Twin Hawk

From Sega Retro

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  • NTSC-J

TwinHawk MDTitleScreen.png

Daisenpu MD JP TitleScreen.png

Twin Hawk
System(s): Sega Mega Drive
Publisher: Sega
Developer:
Original system(s): Arcade boards
Genre: Shooting[1][2]

















Number of players: 1
Release Date RRP Code
Sega Mega Drive
JP
¥6,0006,000 G-4034
Sega Mega Drive
EU
1117
Sega Mega Drive
BX
Sega Mega Drive
UK
£39.9939.99[3] 1117
Sega Mega Drive
AU
Non-Sega versions

Twin Hawk, originally released in Japan as Daisenpuu (大旋風), is a 1989 arcade shoot-'em-up by Toaplan. It was ported to the Mega Drive by Sega in 1990, and released exclusively in Japan and Europe.

Some magazines incorrectly identified the game as Flying Shark or 1943. While Twin Hawk bears a resemblance to the former, Flying Shark was never released for a Sega system (though its sequel, Fire Shark, was ported to the Mega Drive).

Story

At the end of an alternate World War II, a new European country is formed called Gorongo. General Giovanni of the Gorongo military was infuriated with the results of the war and what it meant to the country of Gorongo, initiating a rebellion against the country's government that was widely followed by his soldiers. Holing themselves up on Bobo Island, south of Gorongo, Giovanni declared the occupation as the independent state of Fuangania and plotted to take over Gorongo. After taking over the town of Kusunoki, the Fuangania invasion, consisting of massive ground and sea attack forces, started to spread. Gorongo President Bratt ordered a counterattack that focused on the one type of firepower Giovanni lacked: an air force. The special air force "Daisenpuu" sets up a mountain base after spotting a secret Fuangania fortress under construction. However, nearing the end of their training, the air force is spotted by the Fuangania and are preparing to attack. It is up to the player, in the role of a wing commander, to fly into Giovanni's secret base and take him and his commanding unit out.

Gameplay

Twin Hawk, Helper Planes.png

Helper planes

The game is a vertically scrolling shoot-'em-up. There are only land and sea enemies to be fought, with no aerial targets to be found. Enemies are mostly tanks and can enter the playfield from any side. Unusually, there are no breaks in the gameplay, with the entire game playing as essentially one endless stage. The player controls a World War II-era propeller plane and fights an assortment of military enemy forces like tanks, battleships, and artillery.

The plane moves in any direction with the D-Pad. It shoots its guns with A or C, which can be held for rapid-fire. There is a "Rapid" option that increases the rate of fire. The plane's guns can be upgraded to shoot more streams in parallel by collecting power-ups. The player can call in a squadron of six white helper planes that shoot with the player and dive-bomb the nearest enemy when shot down. This can be done two times per life. The helper planes fly in a fixed formation but shift left or right with the player's plane. The player can summon the helper planes with B. Pressing B again before the planes are in formation trades the planes for a large bomb attack. Pressing B again after the planes are in formation orders all of the helper planes to dive-bomb the nearest enemies.

The plane is destroyed if it is hit by enemy fire, respawning at a predetermined checkpoint with its weapon at baseline strength and with two formation calls. Because none of the enemies are flying, the player's plane flies over them instead of colliding with them. If any helper planes are out when the player's plane is destroyed, they dive-bomb any nearby enemies. The game ends if the player runs out of lives. There are no continues. The player earns an extra life at 70,000 points and then every 200,000 points after that. There are two selectable difficulty levels (Easy and Hard).

After completing the last stage, as with other Toaplan shoot-'em-up games, the game loops over again from the beginning, with the difficulty increasing.

Items

Items appear when the player destroys friendly trucks or boats. The color of the truck or boat indicates the item that is dropped. Items bounce around the screen until collected or until the screen scrolls past them.

