Blue Wing Blitz

Blue Wing Blitz is one of the very few completely original titles Square created for the WonderSwan Color, and also its boldest attempt to push the tactical RPG genre somewhere new. It takes place in a world of floating islands where all transport and warfare happen through the air, and the player commands a squadron of machines that move above the landscape. This is the main thing that sets it apart from typical tactics games: besides position on the map, altitude and orientation matter too, so attacking an enemy from above or from behind has quite different consequences than a head-on clash.

Between battles, machines get upgraded, their weaponry changes, and crews gain experience, so assembling the squadron before a mission carries as much weight as combat itself. The game keeps a decent pace, the campaign is long, and the difficulty rises smoothly, but it never forgets it's on a handheld console, so individual engagements can be played in short bursts. Technically, Blue Wing Blitz ranks among the better offerings on the WonderSwan Color: environments are colorful and legible, machine animations are smooth, and the interface manages to display plenty of information on a small screen without overwhelming the player. The music maintains an airy, mildly adventurous mood that suits flying between islands.

At the time, the game slipped through the cracks more than it deserved. It arrived just as attention was already turning to the upcoming Game Boy Advance, and as a Japan-only exclusive it never reached a wider audience. Among collectors and tactical RPG fans, though, it holds a reputation as an interesting experiment showing what the WonderSwan could have achieved with more time. Today it still plays well, only demanding patience with Japanese and a willingness to learn the rules of aerial combat, which you won't find in quite the same form anywhere else. For collectors, it's also notable as one of the last truly major projects Square released on a third-party handheld console before its attention finally turned elsewhere.