Crisis Wing from eastasiasoft and Pieslice Productions is an old-school 1990s style shoot ‘em up on PlayStation. Learn more in our Crisis Wing review!

 

Crisis Wing from eastasiasoft and Pieslice Productions is an old-school 1990s style shoot ‘em up on PlayStation. It pays homage to the classics with vertical stages that are packed with enemies and mini-bosses, as well as a large boss at the end of the stage. The game uses a pixel art style to really make you feel that you’re playing a classic shoot ‘em up. The songs in the game are also great, featuring an FM soundtrack that does a great job of complementing the action.

The game includes four different gameplay modes. There’s the main one which can be played with one or two players locally, and it will have you exploring each of the game’s seven stages as you try to survive the many enemies and bosses that want to destroy you. Then we have Time Attack Mode, which gives you two and half minutes to score as many points as possible. While you do have infinite lives, every time you die, you will lose 15 seconds. Boss Rush Mode has you fighting against all of the bosses in the game with a limited number of lives, so you’re going to have to make every single one count! The last option is Practice Mode, where you can learn all of the basics.

 

Crisis Wing one pays homage to the classic shoot ‘em up games from the 1990s, which means that the control setup is simple and to the point. You’ll move your spaceship with either the left analog stick or the D-Pad, shooting at everything with the X button. If you need to destroy a ton of enemies and their bullets or want to deal considerable damage to bosses, then you can press the Circle button to use one of your bombs from your limited stock. A single hit will kill you, but if you score high enough, you’ll be rewarded with an extra life.

 

As you destroy enemies, you will notice that some of them leave a medal behind. If you manage to collect them one after the other, they will increase in value, starting at 100 points for the first medal, and going all the way up to 10,000 points per medal! There are also power-ups you can collect, which are available in three colors: green, red, and blue. Depending on the color of the power-up, when you collect it, you will get one of the three special weapons that will boost your ship’s firepower. Collect two extra power-ups of the same color a second time, and you will get a small increase to the damage it deals.

 

Since the game is cross-buy, that means that you’ll get both the PlayStation 4 and the PlayStation 5 versions with your purchase. The good news is that each version of the game has a separate trophy list, and each one of them has a Platinum trophy for you! It’s a short list with seven Silver trophies and nine Gold trophies, with objectives such as defeating the first boss, playing the main game in single-player as the red ship, doing the same as the blue ship, scoring 50,000, 100,000, and 200,000 points in the single-player mode, scoring at least 100,000 in Time Attack Mode and scoring at least 75,000 points in Boss Rush Mode. There are also trophies for playing Boss Rush Mode and Time Attack Mode at least once.

If you’re a shoot ‘em up fan, then you should definitely check out Crisis Wing. It nails the 1990s vertical shoot ‘em up look, sound, and feel, offering seven stages to complete, a Time Attack Mode, a Boss Rush Mode, as well as allowing you to play the main missions in single-player or two-player modes. Add a Platinum trophy, and you have a game that is easy to recommend. Crisis Wing is out on PlayStation 4 and PlayStation 5 as a cross-buy game with a $7.99 price.

Disclaimer
This Crisis Wing review is based on a PlayStation 4 copy provided by eastasiasoft.