Originality is hard to come by in the game industry; regardless of the era. And Legendary Wings (LW) is no exception to the rule. I have to gave them credit for trying something somewhat different, though. The first thing noticeable about the game it's the theme graphics. Instead of the standard ship and space setting; now you're an angel like creature with a laser gun of sorts. Why would an angelic being needs a gun; beats me, but here they decided to armed it like that. I'd have chosen a flaming sword that spits fireballs; but that's just me. And the fact remains that it could also be a bird-man, but the other noticeable thing about the graphics tilts to the former; and that is it's mythological setting. There are temples, artifacts, head statues, hellish-looking gargoyles, tombs, caves, dragons, and other array of monstrous creatures. There's a dash of high tech machinery too, so maybe they're just aliens; and I'm simply seeing too much into it. Graphics per se are barely above average; since the NES simply doesn't have the detail resolution and color depth for what they were attempting to do. Heck; it doesn't even have the memory to do the second noticeable feature. And that's the combinatorial gameplay; you see, LW's mainly a (scrolling) vertical shooter (shoot'em-up) It's clearly noticeable that a great portion of attention, detail, and resources have been put into that area. However, there's another modal aspect of gameplay; and that is that from time to time it switches to a horizontal shooter! So it's almost like two games in one!!! Sadly in this case, neither aspect merges well with one another, and the union feels forced and badly implemented. So both aspects suffer and they detract from one another as a whole. As clearly demonstrated by other focused games; or any other practical life aspect, for that matter; as it's better to do one thing well, that two haphazardly. As a matter of fact; there even isn't required that much to pass thru the horizontal stages. They're mostly extra bonus rounds; that doesn't even move you forward the vertical stage. Ie, you leave exactly were you entered. It'd have been great it you came somewhere else; even a little warp would've been nice. So it's just another misopportunity. The fact that entering those is non required is obv another one. It's a shame because the horizontals were almost nice, free mini platform levels on themselves. Again, they should've taken a more clear direction; and either pimp the vertical, or scrap the horizontal. Well, technically they are do required later on; but by then you'd be put off by the insane difficulty level. Not as much as R-Type, though; but simply annoying. I just wished that gimmick would be put to better use. Rating for each part separately would be mediocre, but taking both together and being lenient towards the composite result; yields a better grade, barely. Again, gameplay is more difficult that needs be; and there were even some slowdowns when too much's going on screen. This only adds to the frustration of what could've been a much better game. So powerups are a necessity. Besides the normal laser attack, there's a secondary bomb type that destroys ground missile turrets like objects. It's very hard to hit those, not only because you'd be too busy shooting and trying to dodge the other air attacking units; but because they made the aux weapon too much harder to use. I'm assuming purposely. Music is nearly forgettable and so the sound FX; average at best. Hence a promise undelivered and a wasted effort; almost, because despite LW's downsides; it somehow turns overall to be a good and rewarding shooter game, that just could've been better...
