Wings of Wor
System: Genesis
Release Date: June 1991
Developer: NCS/Cube
Publisher: DreamWorks
Genre: Shoot ‘em Up
Take flight to take the fight to the mutants of Iccus in Wings of Wor! Iccus is the planet of flying men, but an evil virus has taken over and has mutated the world into disgusting creatures hellbent on destruction. It’s up to you to defeat the hundreds of monsters in your path. So take it to all six rounds and destroy the mutant Destroyer before he can destroy you.
We have a side scrolling shoot ‘em up in front of us. You are always facing and flying to the right and enemies can come on screen from pretty much anywhere. They usually come on from the right, so you have the ability to blast them with your normal shot. There are three weapon loadouts you can find in your journey. The default (red) weapon is a spread shot. The blue weapon concentrates your fire straight ahead. The amber weapon also shoots to the left, behind the hero. I only saw the amber weapon in two places and tended to keep to the blue whenever I had the choice.
Weapons are powered up with blue and red orbs. The blue orbs are orbs of power, which will increase the stopping power of your weapons as the gauge builds. The red orbs are the orbs of pattern. These increase the number and/or width of bullets as the gauge builds. The default shot begins with only two bullets, but collect all the orbs to maximize your power and we’re talking six streams with massive power bullets. The same increases in spread and power exist for the other two weapon types, as well. There are also feathers you can collect that increase your speed. The faster you are, the more unruly you can become, so it’s a balancing act.
There are also magical scrolls that you occasionally come across. You can store up to three scrolls at once, but once chosen, they become active. These encompass a number of offensive and defensive effects. It’s also important to note that they become more powerful if you have more than one of the same scroll type at once when you activate them. You are given a generous number of charges, but I didn’t use them as frequently as I probably should have. I liked the two bolt spells. The ground attack was pretty much mandatory for round 4. The elemental angels were very important to my later success, as well.
Each of the first five levels feature a mid-boss and end-boss. I found these to be more fair than not, with some of them being easy to defeat on the first try if you pay good attention. Others will kill you, but then you have an idea of what to do. Death brings you right back, but takes down a level of your weapons and speed, which didn’t feel too punishing. The last level is a mid-boss rush, then a final boss, who gave me some fits, but I was able to put him down in the end. When you’re finished, keep trying to rack up the high score in a second run through.
Graphics: 3.0
Sprites, levels, bosses, and effects are all visually pleasing.
Sound: 3.0
Music is decent, but sound effects can become overpowering occasionally.
Gameplay: 3.5
There’s a good variety of attacks and you can make some decisions with how you prefer to play.
Difficulty: 3.5
I felt this was overall fair, with levels not overly punishing you for dying. There’s also enough lives and continues to get through.
Fun Factor: 3.0
I enjoyed playing through this, except for the bloodstream level. That one was stupid.
Overall Rating: 3.2
Wings of Wor earns a B+. This is a solid addition to the Sega Genesis library. Any shoot ‘em up fans should enjoy this one.