The Flying Fortress is the main protagonist of the 1989 shoot 'em up Twin Hawk. It is a uniquely-named prop-engined fighter that commandeers a counterattack against an enemy invasion launched on its country's air base. Its survival is largely dependent on the assistance of allied aircraft.
History[]
The story of Twin Hawk is different for both the Arcade, PC Engine and Sega Genesis versions.
Arcade/PC Engine[]
In the year 193X, an unnamed enemy invaded the country "R", prioritizing its attack on the small oasis town "S". To hasten their success in conquering this town, they poison their food and water supplies. TFortunately, the inhabitants suspected foul play and refused to eat and drink the suspicious food sources, averting a disaster. The inhabitants of "R" wrote SOS messages to alert possible allies for aid, but these were intercepted and destroyed by the enemy. Those who wished not to stand by decided the only way they could fight back was to launch a counterattack. To do this, they built a secret base and formed an airfare called the Twin Hawk Anti-conquest Flying Corp, but just before it was officiated, the base's cover was blown and the enemy responded by attacking it. In the haste, the country launched the only available aircraft in the Twin Hawk Flying Corp's lead aircraft, the Flying Fortress to fight off the enemy, with other aircrafts on reserve to assist it when possible.
The Flying Fortress, in spite of facing numerous enemies, had one supreme advantage: it is the only air power. Flying Fortress travels across the country, devastating the enemy's forces thanks to its air dominance, demonstrating its supremacy in the air. After destroying numerous super weapons that the enemy deployed, Flying Fortress smashes into the enemy's main army and destroys its final super weapon. Although the invasion was foiled, Flying Fortress is not out of the predicament yet: the enemy force used all its remnants of its military in one last attempt to shoot down Flying Fortress and prevent it from escaping. But the enemy's final gambit failed and Flying Fortress returns to base, completing its mission... Only to receives an order to scramble to fight off the enemy that had been thought to have been vanquished. A hero's quest to peace is never done...
Sega Genesis[]
Following the end of World War II in an alternate timeline, a new European country known as Gorongo was formed, however all was not peaceful for the new country's government. General Giovanni of the Gorongo military was furious with the results of the war and the state of the nation - a sentiment shared by Giovanni's military personnel. So in protest, he launched a Coup d'état against the country's government that gained the support of his loyal soldiers. Setting up their base on Bobo Island, south of Gorongo, Giovanni declared the newly independent island state Fuangania and plotted to take over Gorongo. To do this, Giovanni's forces launched an invasion consisting of massive ground and sea attack forces to successfully capture the town of Kusunoki. In response, Gorongo President Bratt ordered a counterattack that consisted on one form of attack force that Giovanni lacked: an air force.
The special air force, called "Great Cyclone" is set up on a mountain base after a secret Fuangania fortress was spotted being constructed nearby. There they trained the special air force to prepare for the future counterattack, but before training was completed, their forces were spotted by the Fuangania invaders, who decided to launch a surprise attack to crush them while they were vulnerable. Just before Fuangania's forces attack the base however, the Flying Fortress is launched, with the rest of the air force prepared when the aircraft needed their assistance. The Flying Fortress's mission was simple: to fly into Giovanni's secret base and take him and his commanding unit out before they overthrew Gorongo's government.
The Flying Fortress, taking the full advantage of being the only air power to command air superiority, manages to destroy the invaders, preventing them from attacking the base on Gorongo, before flying across the sea into Fuangania, where the fighter plane battled against the enemy's forces. The aircraft, alongside the rest of the air force destroy Giovanni's army, including all of his super weapons, rendering the invasion a failure. But Flying Fortress is still in danger: even with it lost the war, what is left of Fuangania's military was hell-bent on making Flying Fortress never fly again. Flying Fortress had to slaughter its way out of Fuangania and its naval perimeter - thus further dismantling the already weakened Fuanganian military. With Fuangania no longer a threat, the Flying Fortress's mission is accomplished, and it returns to base alongside the surviving Great Cyclone air force - only to fly off once more to eliminate more Fuanganian forcesthat keeps threatening the peace. Flying Fortress will never rest until there is a peace in Gorongo...
Weapons[]
The Flying Fortress uses a basic arsenal consisting of only three weapons: a machine gun, a special ability to call in a squadron of ally aircraft to provide support in combat, and a bomb.
- Machine Gun - the primary weapon used by the Flying Fortress, it fires two rapid-fire rounds forwards. When upgraded, the number of shots as well as the spread increases, allowing the fighter plane to cover a wider range whilst dealing more damage against larger enemies. Machine gun can be upgraded by obtaining a typical "P" item. It must be noted that a specially colored truck (on land) or a boat (on sea) is to be destroyed to make P item appear.
- Helper - when activated, a squadron of six allied aircraft come to the aid of the Flying Fortress. Each of the aircraft provides extra firepower in the form of a dual machine gun shot that fires in succession with that of the Flying Fortress. When one of the aircraft is hit by enemy fire, they will preform a kamikaze/dive bomb attack into the enemy that shot them down, dealing heavy damage upon impact. If the Helper button is pressed after all the aircraft are in formation, all the aircraft will perform this sacrificial maneuver against the nearest enemies. The Flying Fortress only has a limited stock of this ability, so it must be replenished via "H" power-ups to take advantage of this ability.
- Bomb - when the Helper button is double tapped before all the allied planes are in formation, the Flying Fortress will instead deploy a bomb that detonates into a medium-sized circular explosion, the explosion deals heavy damage to all enemies within its radius, as well as destroys enemy projectiles. Like the Helper ability, there is only a limited supply of bombs, so the Flying Fortress must replenish them regularly to maintain its efficiency. Bomb can also be replenished by collecting H item. Because this activates by double-tapping the help button there is a split second lag before the bomb is deployed, which may result many deaths due to the bomb not activating on time.
Gallery[]
Trivia[]
- Though the aircraft is named after the B-17 Flying Fortress, its design is clearly based on the A6M "Zero" aircraft.
- In the Sega Genesis version of Twin Hawk, the Flying Fortress posesses a unique ability that allows it to transform into a different aircraft after completing a certain loop of the game. This first occurs after completing the second loop, which results in the craft turning into a helicopter, after completing the fourth loop, it turns into a first-generational jet, and after the fifth loop, it transforms into a stealth fighter. The appearance change is purely cosmetic, and will not affect the performance of the aircraft.