The NES did an outstanding job on the arcade conversion here. I feel like this is a title whose name I have seen, but I have definitely never played it -- something I may need to try to correct! This reminds me so much of "Silkworm", which is one of my all-time favorite NES games and also all-time favorite shmups. It looks a bit less blisteringly hard than that game, but the other similarities (helicopter able to shoot forward and diagonal as the screen scrolls right and everything tries to kill you) are pretty striking. Thanks for this introduction!
Thanks for watching as always my friend! So a couple of things with this game. I'd heard of it too but it wasn't until I was researching this season that I found out that there's 2 games called Airwolf on the NES/Famicom. The NES port is a completely different game whereas the one featured here is the Famicom version which is a direct port of the arcade. It's kind of like how the SNES & Super Famicom each had a Casper game from different years and were totally separate games. The other thing is that the Famicom game looks fantastic graphically and has all of the components of an excellent schmup except the dropping framerate in conjunction with shots not always being fired when pressing the button caused for a lot of frustration. If you try this one let me know what you think though because I'm not the greatest at this type of game and maybe it was more of me sucking rather than a fundamental flaw with the game.
@@RetroComparisons Ohhh, gotcha. That does make sense. One thing I will say... despite my praise for the game's first impression, I did find it very weird that your bombs hit the ground and just bounce till they hit a building or person. I mean, I'm no munitions expert, but I don't think missiles are supposed to bounce like that! LOL
I have never played either version, although after watching this vid in full before starting to comment... I give mad props to the Devs of the NES version. An epic port! Winner: NES Although it seems like a slightly different game this is a good one for the NES. I would certainly play it. Nice job on this one, it seemed like a fun one. I am curious on your thoughts!
Thanks for watching buddy! So this NES port had everything going for it except for the random fps drops. I'm not sure if it was that fps problem or a separate issue but there were times where I was trying to shoot and the bullets weren't coming out (maybe only so many projectiles could be on screen at once?) which caused for a lot of unnecessary deaths. This would be a perfect game for someone to touch up a few of the issues and it would result in one of the best schmups on the system IMO.
@@RetroComparisons Oh there's lag?Thats unfortunate still looks like they did a solid job on the conversion it looks like the same game so there's that haha 😄
@@MKF30 If there was no lag this would be one of the best shooters I've ever played on the NES so it's a damn shame. But yeah overall this is still a great conversion.
@@RetroComparisons Lol 😆 I see. I don't know I find this funny. Viewers-this don't look bad. Retrocomparisons-Yeah but there's lag!😠 Lol 😆👍🏼don't mind me im just teasing ya and just woke up from a nap 🤪
Those bouncing bombs :P So the Mega Drive version wasn't the first kind of off Airwolf title. Edit: I actually really like the NES version with that Airwolf theme song. Looks, at least, like fun.
Due to the NES lag I'd say arcade too because it was less frustrating. However, I think they did a really great job with everything else in the NES port.
Wait...why I know that track from the first level? I haven't played that game, like at all. Anyway, the arcade one looks VERY basic, like it was released in 1986 or something. Still had really colorful and facture backgrounds. The NES one...of course, it can do only so much with graphics, but my gosh, the levels look WAY more advanced. Great port! Looking forward to play it someday))
Hmm interesting with the music. Perhaps you've seen a clip of the show or maybe another youtuber has used it for one of their videos? I think the NES port looks really unique and great but I'll give you a heads up in case you try it that I found the gameplay to be very frustrating. The lag resulted in a lot of cheap, unnecessary deaths.
Oh, interesting. My friend Brian had an Airwolf game for the NES, but it wasn't this. This looks like it might be more fun. I've definitely not played the one's you are showing here. I'd say the NES version sounds better and looks better to me though I could see someone preferring the arcade graphics. The NES version certainly seems to have slowdown that the arcade doesn't. The arcade version is definitely not great looking for its day, and the NES one not one of better looking games on the system. Maybe a slight win for the NES? How well does this one play, Bill? Have you played the other NES Airwolf game? That one was pretty janky.
Yeah, that's what I was thinking - the arcade game looks nothing liek the NES version - but then this side-scrolling NES game is shown. It has the song so I guess it's a version of Airwolf, but I remember one that was like cockpit view with sections where you had to land to rescue some guys on the ground - it was very tricky! It played the song though...constantly!
This is such a weird one. Normally when there's a US version of a game and Japanese version I choose the US to showcase. A good example of that is the recent After Burner 2 video. However, this is 2 completely different games with the same name on the same system and since the Famicom version was a port of the arcade I went with that one. I haven't tried the US version of this game though based on a video I watched when trying to figure this out it didn't look that good. As far as the Famicom game goes, I really like the graphics but the gameplay is ultra frustrating. The lag is a major issue and the shooting felt unresponsive at times resulting in cheap deaths.
@@ruxcooking This is a really weird case where there's 2 completely different games with the same name on the same system. The only other example I can think of like that is Casper on the SNES.
@@brianjl7477 It's a strange case of there being 2 completely different games with the same name on the same console. Well I guess one technically on the NES and one on the Famicom, but technically the same. The Famicom version was a direct port of the arcade whereas the American version is a totally different game.