Twin Hawk, Items.png
Twin Hawk, Items.png
Twin Hawk, Items.png
Orange Truck or Boat
Orange trucks and boats release the P item, which increases the firepower of the plane's guns, up to 3 times. Each upgrade adds another two streams of bullets.
Twin Hawk, Items.png
Twin Hawk, Items.png
Twin Hawk, Items.png
White Truck or Boat
White trucks and boats release the H item, which gives the player another use of the helper planes.
Twin Hawk, Items.png
Twin Hawk, Items.png
Twin Hawk, Items.png
Blue Truck or Boat
Blue trucks and boats release the 1 Up item, which gives the player an extra life.
Twin Hawk, Items.png
Twin Hawk, Items.png
Green Truck or Boat
Green trucks and boats do not release an item but award 1,000 bonus points when destroyed.

Areas

Though the game is presented as one uninterrupted stage, it is divided into four large areas, punctuated by a change in music and indicated in the status area on the right side of the screen.

Twin Hawk, Stage 1-1.png

Twin Hawk, Stage 1-2.png

Twin Hawk, Stage 1-3.png

Twin Hawk, Stage 1-4.png

  • Twin Hawk, Stage 1-1.png

  • Twin Hawk, Stage 1-2.png

  • Twin Hawk, Stage 1-3.png

  • Twin Hawk, Stage 1-4.png

Area 1

Twin Hawk, Stage 2-1.png

Twin Hawk, Stage 2-2.png

Twin Hawk, Stage 2-3.png

Twin Hawk, Stage 2-4.png

  • Twin Hawk, Stage 2-1.png

  • Twin Hawk, Stage 2-2.png

  • Twin Hawk, Stage 2-3.png

  • Twin Hawk, Stage 2-4.png

Area 2

Twin Hawk, Stage 3-1.png

Twin Hawk, Stage 3-2.png

Twin Hawk, Stage 3-3.png

Twin Hawk, Stage 3-4.png

  • Twin Hawk, Stage 3-1.png

  • Twin Hawk, Stage 3-2.png

  • Twin Hawk, Stage 3-3.png

  • Twin Hawk, Stage 3-4.png

Area 3

Twin Hawk, Stage 4-1.png

Twin Hawk, Stage 4-2.png

Twin Hawk, Stage 4-3.png

Twin Hawk, Stage 4-4.png

  • Twin Hawk, Stage 4-1.png

  • Twin Hawk, Stage 4-2.png

  • Twin Hawk, Stage 4-3.png

  • Twin Hawk, Stage 4-4.png

Area 4

Versions

Like many of the Mega Drive Toaplan ports, a single cart with multiple regional versions was made for all releases of the game, and these can be switched between simply by playing the cart on a particular regional model or by using Game Genie or similar. Attempting to play the cart on an American console triggers the slightly easier Twin Hawk version.

Localised names

Also known as
Language Localised Name English Translation
English Twin Hawk Twin Hawk
Japanese 大旋風 Daisenpuu

Magazine articles

Main article: Twin Hawk/Magazine articles.

Promotional material

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Print advert in Beep! MegaDrive (JP) #1990-06: "June 1990" (1990-05-08)
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Print advert in Beep! MegaDrive (JP) #1990-07: "July 1990" (1990-06-08)
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Physical scans

Sega Retro Average 
Publication Score Source
{{{{{icon}}}|L}} Division by zero.
Based on
0 review
Sega Retro Average 
Publication Version Score
ACE (UK)
79
[4]
Beep! MegaDrive (JP) NTSC-J
75
[5]
Buzz! Computers (UK)
80
[6]
Complete Guide to Consoles (UK)
73
[7]
Complete Guide to Consoles (UK)
71
[8]
The Complete Guide to Sega (UK)
71
[9]
Console XS (UK) PAL
79
[10]
Famitsu (JP) NTSC-J
75
[11]
The Games Machine (UK)
60
[12]
Famicom Hisshoubon (JP) NTSC-J
60
[13]
Joypad (FR)
78
[14]
Joystick (FR)
79
[15]
Sega Mega Drive Advanced Gaming (UK) NTSC-J
56
[16]
Sega Mega Drive Advanced Gaming (UK) PAL
41
[17]
Mega Drive Fan (JP) NTSC-J
67
[18]
MegaTech (UK) NTSC-J
71
[19]
MegaTech (UK) PAL
60
[20]
Micromanía (segunda época) (ES)
70
[21]
Mean Machines Sega (UK)
66
[22]
Raze (UK) PAL
87
[23]
Sega Power (UK) PAL
70
[24]
Sega Power (UK) NTSC-J
50
[25]
Sega Power (UK) PAL
50
[26]
Sega Pro (UK) NTSC-J
64
[27]
Sega Pro (UK) PAL
59
[28]
Sega Saturn Magazine (JP) NTSC-J
57
[29]
Super Gaming (US)
67
[30]
Tilt (FR)
70
[31]
Sega Mega Drive
67
Based on
28 reviews

