points: Shots are kinda concentrated at a spot *** A-10 (Silver) Normal Shot: Lvl 1: A single beam Lvl 2: 2 beams Lvl 3: 4 beams and a missile that explodes near the top of screen Lvl 4: 6 beams and a missile that goes full screen Missile: It doesn't drop, but it'll explode when it meets an enemy. It's stronger than a regular shot. Goes straightward. Bomb: Description - Flys up, drops two bombs, huge explosion on where the bombs land. Usefulness - Quite strong bomb, IMO should be pretty good against bosses. Don't waste it against normal enemies unless it's absolutely needed. Invulnerbility when dropping it!! Good points: Strong bomb, strong shots Bad points: Bomb a bit concentrated at a certain spot, shots too concentrated *** FS-X (Hien) Normal Shot: Lvl 1: 1 line of shurikens Lvl 2: 2 lines of shurikens Lvl 3: 4 lines of shurikens and 4 '+' shaped shurkiens. Lvl 4: 6 lines of shurkiens and 8 '+' shaped shurkiens. + shaped shurikens: Homing shurikens when there's a target. If there isn't, It shoots around the plane. The + shaped shurikens don't come back to the plane. Bomb: Description - Blue 'ki' converges at the plane, and a 'ki' beam. Kinda like the super fireball beams in Capcom VS games. Lasts for around 2-3 seconds. You can shoot normal fire as well. Usefulness - VERY useful. Best against bosses. Also it 'protects' you. But it goes wherever the plane goes. Good points: Great bomb, homing '+' shaped shurikens, pretty quick Bad points: Concentrated bomb, weak normal shot. *** F-15 (Mao Mao) Normal Shot: Lvl 1: 2 concentrated lines of bullets Lvl 2: 3 concentrated lines of bullets (can't really tell the difference huh?) Lvl 3: 6 lines bisected into 2 parts (V shaped, 3 for each part), lasers coming out from the side Lvl 4: 14 (!!) lines divived into 3 parts, one part going straight (8 lines), and the other 2 parts bisect like in Lvl 3. 4 lines of laser coming out from the sides as well (2 of them are wider) Laser: It's not the best stuff in the world, but you gotta shoot it anyhow. Really thin, it's pretty much negligable because the normal shot would cover it anyway. But it does considerable damage. Bomb: Description - Sends out a wave from the plane, which destroys the enemy bullets (but not delivering damage), then everything (except you (and your ally)) and the screen will stop for around 4 seconds. You can't use your bomb in that duration. Usefulness - DAMN good, especially against bosses that love to move around like crazy and can't stay (like the 'eyeball'). Basically, you'll get a 'free shot.' For four seconds! Ain't that lovely! (no, I'm not sarcastic) Good points: DAMN good bomb, really wide range of fire, nice speed Bad points: No bomb damage, er...maybe another victim of the "SNK cute girl syndrome." *** F-14 (Cindy & Ellen) Normal Shot: Lvl 1: 2 lines of beams Lvl 2: 4 lines of beams, pretty concentrated Lvl 3: 6 lines of beams, 2 homing missiles Lvl 4: 10 lines of beams, 4 homing missiles Homing missiles: Just regular homing missiles, like Hien's + shaped shurikens. Bomb: Description - 5 huge missiles come from the bottom of the screen and heads towards the top of the screen. Then lots of small explosions kinda following the trail of the missiles after they went off-screen Usefulness - Note that the missiles itself does NO DAMAGE. It nullifies the incoming bullets though. Anyway, this fills the whole screen, so it's pretty good against regular enemies. Good points: Kinda strong shot, good bomb, good speed Bad points: Very concentrated shot, bomb not as good against bosses *** YF-23 (Spanky (!!)) Normal Shot: Lvl 1: 1 line of shot Lvl 2: 1 line of thicker shot Lvl 3: 2 lines of shots from Lvl 2, 2 bomb thingies Lvl 4: 2 wider lines of thicker shots (not the ones in Lvl 2), 4 bomb thingies Bomb thingies: Weird little bombs float out from your plane when you shoot. If the max bomb thingies are on screen (2 for Lvl 3, 4 for Lvl 4), they won't come out. Unless it reaches an enemy, it'll wander off screen. You can kinda control where the bomb thingy goes by going at the specific direction. Bomb: Description - Some 'ki' converges at the plane, and two waves spreads out from the plane horizontally, and it covers the screen vertically as well. Usefulness - Great for regular enemies, but not so great for bosses. (Am I doing some kind of phone commercial here?) Not a bad bomb. Good points: Nice bomb, damaging shots Bad points: Very concentrated shots until Lvl 4, bomb not very well against bosses, a dolphin named "Spanky" driving a plane? WTF? *** Rafale (Steve) Normal Shot: Lvl 1: 2 lines of beam Lvl 2: 4 concentrated lines of beam Lvl 3: 6 lines of beam, 2 missiles Lvl 4: 10 lines of beam, 2 missiles Missiles: They are just diverted missiles. Isn't homing I think. Bomb: Description - Flys up, drops a bomb that creates some huge black circular 'void' for around 2 seconds Usefulness - It's not that great against a bunch of enemies...because it's only aimed at a certain part of the screen. But against bosses, this isn't a bad bomb. Good points: Nice speed, pretty damaging shots Bad points: Concentrated shots, bomb doesn't work well against normal enemies, missiles aren't really special, and why this guy looks like a girl? *** FRS.2 (Bobby) Normal