History VideoGame / CarrierAirwing

* [[TakeOverTheWorld Take Over Japan and The World]]: Rabu (English version) and Country X/Russia (Japanese version)'s main goal.

* NoCelebritiesWereHarmed: The XO of the ''Carl Vinson'' looks helluvah lot like Creator/SeanConnery.

* LifeMeter: Fuel meter as is called. Once it's depleted, your ship becomes an OneHitPointWonder.

* DubInducedPlotlineChange: The English version expands the story of the Japanese version, as the plot of the Japanese version is mostly the same, with a notorious detail: In Japan, "Rabu" was the name of a ''terrorist group/weapons dealer organization''[[note]]In the same style of Al-Qaeda, ISIS or Hezbollah.[[/note]] who helps "Country X" (heavily implied to be Russia) to invade "Country J" (implied to be Japan). On the other hand, Rabu was switched out in the English version as a country who is mix of both Iraq and Iran, who wants to [[UsefulNotes/TheGulfWar invade Japan, rather than Kuwait]] and the U.S. tries to stop that country from invading it. It helps a lot Russia in RealLife has sold lots of military hardware to Middle Eastern countries, so it could explain why Rabu is using Russian hardware, but it doesn't explain why [[spoiler:Rabu could got [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buran_%28spacecraft%29 the Russian space shuttle Buran]] in their hands as the final boss]]. Also "Country J" is outright called "Japan" and the capital of that country is also called "Tokyo", when in the Japanese version is just called "the capital of Country J".

* {{Expy}}: The boss you fight in [[spoiler: the Middle East before attacking the Rabu fortress]] is an [[CoolTrain armed train]], that carries a self-propelled gun suspiciously similar to the [[UsefulNotes/WorldWarII WWII]] [[ThoseWackyNazis German]] [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Karl-Gerät Karl-Gerät]] even if it fires [[EnergyWeapon lasers]] instead of shells and is much larger.

* BattleshipRaid: The FinalBoss is one long boss fight where the player is supposed to destroy a KillSat. Before they even get to it, they have to fight the ludicrously heavily armed rocket carrying the shuttle taking the satellite into orbit, the heavily armed shuttle itself, before it finally launches the satellite and the player fights it. A more literal example is the boss of the third stage, a ''huge'' battleship that spans several screens.

* ArristicLicenseShips: The missile cruiser [[https://nineteenforty.fandom.com/wiki/Kirov Kirov]] and the aircraft carrier [[https://nineteenforty.fandom.com/wiki/Tbilisi Tbilisi]] are featured as bosses. However they're rather… different [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kirov-class_battlecruiser to]] [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russian_aircraft_carrier_Admiral_Kuznetsov their]] RealLife counterparts and not just in size.

The story of the game ([[CutAndPasteTranslation at least in the English version]]) is the following: In the 90s, [[UsefulNotes/ColdWar former political rivals decided to put aside their differences for once]], but a [[{{Qurac}} Middle-Eastern country named Rabu]] decides to destroy that peace by invading most of Europe, the entirety of the Middle East and most of East Asia. The straw that broke the spleen was the invasion of Rabu to Japan in order to take control of the Japanese technology. Japan, being an American ally, causes the U.S. to take matters in their hands and its up to three brave American pilots (Rick Ford, Mark Olson, and James Roy) from the [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_Carl_Vinson USS Carl Vinson]] aircraft carrier to put an end to Rabu's invasion to Japan and their plans to world domination.

* CutAndPasteTranslation: A very odd case when the English version expands the story of the Japanese version, as the plot of the Japanese version is mostly the same, with a notorious detail: In Japan, "Rabu" was the name of a ''terrorist group/weapons dealer organization''[[note]]In the same style of Al-Qaeda, ISIS or Hezbollah.[[/note]] who helps "Country X" (heavily implied to be Russia) to invade "Country J" (implied to be Japan). On the other hand, Rabu was switched out in the English version as a country who is mix of both Iraq and Iran, who wants to [[UsefulNotes/TheGulfWar invade Japan, rather than Kuwait]] and the U.S. tries to stop that country from invading it. It helps a lot Russia in RealLife has sold lots of military hardware to Middle Eastern countries, so it could explain why Rabu is using Russian hardware, but it doesn't explain why [[spoiler:Rabu could got [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buran_%28spacecraft%29 the Russian space shuttle Buran]] in their hands as the final boss]]. Also "Country J" is outright called "Japan" and the capital of that country is also called "Tokyo", when in the Japanese version is just called "the capital of Country J".

* {{Expy}}: The boss you fight in [[spoiler: the Middle East before attacking the Rabu fortress]] is an [[CoolTrain armed train]], that carries a self-propelled gun suspiciously similar to the [[UsefulNotes/WorldWarII WWII]] [[ThoseWackyNazis German]] [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Karl-Gerät Karl-Gerät]] even if it fires [[FrickinLaserBeams lasers]] instead of shells and is much larger.

* FrickinLaserBeams: Some enemies at the latest stages,[[spoiler: mostly bosses]], are armed with lasers. Also, the weapon option available [[spoiler: on the last stage]] is two small laser-firing planes.

