Uploaded October 2020 | Updated September 2026, 3 weeks ago
Full Run/Playthrough of Airwolf (エアーウルフ) for the Famicom by Kyugo! This was played on a real Famicom AV with the real cart.
Stage Listing:
00:00 - Start
00:19 - Stage 1
04:01 - Stage 2
09:35 - Stage 3
13:44 - Stage 4
17:38 - Stage 5
22:10 - Stage 6
25:36 - Final Boss + Ending
Airwolf is a horizontally scrolling shooter made exclusively for the Famicom. That's right, this game is actually completely different than the version of Airwolf that was released for the NES despite having the same exact name. Like the NES game this one is based on a TV show that was released in the 80's. Other than that, I don't know anything about the show or how it relates to the game iteself.
So getting into the game, you play as a helicopter and get to pick your weapon loadout at the start of each mission. You get to select both a main gun and a missle, with each having 3 different options. I used the cannon and the copperhead for each mission except the last one, where I used the redeye instead of the copperhead. One you start the level you can pick up power ups to increase your firepower.
In addition to your weapons, you also have the ability to increase the speed of your craft and turn invincible for a period of time. This ability uses up your fuel, and once it's gone, you can no longer utilize it. This ability essentially acts as your "bomb" for a lack of a better term, since it can get you out of situations that would normally kill you. Despite being invincible to enemies, I do think you can still crash into terrain and die, at least I think that's happened to me in stage 3. Your fuel gets replenished at the start of each level or if you die and get sent back to a checkpoint.
Beyond the standard shoot em up stages (and there are 6 of them plus an addition area with the final boss), there are "mini-games" at the end of each level. These are basically gallery type shooting levels where you have to destroy all the enemies before your life runs out. They are very easy and I never lost a single one of these rounds ever.
In addition to these bonus levels, you will also be giving a passcode at the end of each level. Make sure to write these down if you intend on getting the good ending, as you will need them at the very end of the game. Note: These codes change every time you play the game, so you need to keep track of them each run.
As for the stages, you get to fight over oceans, glaciers, deserts, inside caves, and across a city skyline (New York I guess). All of this culminates in a battle over...Evil Mount Rushmore? This is where the game gets weird, as you must literally deface each statue that has apparently been taken over by the bad guys.
After you've wrecked the founding fathers you are tasked with facing the final boss, which is some sort of super helicopter that has a simple pattern but takes a ton of damage before it goes down. Once you've taken him down it's time to enter those passcodes to finish up the game. I'm not exactly sure what the bad ending looks like because I've only beaten the game once (this video) and got the good ending.
Airwolf is a pretty good game and I definitely recommend playing it. It's really a shame we didn't get this version in the US.
Full Run/Playthrough of Airwolf (エアーウルフ) for the Famicom by Kyugo! This was played on a real Famicom AV with the real cart.
Stage Listing:
00:00 - Start
00:19 - Stage 1
04:01 - Stage 2
09:35 - Stage 3
13:44 - Stage 4
17:38 - Stage 5
22:10 - Stage 6
25:36 - Final Boss + Ending
Airwolf is a horizontally scrolling shooter made exclusively for the Famicom. That's right, this game is actually completely different than the version of Airwolf that was released for the NES despite having the same exact name. Like the NES game this one is based on a TV show that was released in the 80's. Other than that, I don't know anything about the show or how it relates to the game iteself.
So getting into the game, you play as a helicopter and get to pick your weapon loadout at the start of each mission. You get to select both a main gun and a missle, with each having 3 different options. I used the cannon and the copperhead for each mission except the last one, where I used the redeye instead of the copperhead. One you start the level you can pick up power ups to increase your firepower.
In addition to your weapons, you also have the ability to increase the speed of your craft and turn invincible for a period of time. This ability uses up your fuel, and once it's gone, you can no longer utilize it. This ability essentially acts as your "bomb" for a lack of a better term, since it can get you out of situations that would normally kill you. Despite being invincible to enemies, I do think you can still crash into terrain and die, at least I think that's happened to me in stage 3. Your fuel gets replenished at the start of each level or if you die and get sent back to a checkpoint.