Shot: Lvl 1: 1 line of shot Lvl 2: 2 lines of shot Lvl 3: 3 diverted lines of shot (V shaped, but one line bisects the V) and 2 small missiles in each shot Lvl 4: Like Lvl 3, but it's 2 lines diverted into 3 directions, 2 missiles. Missiles: You can't shoot the missiles when the other 2 are still on- screen, or destroyed. Pretty damaging I say...try getting near the enemy (esp. boss) when possible and shoot as many times as possible. The missiles will keep coming. Bomb: Description - Flys up, drops 2 bombs that spread fire in a V shape. Usefulness - Since it's V shaped, it can miss certain enemies as well as bosses 'weak spot.' Take care when you use it. Otherwise, it's a damn strong bomb. Good points: Damaging shots when the missiles are with it (Lvl 3, 4), destructive bomb Bad points: Bomb may miss, shot too wide when far, a baby driving a plane? *** -------- 5. Enemy bullets: Enemy bullets are usually one of these 3: I. Small bullets - Most common and the hardest to evade due to their size. Can't be destroyed except for certain 'special' shots and bomb. II. Big bullets - 2nd most common IMO, it's not easy to evade as well. Can't be destroyed except for certain 'special' shots and bomb. III. Disc bullets - This one's easy. Shoot at these bullets and they'll disappear. And you can get points for that as well. -------- 6. Stages I pretty much forgot the number of stages in this game. The game is 10 stages long. If you beat the 10th stage, you will see the ending, but then you'll start with stage 11, which is actually stage 1. It's much harder, and the patelletes are swapped. I never went past stage 11 though. The stages after the 1st stage are random, then after stages 2-9 you go to stage 10. At stage 10, if all your planes die (i.e. you need to insert a coin) you'll RESTART THE STAGE. So if you're fighting the eyeball guy (final boss), and all your planes die, you'll have to start from the very beginning of the stage. Umm...yeah, that's bad stuff, I know. The Atlantic and the Himalayas are the bonus stages, you get to shoot incoming planes and all of them has the P goodie. For the Himalayas stage there may be an F goodie. The Atlantic stage is stage 3, and the Himalayas stage is 7. -------- 7. Misc stuff There are various pretty funny stuff in stages. Take the 1st stage as an example. The first thing you notice is the Chinese character at the start of the stage. It means 'big.' Don't know any special relations to the game though. Then you get to see a big humanoid print on the ground. You can destroy the building where the green spaceship comes out - then see two people in it arguing. Further up, you can see "Heroin Magic." Hope it's not a typo. Then you can see a poster of Mao Mao. Then 2 'tower missiles' will charge towards you. Of course, there's this 'Tokyo tower' that shoots disc bullets and falls off a building. You can also get goodies by shooting at random stuff as well. In the USA stage you can shoot at the Statue of Liberty to get a P goodie, then you can shoot various famous New York buildings for $. You can also shoot at a ferris wheel, and it'll roll away horizontally while giving out a B goodie. Don't stop shooting at it, you can destroy it for a P goodie. -------- 8. Update history v 0.1: Wrote the FAQ v 0.2: Minor corrections to various spots in the FAQ, added the 'Update history' section v 0.3: More minor changes (mainly on the .txt file problem with lines), added a legal disclaimer v 0.4: A few minor changes, and changing the version of this FAQ (I forgot to change it in 0.3, damn me) v 0.5: Added more stuff to What's Aero Fighters/Sonic Wings. Thanks to ScruffyDeluxe for pointing out that Aero Fighters 1 appeared in the SNES as well. v 0.6: Added a few corrections. Thanks to Togemon for pointing out that the Himalayas stage is stage 7, and there are a total of 10 stages per 'cycle.' Few minor changes as well. -------- 9. Final words Whew! Finally I'm done with this. There are a few things that I'm still unsure/don't know: I. More 'hidden' goodies (P, B goodies in various stages?) II. Whatever I didn't put in this FAQ but it's in the game Feel free to e-mail me at penguin_wong@hotmail.com if you got any problems with this FAQ. ***LEGAL DISCLAIMER*** All this is written by Penguin himself. Anyone cannot post or edit this FAQ without the consent of myself. If you were to post it, please give credit to me after asking for my permission. If you were to rip this FAQ and put it under your name, you have violated the laws and will be reported. This document is for private & personal use only and cannot be distributed/reprinted/edited for commercial purposes. Any further questions can be e-mailed to penguin_wong@hotmail.com. Aero Fighters 2 and all it's characters are of VideoSystem. MVS is made by SNK of Japan. ***END OF DISCLAIMER*** Thanks to: SNK - Makes great fighting games (KOF...*drools*) as well as having various shooters for Neo-Geo and the MVS as well. VideoSystem (that's what I see in the intro) - For making this game. Friends & family - For supporting me Me - For writing it myself. Now for some celebration. *drinks Sprite* j/k You - For even taking time to read this damn thing. And FINISHING IT!! Now that's a feat. =P