Sky Mission

The game was produced by Ken Lobb, best known as the co-creator of the Killer Instinct fighting game series, with music composed by musician George Sanger. Met with a mixed reaction from critics — although it was disliked for its short length and lacking gameplay, it was praised for its realistic visuals, soundtrack and sense of thrill.

• Title — Sky Mission • Developer — Malibu Interactive • Publisher — Namco • Programmer — Steve Hughes • Producer — Ken Lobb • Artist — Jeremy Cantor Steve Thomson • Composer — George Sanger Joe McDermott David Govett Kevin Phelan • Platforms — Super Nintendo Entertainment System • Genre — Combat flight simulation • Modes — Single-player

• Illustration — The player engaged in a dogfight with an enemy plane. As the leader of a squadron of British warplanes, the player must bomb German buildings viable to Kaiser Wilhelm II's war effort while over the fields of France. Five different pilots are given this difficult task; obtaining status points to improve their performance in combat. If any of these pilots fails to complete their appointed mission but survives the actual combat, the pilot will suffer demotion. If failure to complete missions (while surviving) persists, the eventual result will be a dishonorable discharge from the military. If he dies in the line of duty, then the player gets a cemetery scene with the game taking place in the year 1917, with applicable medals earned displayed by the fighter's portrait. In standard (non-bombing) flight missions, the player must use guns to blast down German biplanes. Eventually, the player will get to face off with the Red Baron (famed World War I fighter ace Manfred von Richthofen). There is also a cheat code for radar which, unusually, was included in a small section of the manual. In real life, radar was not operationally employed as a means to seek out enemy aircraft until World War II. The game is controlled using controls that are friendly to most arcade players and a password system can be used for advanced players to gain the ability to join the conflict during any stage.

Wings 2: Aces High is based on Japanese title Sky Mission. The Wings branding was only added to the game's US release, with the European version going under the name Blazing Skies. The title was superficially similar to the original game, with dogfighting and bombing missions, but was presented in more of an arcade format whereby the player was sent back and forced to complete failed missions - in Wings, by contrast, the narrative continues whether missions are passed or failed and even when the player pilot is killed the game continues with another. The instruction manual has been illustrated with numerous photographs from the era, donated by the San Diego Aerospace Museum along with the explanation about the origins of World War I.