"A long lost SNES game, worth the price."

To be honest I picked up Freedom wings without ever hearing about it on a whim at my local game stop, I was just plain bored and saw this game was a flight game that was billed as an RPG and for $20 how could I go wrong even if it sucked? I have to say this was one of the best spur of the moment purchases I've ever made.

Game Play:
Game play for freedom wings is your basic flight simulator similar to games like ace combat, were you fly around and get from one point or objective to another. There are Ariel dogfights, there are several different ground and naval targets that try to gun you down and halt your progress too. There are some RPG elements as far as the story goes (explained below) but there are also similarities with earning experience, money, and instead of upgrading armor and swords and such you upgrade airplane parts, armor and weapons for better performance.
7.5 of 10

Story:
I kind of think of this as an airplane version of final lap twin (originally for the turbo grafx-16), in that you had a role playing game were you raced cars, in this the same but you fly planes. The story is pretty standard, straight forward and somewhat linear. You play the role of a young pilot whose father was an Ariel ace for the APA (Air patrol association), their objective was to eliminate the scourge of the air pirates. Your father is MIA, and most of the originals died or retired and the area is once again becoming overrun with the threat of the air pirates *CLICHE* you are the worlds only hope yadda yadda yadda. The basic objective is to free numerous seaports from pirate control by dog fighting a boss target and the story basically advances with each new area adding new people to talk to, new objectives and new items and weapons. Nothing ground breaking or in-depth, pretty straight forward one plot twist but a good attempt.
6 of 10

Graphics:
The visuals of Freedom wings is nothing to write home about, and are somewhat disappointing. At best they flash you back to the 16 bit era and make you think that this game was originally made for the SNES. Don't get me wrong you won't go blind or have your eyes start bleeding but it's kind of funny to see the same blockiness and basic use of the mode 7 scaling abilities on the ground below considering this was a game made for a current generation hand held.
4 of 10

Audio:
Freedom wings has a midi sound track that goes pretty well with the game play. The music changes from a slow casual tempo to fast and upbeat when you engage an enemy, an added plus is the boss music differs too. The sound effects were pretty decent from the beeps and bips of your enemy lock ons, to the sound of your engines and cannon fire, to the booms of dropping megga bombs on a target. Every thing was well placed and the sound was well done overall.
8 of 10

Controls
Don't get me wrong the auto control scheme works very well for this game and nothing was out of place (except if you try to land and get attacked). Most of the range of motion was point and click for either destinations and or targets, but the one problem I had with this game was the manual control functions, maybe it's just me but the plane seams to just drift like a car with a bad alignment and you have to constantly stabilize it. The other thing was it seamed just plain awkward or jerky to line up your cross hairs when shooting down an enemy plane. The third thing is it seamed really weird to have your plane loop or make a deep turn, I just don't think it should require that much effort. Again non/most of these aren't a factor with the auto control but I figured they could have designed the manual ones to work a bit better.
7 of 10

(Extras)
I don't think there's anything stellar about the extras, you unlock a few extra and hidden planes, one or two hidden weapons, I think they could have added a little more thought in this department.
5 of 10

Fun factor
This game can't be taken too seriously and as a light hearted game to pick up, shoot things down and was a few minutes or few hours at a time it is perfect. I can't see a serious/die hard air combat sim player getting too deeply in to this, or someone who doesn't like RPG and/or story games. It does get quite repetitive pretty quickly and with the exception of leveling up your stats, or earning money there's not really much to do aside from advancing the story.
7 of 10

Re-playability
This kind of ties in to the information given in the fun factor section; as stated before Freedom wings does get somewhat redundant, and with the exception of unlocking hidden planes and items or advancing the story there's not much else to do. Popping on for the occasional dogfight, and/or linking up for two players is also an option but I think it's somewhat marred by the manual control scheme (see control section).
4 of 10

Overall
Freedom wings is by no means a bad game and is worth checking out especially at it's bargain based price tag. It's no were near groundbreaking or innovative, or anything you (most likely) haven't seen before. However it is something different, a title worth having just as an extra for your collection, and something to pass the time.
6.75 of 10

Reviewer's Score: 7/10, Originally Posted: 01/18/07