Sonic Wings 3

Released in late 1995, Sonic Wings 3 continues Video System's saga of "if it isn't broke, don't fix it" shoot-em-ups on the Neo-Geo. By the time Sonic Wings 3 was released the vertical scrolling shooter genre was a little long in the tooth for most arcade goers and critics. While the game received middling reviews and reception upon release for not innovating on genre traditions, modern retrospective reviews view the game in a much more positive light due to its hard but solid gameplay, and fantastic presentation. 

In keeping with series tradition, Sonic Wings 3 has a wacky cast of characters set in a wacky alien plot to take over the world. From a dolphin, to a rich kid with a mouthy cat, and everything in between, these heroes fly around in World War 2 era bi-planes that have been heavily modded with modern weaponry. Each of the ten pilots (12 if you count the two secret characters) has a unique shot spread and bomb attack, along with differing speed and power output. Every player should try each of the pilots and see which one fits their play style best.

Sonic Wings 3 presents the player with an 8 stage romp through various locals from across the world. While you will always begin your adventure in Tokyo - complete with a walking Tokyo Tower tank that tries to take you down - there are multiple paths you can choose that give the game a good dose of variety. After you beat certain bosses on your journey, a checkered pattern plane will appear out of a portal. Destroying the craft's left or right wing will take you down one of two different paths. All in all, the game has 16 or so unique stages, with each path comprising of eight levels to complete. What's more, the game has two loops you have to shoot your way through if you want the true ending. Like any good arcade game with multiple loops, the second loop pushes the difficulty to 11, making an already absurdly difficult game even harder. Keeping with our theme of variety, though, many of the bosses and stage elements are changed up or outright replaced by different (harder) enemy types in the second loop. 

Gameplay is standard shooter fare: never stop pressing fire while maneuvering around wave after wave of fast flying enemy bullets. Your bomb attack has a few functions that help you survive the onslaught of bullets, though. On top of clearing away smaller enemy crafts, your bomb will also negate all bullets on the screen and grant you a few fleeting seconds of invincibility to catch your breath. That said, there are often larger enemy craft on the screen that take quite a bit more firepower to destroy. As each characters' bomb attack is unique, finding which bomb type works best for your play style is just as important their power/speed balance. 

Like the prior two Sonic Wings games, the power up system works in three stages. Collecting one P icon will double your fire power, collecting a second will triple your fire power, and collecting a third will allows you to quadruple your fire power but only for a limited time. When you are fully powered up any additional P icons you collect will be worth 2000 points. Destroying background objects will often make score icons appear. Sources say the score you gain by collecting these icons will increase the closer they are to the "top" of the screen. That said, this can be a little wonky to judge, and does not apply to all instances. For example, the capital building in the first stage has two wings you can destroy to uncover numerous score icons. These icons vary in value from 1000 to 20,000 and they are all clumped together at the top of the screen. 

Sonic Wings 3 is a super brisk game. Stages take less than 2-3 minutes to plough through, and each boss encounter takes at least as long to defeat due to having different stages of attacks. Many of the bosses also have various parts you'll need to defeat before taking down the core. While you can attack the core of any boss outright (almost), you'll want to focus on their other vulnerable parts first to lessen the amount of bullets you'll have to contend with. 

Sonic Wings 3 has a weird difficulty system. If you have a European console, or have a Unibios installed in your hardware that auto-boots to European, the difficulty in the game will be stuck on its own ludicrously difficult setting no matter which difficulty you choose in the options - this is true for both AES and MVS versions. To get the correct difficulty balance you either need a USA or Japanese console, or just switch the region in your Unibios (if you have one installed) upon boot to one of those regions. Once that is set, the difficulty options work as they should. If played on a European bios, the enemies become obnoxious bullet sponges (especially larger enemies), bullets fly considerably faster and there are many more of them, and some enemies will shoot extremely fast suicide bullets that are outside of their normal bullet pattern. These bullets often come from enemies who are just about off screen - so behind your plane rather than in front. Playing this game with the European region setting is a lesson in tedium, and will quickly ruin your experience - it is intentionally unfair and I have no idea why the developers coded the game this way. Make sure to play the game in Japanese or USA mode for the most balanced difficulty. It's still hard, but not frustratingly so. 

Video System struck gold with the pixel art design of the first Sonic Wings game in the arcade (and Super Famicom), and that visual style has stuck with the games over their two Neo-Geo releases. While Sonic Wings 3 won't win any awards for its art art design, all the stages are brilliantly laid out and are a joy to look at if you can pay attention to all the minute details amidst the reign of destruction always headed your way. It's a handsome game to be sure, but don't expect the same level of visual splendor of Pulstar or Blazing Star. My only visual gripe is that some explosions are so large that it can lead to some cheap deaths by stray bullets that get lost in the smoke and fire.

Music and sound design here is top-notch. The drum & bass inspired soundtrack really gets your heart pumping, and the boss theme mirrors the manic pace you need to adopt if you want to survive the onslaught. Similarly, all the sound effects are fantastic with big, boomy explosions happening all over the place that make you feel like you're in the middle of a war zone. If you have the set-up for it, running this game through an amplified receiver with good speakers and sub-woofer is a real treat.

Sonic Wings 3 is a good shooter that will test your metal like few before or after. That said, the brisk pace of the game and short stages make even the most cheap deaths not nearly as frustrating as other games in the genre. It is an addictive game for sure, and a great time for die-hard SHUMP fans or even those new to the genre. While I'd recommend new-comers to the series play the more balanced second game before this one, Sonic Wings 3 is a solid effort that every Neo-Geo fan should play at least once.

Sadly, like Sonic Wings 2, there was an over 20 year gap between its original release and its first port to more modern platforms. If you're a Neo-Geo purest, Sonic Wings 3 will cost you dearly. It was never released in the US on AES, so a Japanese copy is the only authentic release on home cartridge. A complete, good condition copy will run you an absurd $900 on the low end to over $1200 or more in today's market. The MVS version will set you back at least $300. Thankfully, the game did see release on the Neo CD, and you can grab a copy for around $50 if you're savvy, but expect prices closer to $85-$100. Finally, the game did see a release on the Nintendo Switch and other digital store fronts in 2018 for $8, so I recommend this route if you've never played the game before. 

If you're starting out your AES collection and want a great shooter to go along with your budding library, Sonic Wings 3 is a solid start. That said, all the shooters on the hardware are some of the most expensive and sought after games in the Neo-Geo library, so any of them will cost you a great deal of money. Sonic Wings 2 is a little less expensive, but prices have risen over the last two years and it is almost as expensive as the third game. Just be aware that unless you have a surplus of funds, you won't have many shooters in your AES collection. Basically, if you have just one shooter in your AES library and you don't want to spend over $1000, either of the Sonic Wings releases are a solid choice. 

If you'd like to find out more information on the other games in the Sonic Wings series, check out my Sonic Wings 2 review.