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"Twitch" gamers beware...this is a mere button-masher

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 2 / 2
Date: June 12, 2001
Author: Amazon User

Giga Wing is a vertically-scrolling shooter that casts off the strategic elements that fans of the genre often look for in favor of exaggerating the action to preposterous levels. Enemies don't just hound you persistently and shoot at you in big bursts...they totally blanket the screen with fire that simply cannot be avoided with slick maneuvering and well-placed shots. Hence the "reflect force" ... a tool that creates a force field around your aircraft to repel the countless projectiles back at your foes and produce oodles of items to snatch. You can also wipe the screen clean with smart bombs, which produce similar results.

There are several different planes to choose from, each with different standard weapons which can be upgraded via appropriate power-ups, but not a great deal of variety is added to the game because of this, because fighting your way to the end is really just a matter of using your reflect force at every opportunity and dropping bombs whenever the screen gets cluttered (which is just about all the time). You're given unlimited continues and when you use one you pick up at the exact same point you left off, so there's not much incentive to be careful where you fly or to deploy your bombs conservatively. Pretty much anyone can pick up this game and beat it on their first attempt with the proper amount of patience. Continuing will reset your score (which can be up to 16 digits) but most people won't want to put themselves through the frustration of finding the one square inch on the entire TV screen where it's safe to be when the enemies are bombarding you with gunfire from about a thousand different directions at once.

In light of this criticism, my three-star rating may seem too high. Well, in spite of the simplistic gameplay and unremarkable graphics and sounds (not to mention the feeble Japanese-to-English translation), Giga Wing is sort of fun, at least for a while. It's mercifully short, and if you're not expecting a masterpiece of old-school 2-D shooting bliss, you may find some merit in it. Casual shooter fans are advised to pass it by; die-hards may want to break it out every once in a while, but chances are it won't hold too glorious a spot in their libraries.

8-Bit NES Games were better than this

2 Rating: 2, Useful: 2 / 2
Date: June 08, 2002
Author: Amazon User

I'm a long time gamer and I know my video games. Gigawing *appeared* to be a great 2D vertical old-school shooter for the DC and I was extremely pleased to see such games still being released on today's newer consoles. However, after paying the money and popping this into my DC, I began to play and within 20 minutes (I'm not joking here), the game was OVER! On my first try, I managed to beat the game's 5 stages.

Of course, being a DC game, I figured I had the game set on an easy difficulty level that only allowed access to several stages, but I read the manual and to my disbelief, that was the game in all of it's 5 stage glory! NOthing else here to extend the life of the game (save for some stupid boring cards you can earn showing various art from the game), Capcom just took the easy route and did a direct arcade port with few enhancments or additional levels. Two player mode makes the game even easier and shorter.

Why did Capcom allow this game to come out for the DC? I have no idea...arcade purists will enjoy the short, but extrememly bullet-ridden game (the game is virtually blanketed by enemy bullets at times...a testament to the fact that is was an arcade-only game where constant continues are necessary to bring profit to the arcade owner), but I've played BETTER and LONGER shooters on every system dating back to the Atari 2600! 5 stages just doesn't cut it and Capcom should have added to it!

The few good points are: the game is 100% accurate to the arcade, the graphics are garish but good in a retro-arcadey kind of way, there's virtually no slowdown even during the heaviest bullet storms, and it's a good game for people who don't have a lot of time for gaming.

That said, you'd be best served by getting Mars Matrix, another bullet-heavy short arcade-ported shooter, but one that has been somewhat expanded with various DC modes and a cool shop option where you get to buy upgrades and such to extend the life of the game. Gigawing is simply not worth the money.

Short but Sweet

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 1 / 1
Date: May 02, 2001
Author: Amazon User

Having first been a fan of the game from the arcade, I was elated when I found out that Capcom made a version of it for the Dreamcast. When I first bought it I immediately noticed that the graphics were not as sharp as the arcades, but that thought quickly left my mind as I began to play the game. All of a sudden I found myself emerged in a realm of gaming that I had not been in for quite some time. If you are a fan of shooters, then I highly recommend picking this title up. The only drawback to this game is that it is relatively short, but with three characters and hidden ships to find, the replay value makes up for that small inconvenience. A short, but sweet game indeed.

Not what one would expect from Capcom

2 Rating: 2, Useful: 1 / 5
Date: November 07, 2000
Author: Amazon User

Searching for a great traditional 2 player shooting game for Dreamcast? Sorry, but you will have to keep on searching. Giga Wing is just not up to the standard of quality I've come to expect from Capcom. It's too short, ridiculously unfair in the later levels, and the graphics leave something to be desired. Casual gamers may see my complaints as trivial, but I think most hardcore gamers that have experienced the old greats like 1943 and Raiden 1-2 will agree with me. My advice...stay away from Giga Wing, and get Raiden Project or G. Darius for Playstation instead.

THE GREATEST DREAMCAST GAME EVER!

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 0 / 1
Date: February 17, 2002
Author: Amazon User

THIS GAME IS THE BEST. IT HAS EXCELENT GRAPHICS AND THE CONTROLLES ARE SIMPLE.ALSO IF YOU LIKE FLIGHT SIMULATERS IT IS GREAT. YOU CAN HAVE UP TO 4 PLAYERS. THE ONE DOWNSIDE IS IT IS VERY SHORT.IT TOOK ME 1/2 AN HOUR TO BEAT IT MY FIRST TIME PLAYING. ALL-IN-ALL IT IS A GREAT GAME!

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