Air Gallet (アクウギャレット) is a vertical scrolling shooting game developed by Gazelle and published by Banpresto in 1996 for arcades. It was directed by Tatsuya Uemura and designed by Junya Inoue.
Story[]
In the 21st century, I-J Industry, the largest military manufacturer of X Country, has grown at a fast rate. Its financial strength far exceeded the national budget, so much that it was now in control of the government itself. Therefore, the company made public that it owned an informal private army, which the government had no choice but to acquiesce.
This phenomenon where companies dominate a weakened government became widespread around the world after M-B, a prestigious conglomerate in Z Country, established a similar position. At one point these two organizations came together under the ambition of armed control of the world economy, with the newly created organization called NAOH declaring war on the whole world. NAOH stops Japan's central operations, occupying the capitol and taking over the TV stations, while the U.S. Self-Defense forces attempted to launch an attack satellite program which had been secretly prepared for such attack.
The United Nations, which had long feared the runaway of these companies, immediately launched the the special interceptor unit A.C.W. (Armed Counter Wings) Gallet: Air Gallet, to confront the organization. Chosen as the leaders of this strategy were Keichiro Tojo, a Japanese who volunteered to protect his hometown, and Johnny Glover, the ace of the U.S. Air Force.
In the summer of 2022, Air Gallet flies to confront the enemy forces of NAOH, whose size and military strength are unknown. X and Z, Companies vs. United Nations, the cover fire of war has begun.
Gameplay[]
Air Gallet plays much like other vertical shooters, with player 1 controlling a F-15XX Midnight Eagle (ミッドナイトイーグル) and player 2 a F/A-18G Killer Hornet, (キラーホーネット) with one button used for firing the main weapon and another for using smart bombs. The game uses an incremental power-up system similar to Truxton, with the main shot being powered up after collecting four "P" icons while colored icons change the ship's shot type.
Trivia[]
- In an interview published in the Guwange / ESP Ra.De Official Setting Documents, Junya Inoue revealed that due to the company's financial difficulties at the time the game had to be rushed for release, and thus they were unable to properly adjust its balance.