Crisis Wing describes itself as a ‘mid-90’s style arcade shoot ’em up with frantic fast paced gameplay and colourful pixel graphics’. It’s a vertical shooter, set in space, and is available on the PS5, PS4, Steam, Xbox One and Nintendo Switch. In this review, we’ll be taking a look at the PlayStation 5 version.
I really enjoy 90’s and mid 90’s arcade shooters. Console schmups in particular I’ve always loved, from Blazing Lazers on the TurboGrafx-16 to Zero Wing on the Mega Drive, there are simply too many to count. So any game that attempts to recreate the magic of those games will always tickle my fancy, but as it’s a genre I’m pretty familiar with, anything that doesn’t mesh with the intended style will clearly stand out.
Let’s start with some of the good points. The graphics are well-drawn, and overall look sharp. It’s easy to pick out projectiles on screen as they stand out well against the background, and the game has really great performance, it’s smooth sailing throughout, with nary a hiccup or any slowdown in sight. The scrolling is smooth too, which isn’t necessarily linked to performance, so to see it implemented correctly is always great to see.
Now for the not so good. Crisis Wing is split up into seven stages, and unfortunately, the stages are probably the weakest part of the game. They consist of a couple of different layers, repeating over and over throughout the whole stage. It gets really repetitive, really fast. Proper 90’s space shooters always felt like they was taking you on an adventure, travelling through different areas, over big vista’s and detailed backgrounds, it was one of the best parts of those games. The lack of anything interested to see whilst travelling through the stages is quite dissapointing.
The enemies too, are rather generic. Most are just standard robot style space ships, there’s nothing particularly creative, even in the bosses. The gameplay consists of 3 different power-ups, a big bomb style attack and the regular attack. This all adds up to the game feeling like a scrolling shooting gallery rather than a proper vertical shooter, and it’s a shame. I hate to use the same word twice, but it is just repetitive.
The music is quite enjoyable though. It’s pretty standard FM synth style fare, but my ears can never get tired of that kind of thing. It fit’s the intended tone well, and It’s the one thing I quite enjoy about the game.
Ultimately, Crisis Wing only costs £6.49 so I can’t be too harsh. If you’re looking for a standard vertical shooter to spend a couple of hours with and then forget about, this might be the game for you. If you’re looking for something with a little more depth or longevity, give this one a pass.
You can purchase the game on PS4 and PS5 here and visit the publisher’s website here. If you’re interested in arcade shooters, why not check out our review of G-Darius HD for the Nintendo Switch.
