Developer(s) Video System
Publisher(s) Video System (arcade, SNES)

Hamster Corporation (PS2)

Platform(s) Arcade Game, Super Famicom, Super Nintendo, Playstation 2
Release date(s) 1992-? (arcade)

1993-07-30 (SNES)
2005-07-21 (PS2)
1992 (Arcade)
1994-? (SNES)

Genre(s) Shooter game
Mode(s) Single player, 2 player co-op
Input methods 8-way Joystick, 2 Buttons
Arcade system Main CPU : 68000, Sound CPU : Z80, Sound Chips : YM2610
Display Vertical, Raster, 224 x 320 pixels, 1024 colors

Aero Fighters (known as Sonic Wings in Japan) is a vertical-scrolling shoot 'em up ("shmup") arcade game released in 1992 by Video System, ported to the Super Famicom in 1993 and the Super Nintendo in 1994. It spawned two sequels for the Neo-Geo, one for the Arcades (with ports to the PlayStation and Sega Saturn) and one in 3-D for the Nintendo 64. The first sequel was notorious for multiple instances of Engrish, such as "I never thought I'd be frying over a jungle."

The player chooses one of four nationalities (USA, Japan, England, or Sweden), and proceeds to fly through seven enemy-laden stages, dodging massive amounts of enemy fire in order to reach the colossal end boss of each stage.

Player 1 can only play as the Player 1 Side fighters (F/A-18, FS-X, AV-8B, and AJ-37), and if a second player joins, player 2 must play as the second fighter for player 1's nation (F-14, F-15, JAS 39 Gripen, or Tornado IDS). The nationality restriction is removed in Aero Fighters 2.

Most of the creative team that worked on Aero Fighters created Strikers 1945 and other shmups for Psikyo.

Aero Fighters was ported over to the Super NES by Video System's U.S. affiliate; McO'River. This version was released on November 30th, 1994; in limited quantities, and is one of the rarest cartridges for the Super NES.^{[citation needed]}

Characters

American pilots:

• Blaster Keaton (F/A-18 Hornet)
• Keith Bishop (F-14 Tomcat)

Japanese pilots:

• Hien (FSX)
• Mao Mao (F-15 Eagle)

Swedish pilots:

• Kohful The Viking (AJ-37)
• Tee-Bee 10 (JAS 39 Gripen)

British pilots:

• Lord River N. White (Tornado IDS)
• Villiam Syd Pride (AV-8 Harrier II)

Trivia

• Red Rabbit from "Rabio Lepus" (also known as "Rabbit Punch") makes a cameo appearance in this game, at Mao Mao's ending and as a hidden playable character.
• In Kowful's and T.B.'s joint ending, you can see plenty of "Turbo Force" arcade machines.
• The game forbids the initials SEX on the high score table. If you try, it gets changed to Japanese characters.
• Author John Green was inspired by an Aero Fighters game at an airport to dub the followers of his vlogging project, Brotherhood 2.0, "Nerdfighters".
• Brazilian player Rodrigo Lopes (from São Paulo) holds the official world record for this game with a maximum 1,028,600 points. [1]

Series

• 1. Aero Fighters (1992, Arcade; 1994, SNES)
• 2. Aero Fighters 2 (1994; Neo-Geo, Neo Geo CD, Arcade)
• 3. Aero Fighters 3 (1995; Neo-Geo, Neo Geo CD, Arcade)
• 4. Sonic Wings Limited (1996; Arcade, Sega Saturn, Sony Playstation) *Console versions are known as Sonic Wings Special.
• 5. AeroFighters Assault (1997, Nintendo 64)

External links

• Aero Fighters at Arcade-History
• Aero Fighters at MobyGames

Aero Fighters video games