Korean PS2 game: WINGZ

[unclejun]

I know what you're thinking, and I will prove it, please continue reading!

The awesome missing korean rail-shooter that you already wanted to play, the game that makes Cowboy Bebop on the PS1 look crap, the game that makes Panzer Dragoon on the Saturn look like Dragoon shite, mmh maybe I went too far with that one, please forgot I've written this one line ago and don't send me any Sega hitmen, or worse, Sega always complaining fans :)

Now behold this game that was supposed to be released on 2002-09-12. according to the july 2002 release calendar from SCEK.
It was made by the korean companies Joycast and Hanbitsoft, although they are probably denying that today.

So what can I say about this game, 'cause I played it you know, as I have not one, not even two but three versions at hand :110:

Well apart from the fact that it's graphically no better than a cheap Dreamcast game, its only feature is that you can rotate the camera horizontally in order to shoot the bad guys on your back or coming from the left and right sides.

Hopefully there's no more than 4 or 5 bad guys at the same time on each side, even if it happens that you're being attacked on 2 or more sides at once.
There is a boss at the end of almost every level, but nothing hard to kill.

To be honest in the versions I have I can't seem to die no matter what I try and I have unlimited homing missiles/energy weapons...and when I say unlimited, it's really unlimited, I fire so many of them at the same time the game suffers a really bad slowdown...on the other hand I couldn't finish the game and put my name in the top score due to its numerous crashes.

Times for a few screenshots now:
-a tribute to the creators of this piece of fine art!



The main menu, option menu and control scheme, I hope you can read korean:



Let's continue with the character selection, the 1st level intro and the upgrade shop.

There are 4 characters playable with their own ship:
-Maxx the hero with a vengeance


And Gina, Bjorn and Anna, those I won't show you!
Can guess who is the bad ass, the babe and the shy girl?

Every level starts with a 2d artwork and a piece of the story:


There you can access the shop where you can buy and sell parts for your lovely death machine, a complete range of lasers/missiles/engines/shield for at fair prices, we buy anything used and useless please visit us
and believe for a second you're a space cowboy in a wonderful space-sim /rpg à la Privateer, the shock will be rude...

In the next post, real in-game screenshots galore for your wet eyes!

[unclejun]

Here is the beginning of the first level as seen from different ships and different point of view:






Some bugs remain, like this where I 'm under the scenery:


The game is not grey as you might think, the other levels mean other scenery, for example the 3rd (or 4th level depending of the version of the game) is in a desert:


Now the good news, you can play it too, thanks to the member dr.daichi who found 3 beta versions of this game on his Tool emulation hdd
He agreed to release it to those who want to play it, I'll make the .iso files available soon.
Please send him your greetings and thanks, either here or by PM, and let's talk about the game.
And while you wait patiently, you can listen to the music, grab it here

[Johnny]

That's interesting.

So 3 different betas? Any noticeable difference between the 3?

[unclejun]

They're labelled B2, B3 and B4, B2 is dated 2002-10-17 (one month after the supposed release)and has only 3 levels:
lvl1 city
lvl2 canyon
lvl3 desert
The 3rd level crashes a lot, so no way to test if there's something after.

B3 is dated 2002-10-25, it has 5 levels:
lvl1 city
lvl2 fortress
lvl3 canyon
lvl4 desert
lvl5 port/industrial zone
I only manage to play the 5th level for a few seconds and I never saw it again, maybe I dreamt it...

B4 is dated 2002-10-31, and I haven't tried it, however its cutscenes looks nicer, less blocky.

No debug menu or anything cool, except you can skip the level with the select button.

[s3gaf4n]

It's always nice to see some new beta releases. Thanks.

[Yakumo]

I'm no PS2 fan but to see an unreleased game from Korea of allplaces is something to grab anyone's attention. It does look pretty awful, even more so than a 1st generation DC game (Geist Force looked much nicer but again never saw the light of day ) but still, a really nice find for sure. I'd even go as far as saying it's a better find than the recent Dreamcast Hell Gate.

Yakumo

[Johnny]

Originally Posted by unclejun

They're labelled B2, B3 and B4, B2 is dated 2002-10-17 (one month after the supposed release)and has only 3 levels:
lvl1 city
lvl2 canyon
lvl3 desert
The 3rd level crashes a lot, so no way to test if there's something after.

B3 is dated 2002-10-25, it has 5 levels:
lvl1 city
lvl2 fortress
lvl3 canyon
lvl4 desert
lvl5 port/industrial zone
I only maange to play the 5th level for a few seconds and I never saw it again, maybe I dreamt it...

B4 is dated 2002-10-31, and I haven't tried it, however it's cutscenes looks nicer, less blocky.

No debug menu or anything cool, except you can skip the level with the select button.

Cool!

I'm curious about B4 being almost a complete version.

Anyway, this game was probably developed with early PS2 Tools, not to mention small budget.

[Ed the Nerd]

Looking forward to the downloads!
Thanks, this looks like fun :D

[skavenger216]

Cant wait to try it out, it looks almost kinda Starfox 64-ish.

[chocomarker1]

thanks so much! i would really love to play this!

and thanks for sharing this game in the future, i cannot await the day it gets released :)