Ludography
Fire Mustang cover

1990 · NMK · Arcade · Shoot 'em up

Fire Mustang

Sega console exclusive

USAAF Mustang is a horizontally scrolling shoot 'em up arcade game originally developed by NMK, and published by UPL in 1990. It was ported a year later to the Sega Mega Drive by Taito while being renamed Fire Mustang. NMK Co. Ltd. also developed the Sega Mega Drive version.

Released
1990
Platforms
ArcadeSega Genesis
Genres
ArcadeShoot 'em upShooter
Developers
NMK
Publishers
UPL
Modes
MultiplayerSingle-player
Perspective
Bird view / Isometric
Themes
Action
Country
Japan

About

USAAF Mustang is a horizontally scrolling shooter video game developed by NMK and published by UPL for arcades. It was ported to the Mega Drive by Taito, while being renamed Fire Mustang. Hamster Corporation released the game outside Japan for the first time as part of the Arcade Archives series for the Nintendo Switch and PlayStation 4 in September 2021.

Keywords

  • shoot 'em up
  • shmup

Media

The articlegameplay, story, development, reception

Gameplay

Players took on a fictional campaign in a World War II setting as a USAAF fighter pilot in a titular North American P-51 Mustang against the Nazi Luftwaffe and the Imperial Japanese Navy Air Service, sent around stages in Europe and Asia against either of the two featured Axis powers. Every level was filled with a wide variety of different fighter craft and ground forces that all preceded the end-level boss (generally a large aircraft). Eight levels in all; the game repeats endlessly thereafter.

Players had a typical Vulcan weapon that could be upgraded three times in order for the shot pattern to widen. Players also had an unlimited amount of ground force bombs that would increase in firing speed with the Vulcan. The player's bomb weapon was a weapon called "The Forcer" that fired a large fireball straight forward.

Reception

In Japan, Game Machine listed USAAF Mustang on their August 1, 1990 issue as being the sixteenth most-successful table arcade unit of the month.

Releases by platformdates and regions as published

PlatformReleasedRegions
Arcade7 April 1990Japan

Editions and related releases

Ported as
Fire MustangArcade Archives: USAAF Mustang
Built on it
Fire Mustang

Games like this

Collections1 collection

Platform libraries

Description adapted from its source, CC BY-SA 4.0.