Aero Fighters Assault

Aero Fighters Assault
Also known as: Sonic Wings Assault (JP) Developer: Paradigm Entertainment Publishers: Vic Tokai (US), Video System (JP/EU) Platform: Nintendo 64 Released in JP: March 19, 1998 Released in US: October 30, 1997 Released in EU: April 15, 1998 This game has hidden developer credits. This game has hidden development-related text. This game has a hidden level select. This game has regional differences. This game has hidden bonus content.

Aero Fighters Assault is the sixth and final game in the Aero Fighters series.

Level Select

During the opening cutscene, press Up, C-Down, Left, C-Right, Down, C-Up, Right, C-Left, L, R, Z.

Alternately, you can activate the following GameShark code for the same effect.

Version	GameShark Code
USA	8032AA90 0001
Europe	80333BE0 0001
Japan	8032AEF0 0001

Audio Language Select

Press L, R, C-Up, C-Down, L, R, C-Left, C-Right while in the Language selection screen under Options when playing the PAL version of the game to unlock the German or French voice acting according to the language selection, replacing the English language voice lines. This cheatcode was actually printed in the back of the original PAL game manual. Why this additional voice acting, doubling the filesize of the ROM file compared to the NTSC version, wasn't activated by default and instead hidden behind a cheatcode, will forever be a mystery.

Music Oddities

Training 1

One of the training songs actually has an unused melody that is associated to a instrument sample that isn't actually in the game. As a result, the melody cannot be heard. The game uses a general midi patch order for their instruments and using that information, one can assume it would have been an organ sample. Below is a recreation as to how it may have sounded with the in-game version for comparing.

Re-creation	In Game

Fortress

The fortress theme has many more crash cymbals than what is heard in-game. These don't play due to polyphony issues. Some notes also get cut out at times.

Restored	In Game

Hidden Credit

Present at 0x55D08 in the ROM are credits for the UltraVision engine. Similar credits can also be found in Pilotwings 64.

 ------------------------------------------------------------------
       UltraVision Nintendo 64  V1.0
   Copyright (C)  1995-1996  by  Paradigm Simulation Incorporated
    All Rights Reserved Worldwide
        database/kernel version %d
 ------------------------------------------------------------------

(Source: Ferrox)

Build Info

Version	ROM Address	Build Info
USA	0xF6E08	Aero Fighters Assault v0.93 built on Sep 26 1997 at 14:01:20
Europe	0xFDE48	Aero Fighters Assault v1.0 built on Jan 5 1998 at 18:38:28
Japan	0xFDA00	Sonic Wings Assault v0.96 built on Jan 17 1998 at 13:58:05

(Source: Ferrox)

Regional Differences

North America/Europe	Japan

Like the rest of the Aero Fighters games, the Japanese version is known as Sonic Wings Assault.

Hawk

The character Hawk in Japan is an entirely different character from the English version, being a white-haired youth with a cartoony fang. Probably due to being viewed as "too girly" as the American representive of the game, he was replaced by another character with the same name loosely based off of Blaster Keaton, the previous main protagonist of the series up to this point