Sonic Wings 2

January 2, 2026

Finally I can rest...oops, not happening

Sonic Wings 2, also known as Aero Fighters 2 outside Japan, is the second entry in the series. Apparently, the name change was made to avoid confusion with our friend Sonic the Hedgehog.

A shoot’em up with simple mechanics but hard to master. While it’s more manageable in 2P mode, playing solo is a real challenge, especially if you’re aiming for a 1CC…good luck!

Despite its seemingly serious warlike tone, nothing could be further from the truth: a dolphin pilot, a baby, a human head inside an arcade machine…delirious bosses.

And even though the story is practically nonexistent: saving Earth from an unknown invading threat by shooting everything with our shiny fighter jet, it’s a very fun and frenetic game.

What I Liked Most

I love that you really have to earn your way through the game, and that no matter how many infinite continues you have, both stage 10 and stage 20 always restart from the beginning, forcing you to sweat to finish them…especially stage 20.
Although the musical aspect doesn’t particularly stand out in this game, the music in the Neo Geo CD version, as happens with some other titles, is superior to the Arcade or AES versions. The choirs that appear at certain moments are amazing, for example, in the final stage (10 or 20), where we can hear some chants (minute 1:24) that could easily belong to cultists from some undefined place in another dimension…
Being able to pause the game at any time. The version I played, Neo Geo CD, allows it, which is hugely appreciated when you’re in the middle of an epic run and need to stop for whatever reason.
In 2P mode you can choose any character combination, unlike the first entry where pairs were fixed. On top of that, all combinations have an exclusive ending, a really nice touch.
We can save the game when we lose a life and therefore resume from the beginning of the screen where we left off, which helps a lot when training those damn stages, there are quite a few of them.

What didn’t win me over

From my point of view, the hitbox is too large, and there are moments where maneuvering becomes very difficult.
The fact that the score doesn’t reset when we lose all lives and continue. I think it loses some of its charm to keep accumulating points after using a continue.

Shmup breakdown

Stages

10 unique stages: 8 with bosses and 2 bonus stages.
After finishing the first 10 and thinking the game is over, the run continues up to stage 20. The same scenarios, but much harder.
The stages are fairly short, so you reach the bosses quickly.
The order of stages 2, 3, and 4 is random.

Controls

Classic setup: one button for normal shot and another for bombs.
You can carry a maximum of 6 bombs.
There is no auto-fire, you have to mash the button.
Each pilot’s aircraft has its own quirks 👇
- 🤖 Robo-Keaton:
  - Powered shot: no homing
  - Bomb: full-screen sweep, but not immediately invulnerable
- 🦜 Captain Silver:
  - Powered shot: no homing
  - Bomb: circular area, immediate invulnerability
- 🥷 Hien:
  - Powered shot: homing (shurikens)
  - Bomb: narrow beam fired from the ship, immediate invulnerability
- 👩‍✈️ Mao Mao:
  - Powered shot: no homing
  - Bomb: freezes enemies (careful, you can still crash, it does not make you invulnerable)
- 👧👧 Cincia and Ellen:
  - Powered shot: homing
  - Bomb: full screen, does not protect immediately (missile barrage)
- 🐬 Whity:
  - Powered shot: launches small bombs that you can project at enemies
  - Bomb: horizontal sweep from the ship
- 🌹 Angela:
  - Powered shot: homing
  - Bomb: circular area (similar to Captain Silver’s), immediate invulnerability
- 👶 Arthur:
  - Powered shot: the only spread shot in the game (no homing)
  - Bomb: grants immediate invulnerability with wide range

Power Ups

You can upgrade your shot up to level 3 by collecting items (P), which increase it one level at a time, or by grabbing the “full power” (F), which takes you straight to level 3.
Level 3 is temporary, after some time, you’ll revert to level 2.

Scoring

Some targets drop bonus items, the higher up the screen you collect them, the higher the score.
If you’re at level 3 and pick up more power-ups, you earn extra points, as well as when you already have the maximum of 6 bombs and collect more bomb items.

Hitbox

Very large: dodging in tight spaces is difficult.

Bosses

The bosses in stages 10 and 20 are random. Any of the following enemies can appear, with different probabilities:
- Lar (the eye): the most common, almost always appears.
- Tenukie Chaudo (the ghost): a cute but massive ghost that appears sometimes.
- Manbou (the fish): it’s very rare to see it appear. Apparently it’s completely random and has a very low probability. I’ve only managed to see it once ✌️.

My favorite songs

Explore the game on the shelf