#144 Gemini Wing

Posted: 24th March 2020 by Jeroen in Games
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855th played so far

Genre: Shoot ‘Em Up
Platform: Arcade
Year of Release: 1987
Developer: Tecmo
Publisher: Tecmo

We have covered well over 100 shooters right now. From the outside, this looks like one of many sidescrollers that time hasn’t been kind too – probably with its own unique features, but nothing is jumping out at me that’s really getting me excited.

Our Thoughts

For the most part, Gemini Wing is a standard side-scrolling shooter. The enemies are pretty generic aliens, pretty much as you’d expect, and the backgrounds are pretty standard.

What stands out, as the special feature of the game, is the special weapon system. There are a bunch of nice ones, but the way you use them isn’t the same as other times. Normally, you’d get unlimited shots of a weapon that changes as you collect different power-ups, or you get one or two charges that get replaced as you get a new one. In Gemini Wing, the shots of your special weapons follow you instead. You shoot them out in the order you connect, but there’s this constant connection between your special weapon and what you see and connect. It’s a neat idea and works quite well here.

Final Thoughts

I can’t say that, as a game, Gemini Wing impressed me enough to stand out – it’s a step in the genre’s development that probably makes sense when you follow it, but doesn’t stand out when you don’t have the context. The weapon system works nicely, though, and that makes it feel like there’s more here that could stand out.