Sonic Wings Special
is a 1996 vertical-scrolling shooter that combines the features in Sonic Wings, Sonic Wings 2, and Sonic Wings 3. It was ported to arcade as Sonic Wings Limited. It runs on a Sony ZN-1 JAMMA board.
Gameplay
Fighters
There are 7 teams, 14 pilots, and 26 fighters in this game, with each team consisting of 2 members, and a choice of 2 fighters per pilot, except the secret team, which has 1 fighter per pilot.Once a player has chosen a team, the other player can only choose a pilot and fighter of the respective team.
| Team | Pilot | Normal fighter | Secret fighter |
| USA | Blaster Keaton/Mecha-Keaton | Lockheed F117 Sea Hawk | Vought F4-U Corsair |
| USA | Captain Silver | Fairchild Republic A-10 Thunderbolt II | Northrop P-61 Black Widow |
| Japan | Hien | Mitsubishi FS-X | Nakajima J1N Gekkou |
| Japan | Mao Mao | McDonnell Douglas F-15 | Aichi M6A Seiran |
| Russia | Volk | Kamov Ka-50 Hokum | Mikoyan-Gurevich Mig 3 |
| Russia | Chaika & Pooshika | Ilyushin IL-102 | Ilyushin IL-2 Stormovik |
| Sweden | Kowful the Viking | Saab AJ-37 Viggen | Junkers Ju 87G Stuka |
| Sweden | T.B. A-10 | Lockheed F-104 Star Fighter | Brewster B-239 Buffalo |
| P.K.F. | Whity | Northrop YF-23 | Henschel Hs129 |
| P.K.F. | Lord River N. White | McDonnell Douglas AV-8 Harrier II Plus | Boulton Paul Defiant |
| NATO | Anjera | Dassault Rafale M | Dewoitine D520 |
| NATO | Ellen & Cincia | Grumman F-14 Tomcat | Fairey Sword Fish |
| Secret | Kotomi | Aka-Usagi | - |
| Secret | The Man | Lamborghini Diablo | - |
A pilot's secret fighter is unlocked by completing the game with the chosen pilot.
The NATO and Secret teams are unlocked by unlocking all secret fighters in the US, Japan, Russia, Sweden, and P.K.F. teams.
Stages
There are 17 stages in this game, but only 9 are playable at a time. After completing stage 1, 3 stages are randomly chosen out of 5. The game includes a branching system that allows players to choose 1 of 2 branches after completing stages 5, 7, or 8.If a secret fighter is chosen, alternate versions of the stages appear instead.