The 1990s was a decade of great change marked by growing friendships between old enemies and never before seen levels of co-operation between powerful nations of the world. However, in 1997, using new weapons designed in secrecy, the Middle Eastern country of Rabu threatened to destroy this fragile peace. Rabu's proported goal is to purge the world of sin and force a new morality, with her allies. Rabu quickly claimed the Middle East, then spread into both southern Asia and parts of Europe. Their weaponery is terrifyingly eeficient at manufacturing death. They seemed unstoppable. When they gassed Tokyo in 1999, U.S. intervention became unavoidable. If Rabu is allowed to use Japan's manufacturing facilities, there will be no end to the nightmare. Hoping to protect world peace, the USS Carl Vinson (CVN-70) heads out to the sea.
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The 90s definitely saw some pretty rapid changes in the SHMUP genre which is probably why this one has become forgotten by most. It doesn't feel outdated by any means, but it also isn't very exciting which makes it hard to recommend over its contemporaries. Play if you enjoyed U.N. Squadron and/or are curious about Capcoms arcade history.
Carrier Airwing is one of those games. Stuck in the middle of the "generic aircraft shmup" genre like most of the genre's titles released during this time, this title isn't bad by any stretch of the imagination, but it will not feel fresh or surprising.
The base gameplay loop consists of shooting down enemy armor, either in the sky or on the ground, by using one of two different attack styles that target ground units and air units individually. However, weapons that excel at ground fire are restricted to specific plane models, so depending on your chosen ship you may mostly be strafing down to fire in a straight line instead of targeting for bomb drops. Then you defeat a boss vehicle, earn currency, and buy items for the next level. These items are incredibly limited, only including a few upgraded versions of the existing weapons and a standard shield upgrade in two efficiency ratings.
You do this for 10 stages, with a few more interesting boss fights towards the end (bosses sometimes require multiple passes from different directions to allow you to damage them in segments) but overall the games ends and you get your "good job" message and the day is saved.
The game does feel good to play, and excels at the basics, and the difficulty is incredibly generous for an arcade game. So I guess the best thing to say to summarize Carrier Airwing is that you'll have fun if you like these kind of games, it'll feel like a little bit of a slog if you don't. But overall it's a fine game and there are definitely worse ways to spend your time.