* MeaningfulName: Rabu means love in Japanese.[[spoiler: Then why are we fighting the strongest force on earth?]]

''Carrier Airwing'' (aka ''U.S. Navy'' in Japan) is an HorizontalScrollingShooter from Creator/{{Capcom}}, released exclusively in arcades in 1990 and the SpiritualSuccessor of the previous ''[[VideoGame/{{Area88}} Area 88]]'' (aka U.N. Squadron in English) game released previously.

* MeaningfulName: Rabu means love in Japanese.[[ spoiler: Then why are we fighting the strongest force on earth?]]

* MeaningfulName: Rabu means love in Japanese. Then why are we fighting the strongest force on earth?

* UsefulNotes/PlaneSpotting: Most of the enemies are Russian planes and helicopters such as [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sukhoi_Su-25 Su-25]], [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mil_Mi-26 Mil Mi-26]], [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mikoyan-Gurevich_MiG-21 Mig-21]], and others. Oddly enough, however, in ohe Arctic Ocean level you've to fight F-117, B-2, and F-22 -the three US aircraft-.

* DubInducedPlotHole: A more meta-example of this: The flow of the levels in the Japanese version has more sense if you consider Country X is Russia, since the game begins in Tokyo, following with Hokkaido, Siberia, Europe[[note]]Or rather the Arctic Ocean[[/note]], Greece [[spoiler:and the Middle East]] as the final zone you have to fly over, not to mention being more realistic in terms of how the players has to travel across the glop. On the other hand, the gameflow in the English version has less sense, because your enemy (Rabu) is a Middle-Eastern country, and the game implies it also invaded Russia as well. While it can be handwaved Rabu has the enough power to invade Eastern Europe, on the other hand this is '''[[GloriousMotherRussia Russia]]''' [[UsefulNotes/RussiansWithRustingRockets we are talking]] [[UsefulNotes/FromRussiaWithNukes about here]].
* {{Expy}}: The boss you fight in [[spoiler: the Middle East before attacking the Rabu fortress]] is an [[CoolTrain armed train]], that carries a self-propelled gun suspiciously similar to the [[UsefulNotes/WorldWarII WWII]] [[ThoseWackyNazis German]] [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Karl-Gerät Karl Karl-Gerät]] even if it fires [[FrickinLaserBeams lasers]] instead of shells and dwarfs it.

* FrickinLaserBeams: Some enemies at the latest stages,[[spoiler: mostly bosses]], are armed with lasers.

* MissileLockOn: In the Mediterranean stage, the [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tupolev_Tu-126 Tu-126]] ''[[ReportingNames Moss]]'' and its boss will attempt that -you'll hear the same alarm that sounds when you're low on fuel if they're successful- to call a MacrossMissileMassacre on you.

* SciFiWritersHaveNoSenseOfScale: Some enemy planes dwarf your plane[[note]]For comparison, the three ones you can pilot have a length of 15-20 meters[[/note]] being ''way'' larger than their RealLife equivalents. This especially goes for the bosses as the already mentioned battleship, that would even dwarf a supercarrier.

* BattleshipRaid: The FinalBoss is one long boss fight where the player is supposed to destroy a KillSat. Before they even get to it, they have to fight the ludicrously heavily armed rocket carrying the shuttle taking the satellite into orbit, the heavily armed shuttle itself, before it finally launches the satellite and the player fights it. A more literal example is the boss of the third stage, a ''huge'' next to your plane battleship.

* {{Expy}}: The enemy you fight in [[spoiler: the Middle East before attacking the Rabu fortress]] is an [[CoolTrain armed train]], that carries a self-propelled gun suspiciously similar to the [[UsefulNotes/WorldWarII WWII]] [[ThoseWackyNazis German]] [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Karl-Gerät]], even if it fires [[FrickinLaserBeams lasers]] instead of shells.

* UsefulNotes/PlaneSpotting: Most of the enemies are Russian planes and helicopters such as [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sukhoi_Su-25 Su-25]], [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mil_Mi-26 Mil Mi-26]], [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mikoyan-Gurevich_MiG-21 Mig-21]], and others. Oddly enough, however, in the Arctic Ocean levels you've to fight F-117, B-2, and F-22 -the three US aircraft-.

* BattleshipRaid: The FinalBoss is one long boss fight where the player is supposed to destroy a KillSat. Before they even get to it, they have to fight the ludicrously heavily armed rocket carrying the shuttle taking the satellite into orbit, the heavily armed shuttle itself, before it finally launches the satellite and the player fights it.

* ChekhovsVolcano: In the Mediterranean stage you'll fly over volcanoes. One of them at least has a ''nasty'' tendence to erupt when you pass close to it.

* MissileLockOn: In the Mediterranean stage, the [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tupolev_Tu-126 Tu-126]] ''[[ReportingNames Moss]]'' and its boss will attempt that -you'll hear the same alarm that sounds when you're low on fuel if they're succesful- to call a MacrossMissileMassacre on you.