an officer. The third playable character, Havilan, is a veteran piloting a flying gunboat. Other playable characters include notably Blore, a strategist and devoted pilot of the royal air force of Mackai; and Rayetta, his younger sister and bomber pilot. Roster, an ally of Ordia who secretly leads the Roggina Spirit resistance also joins the player's party; as does Poty, the fourth prince of Peag and bomber pilot, and his female guard Sersh. Development Blue Wing Blitz was officially announced on March 8, 2001, and was Square's second original title for Bandai's Japan-exclusive handheld console WonderSwan Color, after Wild Card. A trailer of the game was featured in the bonus DVD included in the Japanese release of Final Fantasy X. The game was developed by the same team responsible for the Front Mission series, while the characters were designed by Nobuyuki Ikeda. The score for the game, which was never released in album form, was composed by Kumi Tanioka and was the first time that she composed a soundtrack entirely by herself. A 95-page official strategy guide, titled Blue Wing Blitz Freedom Fighter's Guide, was published by DigiCube on the same date as the game. The contents include information on the characters and the setting, battle system explanations, map screenshots, and reference and data tables. Reception Blue Wing Blitz sold poorly, with around 20,000 units sold one year after its release. In a preview of the title, the gaming website GIA praised the graphics of the game, stating that Nobuyuki Ikeda's character designs "add style and charm" to the battles and cutscenes despite simple field graphics and the console's technical limitations. RPGamer noted that the game's focus on aircraft was an "interesting new take on a classic concept". 1UP.com's Jeremy Parish used Blue Wing Blitz as an example of one of the WonderSwan's major games. References External links Wayback Machine archive of the now defunct Blue Wing Blitz official website Blue Wing Blitz homepage at the Square Enix website Blue Wing Blitz homepage at the Bandai website 2001 video games Video games with isometric graphics Japan-exclusive video games Square (video game company) games Tactical role-playing video games Video games developed in Japan Video games scored by Kumi Tanioka WonderSwan games WonderSwan Color games