Twin Hawk

Mega Drive, JP
TwinHawk MD JP Box.jpg
Cover
TwinHawk MD JP CartTop.jpg
TwinHawk MD JP Cart Back.jpgTwinHawk MD JP Cart.jpg
Cart
TwinHawk MD JP Manual.pdf
Manual
Mega Drive, EU
TwinHawk MD EU Box.jpg
Cover
TwinHawk MD EU Cart.jpg
Cart
Twin Hawk MD EU Manual.jpg
Manual
TwinHawk MD EU pcb.jpg
PCB
Mega Drive, BX

Mega Drive, AU

Technical information

Main article: Twin Hawk/Technical information.

References

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NEC Retro has more information related to Daisenpuu
  1. File:TwinHawk MD JP Box.jpg
  2. 2.0 2.1 https://sega.jp/history/hard/megadrive/software.html (Wayback Machine: 2020-07-20 09:51)
  3. ACE, "September 1990" (UK; 1990-08-03), page 57
  4. ACE, "September 1990" (UK; 1990-08-03), page 56
  5. Beep! MegaDrive, "July 1990" (JP; 1990-06-08), page 17
  6. Buzz! Computers (UK) (+0:00)
  7. Complete Guide to Consoles, "Volume III" (UK; 1990-08-xx), page 36
  8. Complete Guide to Consoles, "Volume IV" (UK; 1990-11-xx), page 29
  9. The Complete Guide to Sega, "" (UK; 1991-05-xx), page 46
  10. Console XS, "June/July 1992" (UK; 1992-04-23), page 135
  11. Famitsu, "" (JP; 1990-0x-xx), page 1
  12. The Games Machine, "September 1990" (UK; 1990-08-xx), page 60
  13. Famicom Hisshoubon, "1990-13 (1990-07-06)" (JP; 1990-06-15), page 13
  14. Joypad, "Mars 1992" (FR; 1992-02-1x), page 142
  15. Joystick, "Septembre 1990" (FR; 1990-0x-xx), page 89
  16. Sega Mega Drive Advanced Gaming, "January 1993" (UK; 199x-xx-xx), page 90
  17. Sega Mega Drive Advanced Gaming, "January 1993" (UK; 199x-xx-xx), page 95
  18. Mega Drive Fan, "October 1990" (JP; 1990-09-08), page 79
  19. MegaTech, "Xmas 1991" (UK; 1991-12-06), page 78
  20. MegaTech, "Xmas 1991" (UK; 1991-12-06), page 81
  21. Micromanía (segunda época), "Abril 1991" (ES; 1991-0x-xx), page 44
  22. Mean Machines Sega, "October 1992" (UK; 1992-09-xx), page 138
  23. Raze, "April 1991" (UK; 1991-02-28), page 44
  24. Sega Power, "April 1991" (UK; 1991-03-07), page 44
  25. Sega Power, "October 1991" (UK; 1991-09-05), page 52
  26. Sega Power, "October 1991" (UK; 1991-09-05), page 55
  27. Sega Pro, "April 1993" (UK; 1993-03-11), page 64
  28. Sega Pro, "April 1993" (UK; 1993-03-11), page 68
  29. Sega Saturn Magazine, "September 1995" (JP; 1995-08-08), page 87
  30. Super Gaming, "Fall 1991" (US; 1991-xx-xx), page 11
  31. Tilt, "Septembre 1990" (FR; 1990-0x-xx), page 87


Twin Hawk

TwinHawk MDTitleScreen.png

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Sega Mega Drive
Prototypes: 1990-04-06