Beyond the standard shoot em up stages (and there are 6 of them plus an addition area with the final boss), there are "mini-games" at the end of each level. These are basically gallery type shooting levels where you have to destroy all the enemies before your life runs out. They are very easy and I never lost a single one of these rounds ever.
In addition to these bonus levels, you will also be giving a passcode at the end of each level. Make sure to write these down if you intend on getting the good ending, as you will need them at the very end of the game. Note: These codes change every time you play the game, so you need to keep track of them each run.
As for the stages, you get to fight over oceans, glaciers, deserts, inside caves, and across a city skyline (New York I guess). All of this culminates in a battle over...Evil Mount Rushmore? This is where the game gets weird, as you must literally deface each statue that has apparently been taken over by the bad guys.
After you've wrecked the founding fathers you are tasked with facing the final boss, which is some sort of super helicopter that has a simple pattern but takes a ton of damage before it goes down. Once you've taken him down it's time to enter those passcodes to finish up the game. I'm not exactly sure what the bad ending looks like because I've only beaten the game once (this video) and got the good ending.
Airwolf is a pretty good game and I definitely recommend playing it. It's really a shame we didn't get this version in the US.
![Raiden (TG-16) - Full Run ALL Clear [to 2-7]](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/6FEnAcwCF1I/mqdefault.jpg "Raiden (TG-16) - Full Run ALL Clear [to 2-7]
Full Run of Raiden (雷電) for the Turbografx-16/PC Engine. I made it to stage 7 of loop 2 before getting the game over, with a score of around 3.5 Million. This was played on a real TG-16 with the real HuCard.
Stage Listing:
00:00 - Intro
00:22 - Stage 1
02:58 - Stage 2
06:27 - Stage 3
09:43 - Stage 4
14:07 - Stage 5
17:55 - Stage 6
22:09 - Stage 7
25:10 - Stage 8
28:14 - Final Boss + Ending
29:16 - Loop 2 Stage 1
31:55 - Loop 2 Stage 2
36:15 - Loop 2 Stage 3
39:39 - Loop 2 Stage 4
45:07 - Loop 2 Stage 5
48:56 - Loop 2 Stage 6
54:39 - Loop 2 Stage 7
Raiden for the Turbografx/PC Engine is a port of the classic arcade game that was a massive hit back in the 90s, and it was virtually ubiquitous in arcades at the time. So how does this port stack up to the arcade version? Well its pretty good, but there are definitely some differences, some of which are only obvious if youve put time into both versions.
First off, the graphics are quite good in this port, everything looks pretty close to the arcade version unlike the Genesis port (which looked much more drab) or the horrendous SNES port (which is just terrible in general). The stages do seem a bit shorter than I remember though, so Im sure cuts were made to the length of the game. While the graphics looks nice there is still plenty of flicker when the screen gets filled up and things start to get hectic.
Unfortunately the music doesnt hold up as well, a lot of the tunes are muffled and just dont have the vigor that they did in the arcade version. Id actually rank this port near the bottom in that department, as even the SNES version had better music.
As for the mechanics of the game, the scoring is basically the same, you pick up medals throughout the stages which add to your end of stage bonus assuming you didnt die (medals x bombs x 1000 = end of stage bonus). That is the bulk of your score, the remainder comes from picking up excess powerups once you are fully powered, and you also get a massive 1 Million point bonus for clearing the game.
Unlike the arcade version, you can carry more bombs (9 vs 7) in this one, and you also continue to get extends based on score, whereas the arcade version capped you to only 2 of them. So this game throws a lot more extra lives your way, especially if you are scoring well.
Unfortunately (I guess depending on how you view it) this version does carry over the checkpoints on deaths that made the original Japanese arcade version so ridiculous. However, unlike that version where a single death was basically the end of your run, you can actually recover quite well in most of the checkpoints, especially if you got the fairy earlier.
When all that said I would probably still rank the TG version a tad behind the Genesis port, mainly because the Genesis version has fewer cuts to the stages, better music, and no flickering. Either way, this is a very solid and competent port, and it gets my recommendation.")
