Released in 1986 by Red Rat Software, Screaming Wings is a vertically-scrolling, ‘bullet hell’ shooter in which you pilot an aircraft similar to a Lockheed P-38 Lightning (the famous single-seat WWII fighter with the twin boom design).

You begin the game by taking off from an aircraft carrier and must blast your way through waves of enemies, until you reach the carrier again. The attack waves themselves are not always the same, but seem to be randomly generated from a pool of different types. Occasionally a gigantic enemy bomber appears that you must shoot down with persistent fire.

Pressing the spacebar makes the plane do a loop that helps avoid enemy fire, although you can only use it three times per level; collecting ‘X’ powerups increases your firepower (slightly); collecting ‘D’ powerups gives you a “Destruction Bomb” that you can use by pressing the ‘D’ key; and an escort aircraft sometimes appears and flies in front of you, acting as a shield (although the game’s instruction manual doesn’t explain how this is activated).

One thing to watch out for are exploding enemies that you’ve shot, because these will destroy your aircraft if they collide with you. While this does win points for realism, it also loses points because it’s so damn annoying, and makes shooting enemies close-up a real risk. It’s also something that I don’t think I’ve seen in a bullet hell shooter before.

The most annoying thing about Screaming Wings, though, is that you are sent back to the very beginning of each stage if you lose a life. Which is brutal. So if you’re going to play the game now, I recommend using quicksaves to save yourself some frustration. If you’re playing the game on real hardware, though, you won’t have that luxury, so be prepared to tear your hair out!

Graphically, Screaming Wings is a bit messy, and enemy aircraft and bullets can often get lost in the background, making it easy to blunder into them.

The game has some beepy, rather tuneless background music playing during the action, and the gameplay and levels are really quite repetitive. Overall, this is a game that had promise, but didn’t live up to it.

Screaming Wings was also released for the Amiga and Atari ST in 1987. A fan-made “improved version” of the Atari 8-bit original can also be found online.

More: Screaming Wings on Moby Games
More: Red Rat Software on Wikipedia