Legendary Wings (NES) - And Legendary box art

 

Legendary Wings 
Developer: Capcom 
Release Date: July 1988 
System: NES

 

Something that I think is lost in modern gaming is how absurd a game's box art can look It's like with any questionable graphic design choice is made, we need to acknowledge that the choice was made, approved and sent to print. What the conditions were for that choice are unknown, perhaps there was a time crunch, budgetary constraints, or perhaps someone had a vision they refused to shift from forcing a poor artist's hand. Traditionally, the box art is there to capture your attention either through character star power, like with Super Mario World, or Sonic 2. It might go for a more minimalistic approach to inspire intrigue and promise, like the cover to the Legend of Zelda. Or it could just trying to summarise the game in a single image, usually by cramming in game elements. Legendary Wings opts for the latter, and as absurd as the man with wings in a tight, almost lycra, holding a rifle, flying away from a large mechanical, yet stone-like, head is absolutely on-point, true to form exactly what the game features.

 

 

 

It's glorious and belongs on a mural I want to put together and weirdly compelling box art, along with Valis III for the Turbografx-16. It is from this box art that I felt compelled to check this game out, even more so when I notice that the Developer is Capcom of all people. This surely makes this guy a prime candidate to be included in any one of those fighting collab games that Capcom likes to produce. And, would you believe me if I said there are Legendary Wings references in games like Namco x Capcom, Project X Zone 2 and even Marvel vs Capcom: Clash of Super Heroes? The original arcade version of Legendary Wings contained two playable characters, Kevin Walker and Michelle Heart. For the NES port, it seems like Michelle got the chop, but she had the last laugh as she is a support character in Marvel vs Capcom. Kevin doesn't even get a look in.

 

 

   

This is the benefit of doing research, it stops me from making comments like that and then wearing egg on my face!

 

 

 

My personal experience with SHMUPs is that they tend to put all their story in the manual, with an over-elaborated explanation for the game's events, whilst the game itself does the bare minimum to further or explain the narrative they have established This is not true of all SHMUPs, but I doubt most people play them for the engrossing storyline. True to fashion, Legendary Wings is set in the far distant future, where a super computer called Dark, which had helped humanity advance has rebelled. The God of War, Ares, gifts wings to two warriors to put a stop to Dark and save humanity. I suppose the story is supposed to be more invocative of Icarus, and the wings he and his father made. Though in the story the wings fail, mostly due to lcarus' arrogance and flying to close to the sun. I am sure there is a Classics or perhaps an English Lit major who could have a field day getting into the weeds of some of the symbolism going on in the set up for this SHMUP. I should note that the Japanese title for this game is Ares no Tsubasa, or Wings of Ares. So I shouldn't be too surprised that Ares pops up, seemingly, unannounced, in the western release of this game.

 

 

 

The game is split into two distinct sections per level, with each stage opening with a vertical scrolling section, seeing our protagonist flying over various landscapes, being harassed by a variety of airborne enemies and ground-based obstacles. You have twc weapons, your gun and bombs, the gun can destroy airborne enemies, whilst the bombs can be used to destroy things on the ground. Both weapons can be powered up, by picking up P icons that are dropped by certain enemies. Whilst the gun goes through Jifferent iterations of firing patterns, the bombs just get increased firing range and speed. If you are in a powered up state, taking damage will drop your power by a step. and getting hit at power level one will killyou. About halfway through the vertical stages you will encounter a large head in the ground, reminiscent of what is on tþe box art, that shoots tornados at you. Getting hit by one of these tornados takes you to a " Danger* zone, a horizontally scrolling sub-area that features a mini-boss. During the horizontal sections, you don't have bombs, just your gun. If you survive this area, which isn't the toughest thing in the world if you have a couple of power-ups, you continue. on your way During the second half of the stage, by bombing a certain structure and touching the tornado it releases, you can find a "Lucky" area, which is filled with items that give points, power-ups and also continues. Continuing further, eventually you will reach the end of vertical section, as you approach a temple that is guarded by statues that shoot fireballs at you and eventually face a Dragon mini-boss. Upon defeating the Dragon you enter the temple and continue as a horizontal shooter until you reach the end of stage boss, who is only vulnerable during a certain attack window. Defeat the stage boss rinse and repeat for 5 stages and beat the game!

 

 

 

But, here is the rub with Legendary Wings. The format for each stage is exactly the same. Sure, the first part of the vertical section is different, with new enemies and obstacles, the horizontal section towards the stage boss is different with new enemies...But, the "Danger" zones, the lucky rooms, the temple approach, Dragon mini-boss and even end of stage bosses are all identical, with only a small increase in difficulty for the end of stage bosses and the "Danger" zones having a different arrangements of enemies before the mini-boss. It all feels, almost placeholdery, like there was some idea that each stage would have a different mini-boss, or the end of stage bosses would be visually different..But they're not. It makes for a bland, slightly, repetitive experience, which is a little disappointing because the game itself isn't terrible. Though, I will acknowledge that the final boss does have an additional, unique phase.

 

 

 

 

 

Legendary Wings is not a hard SHMUP either, there are some areas where things might get a little dicey, and there are some annoying glitches that can frustrate the player Picking up items or taking damage removes your collision for a second or so, meaning you can accidentally clip into walls and be crushed by the scrolling screen. But I would say with a modicum of perseverance this is a game that can be beaten with only a couple of minor hiccups along the way. I would hesitate to call the game a bad game, it is mostly reasonably competent and enjoyable, but am certainly not going to be rushing back to this one anytime soon.