Legendary Wings
System: NES
Release Date: July 1988
Developer: Capcom
Publisher: Capcom
Genre: Shoot ‘em Up
Capcom is back with another shoot ‘em up, Legendary Wings! This is one of those hilariously poorly translated games. The manual gives a short blurb about how the God of War, Ares, gave two men courage and wings of love to save the world from extinction. Ares is trusting them with the survival of the human race. Time is of essence. Take wings. Legendary Wings. I don’t even want to get started on Ares having wings of love or wanting to save humanity, so let’s get to the game.
There are two distinct gameplay areas. A vertical scrolling section, where you can shoot guns with the B Button and missiles with the A Button. I would say this is the bulk of the gameplay and perhaps a precursor to the Bullet Hell sub-genre. There is a giant mouth that spits out whirlwinds at you about halfway through each level. If you get hit by the whirlwinds, you’re sucked into the Danger portion. This leads to the other style of gameplay, the side-scrolling section. These take place in cramped areas and only allow you to use the guns. There’s a lot more maneuvering that needs to be done here.
Once you clear the Danger zone, you head back to the overhead portion. Enemies attack in waves and if you haven’t gained any powerups, you’re going to have a bad time. Throughout the level, you can find powerups that strengthen your guns. You first get the Twin Laser, which doubles the attack power and shoots through weaker bad guys. Then the Penetration gun, which is three times as powerful. Then the Flame Shots, which are only twice as powerful as the normal gun, but shoot in three different directions. The final powerup is the Firebird, which is four times as powerful as the normal shot and is incredibly satisfying.
It took me about 25 minutes of playing the first level over and over for me to stumble into the Lucky stage that exists about 2/3 the way through each level. You have to use the missile to take out a ground turret to find your way in. Lucky is a side-scrolling section that has no enemies, but tons of point items, hearts (which allow you to continue), and powerups. I had missed it each time before because I thought whirlwinds were always bad, but not in this case. The end of the overhead portions put you into a gauntlet of statues that shoot at you, but you can take their heads out with four missiles. Then a dragon boss that moves in a very simple pattern and is simple to defeat, even if it takes forever with the Normal gun.
Once I got the Firebird powerup, the first three levels were a breeze. I had to try level four twice, but once I found the hidden Lucky stage (I had gotten into the habit of pressing both the A and B Buttons simultaneously), I had no trouble. After beating the Dragon, you go into a temple and it’s the side-scrolling portion once again. You have to make your way to the end to fight the level boss.
The boss of each stage is a weird creature. It’s got a brain for a mouth and a bunch of eyes that shoot themselves at you. These are pretty easy to dodge, so it’s just a matter of shooting and avoiding. Unfortunately for me, after you kill the fifth boss, the screen starts scrolling again and you have to take on the true final boss. I wasn’t expecting this and took a bunch of damage, forcing me to fight the final boss with just the normal gun. It took a Herculean effort, but I finished it off on my last life.
Graphics: 2.5
I’d say the graphics are on par with Gun.Smoke, but there wasn’t much advancement.
Sound: 3.0
Music is standard Capcom, but the sound effects all seem to be recycled from other games.
Gameplay: 3.5
I think the gameplay is solid. Go forward and shoot while avoiding enemies. Having both styles of scrolling is ambitious.
Difficulty: 2.5
If you tried to play with just the Normal gun, I would call it nearly impossible. The Firebird makes the game pretty easy, though. It took me 80 minutes from starting it for the first time to beat it.
Fun Factor: 3.0
I grew into enjoying this as I played. Getting stuck with the normal gun sucks, though.
Overall Grade: 2.9
Legendary Wings earns a B. You can definitely tell that a lot of the Mega Man crew worked on this title. Definitely a worthwhile addition to any library.