Title: Sonic Wings Reunion
Developer: Success
Publisher: Red Art Games, Hamster Corporation
Release Date: May 28, 2025
Platforms: PlayStation 5, PlayStation 4, Nintendo Switch, Microsoft Windows
Reviewed on: Nintendo Switch
Price: $59.99 (USD) – Review key provided by Red Art Games
After remaining dormant for nearly 28 years, the Sonic Wings series, previously known as Aero Fighters outside of Japan, was revived last year with a brand new installment, Sonic Wings Reunion. Opting to stay close to the series’ roots, this new entry continues the legacy of being a fast-paced arcade-style vertical shooter with a modest roster of selectable characters wherein your choice of character(s) results in a unique selection of dialogue that is presented between stages. The overarching story of Sonic Wings Reunion is intentionally simple: there is a mysterious terrorist group known as “Fata Morgana” that is attacking various cities across the world and it is up to “Project Blue,” an eclectic team of international plane pilots, to dispatch the threat. As one could expect with a plot this straightforward, it merely serves a vehicle to place the player into a situation where they can have free rein to gun down a seemingly endless number of opposing threats.
Gameplay
The action within Sonic Wings Reunion is classic vertical shooter fare through and through featuring a gradual power-up system where your bullet spread becomes larger and more powerful for each power-up capsule you collect, with the exact bullet spread and pattern differing based on the pilot character selected. In a similar fashion to its classic genre contemporaries, such as Gradius, most of the fun and tension within Reunion comes from trying to maintain a fully powered-up ship for as long as possible as dying causes your ship to revert back to its default state. It only takes a single hit to destroy your ship so it’s important to remain evasive and to keep a close eye on the attack patterns of each enemy.
In addition to your regular shots, there are also two separate “bomb” abilities that are determined by your choice of pilot and co-pilot; though the player can forgo having a co-pilot altogether in exchange for an additional bomb charge. Balanced by their limited charges, these “bomb” abilities are incredibly powerful, often dealing massive damage in a wide-range while some also provide additional advantages such as temporary invincibility frames. I found it consistently satisfying to bust out these abilities when the screen became a bit too chaotic and enemy-filled for my liking; they generally can serve as get out of jail free cards in these situations. While gunning my way through endless onslaughts of enemies using this arsenal of weapons was entertaining enough, I found it to be fairly mindless which resulted in me often feeling more passively occupied rather than actively engaged.
The campaign of Sonic Wings Reunion consists of eight fast-paced stages which take place in various global locations, such as Tokyo, Barcelona, and Florida (of all places) with each stage only taking roughly 3-4 minutes; meaning the entire campaign can be completed in roughly half an hour. These locales each contain a decent variety of enemies, set pieces, and boss encounters; though admittedly, the contents of each stage seemed to blend together and I couldn’t really point out much as having been memorable outside of a very entertaining final encounter with a massive Japanese macaque, or snow monkey, who starts out riding on a rocket before eventually transforming into a full-on mechanical menace.
By your average game-length standards, a 30-minute long campaign may seem incredibly low (and honestly it is), but as is common for the genre, it is expected that much of the player’s enjoyment will come from replaying the campaign numerous times either chasing high scores or attempting the higher difficulty levels. While I can respect this sort of approach in theory, I found myself fairly satisfied, if not slightly bored, after playing through the campaign twice (on normal difficulty for what it’s worth) using a different set of characters each time. While I thankfully was lucky enough to play this game with a publisher-provided review key, I have to say that if I had spent the hefty asking price of $60 for that one hour of gameplay, I would have been a bit livid; especially considering there are much better vertical shooters available such as the excellent ZeroRanger, which in my opinion is significantly more replayable and exciting to play while only costing $12.
Presentation
Similar to my thoughts on the gameplay, I found the overall presentation of Sonic Wings Reunion to be fine but quite unremarkable. The 3D graphics are often easy enough to read, which is vitally important for the genre, and I rarely found myself unable to identify the locations of enemies and their bullet spreads; that is, outside of on one stage which featured snow-white backgrounds that I found to be frustrating to parse visually. The player and enemy models also lack any sort of distinct art style or creative flourish which results in a bit of a bland visual experience overall. The stage music, while certainly embodying a sense of nostalgia via the Kenny Loggins’ “Danger Zone” adjacent rock, was unfortunately unmemorable as well and just tended to fade into the background. Sonic Wings Reunion looks and sounds exactly as you would imagine a low budget airplane centric shooter would, with little to no surprises or frills.
Final Score (2 out of 5 Stars)
Sonic Wings Reunion is a passable if unexciting revival to a long dormant series that unfortunately fails to reach any sort of heights that can justify it’s high-altitude price tag. While I had a decent enough time breezing through its campaign a couple of times, very little of the experience managed to stick with me and I highly doubt I will think of this game again anytime soon. I can’t imagine recommending Reunion to anyone outside of a scenario where it both receives a significant price decrease and the person in question is a long-time fan of the genre.
Have you played Sonic Wings Reunion or any of the prior entries in the series? What are your thoughts on this entry or on retro revivals in general? Share your reactions in the comments below or join the conversation on Boss Rush Network’s Discord and Facebook.
Featured Image: Red Art Games (via Nintendo)
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