Twin Hawk

n/a

PAL NTSC-J
Twin Hawk
System(s): Sega Mega Drive
Publisher: Sega
Developer: Toaplan
Original system(s): Arcade boards
Genre: Shooting
Number of players: 1
Release Date RRP Code JP 1990-06-23 ¥6,0006,000 G-4034 EU 1990 1117 BX 199x UK 1990 £39.9939.99 1117 AU 199x
Non-Sega versions Arcade PC Engine

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

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 or , 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 . Pressing again before the planes are in formation trades the planes for a large bomb attack. Pressing 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.

	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.
	White Truck or Boat
	White trucks and boats release the H item, which gives the player another use of the helper planes.
	Blue Truck or Boat
	Blue trucks and boats release the 1 Up item, which gives the player an extra life.
	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.

	Area 1
	Area 2
	Area 3
	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

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

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

Physical scans

Sega Retro Average
Publication Score Source

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Based on 0 review

Sega Retro Average

Publication Version Score ACE (UK) 79 Beep! MegaDrive (JP) NTSC-J 75 Buzz! Computers (UK) 80 Complete Guide to Consoles (UK) 73 Complete Guide to Consoles (UK) 71 The Complete Guide to Sega (UK) 71 Console XS (UK) PAL 79 Famitsu (JP) NTSC-J 75 The Games Machine (UK) 60 Famicom Hisshoubon (JP) NTSC-J 60 Joypad (FR) 78 Joystick (FR) 79 Sega Mega Drive Advanced Gaming (UK) NTSC-J 56 Sega Mega Drive Advanced Gaming (UK) PAL 41 Mega Drive Fan (JP) NTSC-J 67 MegaTech (UK) NTSC-J 71 MegaTech (UK) PAL 60 Micromanía (segunda época) (ES) 70 Mean Machines Sega (UK) 66 Raze (UK) PAL 87 Sega Power (UK) PAL 70 Sega Power (UK) NTSC-J 50 Sega Power (UK) PAL 50 Sega Pro (UK) NTSC-J 64 Sega Pro (UK) PAL 59 Sega Saturn Magazine (JP) NTSC-J 57 Super Gaming (US) 67 Tilt (FR) 70

	67
Based on 28 reviews

Twin Hawk

Mega Drive, JP
Cover
Cart Manual

Mega Drive, EU
Cover
Cart Manual PCB

Mega Drive, BX†

Mega Drive, AU

Technical information

Main article: Twin Hawk/Technical information.

References

NEC Retro has more information related to Daisenpuu