sounds atrocious, not incredibly fun, would much rather play an older game like xevious or galaxian
Nunca gostei muito do gênero, mas esse aqui até que me fez jogar por umas horas.
Endless, hand cramping, beeping colour clash of a shoot-em-up. There's very little variation in levels, just the occasional formation in enemies. This feels more like a Tiger handheld game than a proper conversion of the arcade hit, no offence intended to Syrox, aka Dominic Wood, but this is very poor for this period, especially considering the quality of other games of this type (Light Force, Terra Cresta, Flying Shark a year later).
Status: 399,480 points. All levels beaten
Status: 399,480 points. All levels beaten
It's fine.
A death march of a port, quickly farmed out to Micronics. This game looks bad, even by early NES standards. The scrolling is sluggish, the graphics are repetitive and primitive, and the sound design is some of the worst that the console would see in terms of commercial releases. It doesn't have any music, much like the original arcade port, but the sound effects for shots are pitched so high up that the game gave me a headache after half a hour. The gameplay itself, considering the historical circumstance, isn't that bad for that initial half a hour. Deaths are unforgiving and checkpoints stingy, but many NES shmups have similar issues. The biggest issue with the gameplay is that the gameplay gets old once the headaches kick in, and there's about another hour left.
Still remember trying to beat it one day but the family had to go to an event. So I left it paused for hours. Came back in the evening to find a corrupted screen :(
The defensive somersault is fantastic, it’s wild that more people didn’t copy that.
Un Arcade de aviones con vista desde arriba y desplazamiento vertical que pone a prueba los reflejos, la habilidad y la concentración del jugador. El final es casi imposible, si no llega a ser por el guardado no podría haberlo completado.
I never knew that the year 1942 was this boring.
A great example of basics done right with nice controls and visuals, but limited variety to the gameplay and enemies.
Average shoot 'em up, may have been revolutionary for it's time.
Played the NES version, game is ok, a little on the slow side for a shmup but the sounds is terrible.
For any arcade developer back in the 80s to the 90s, they always had at least one shmup game/franchise under their belt that they still own till this day. For Namco, that would be Galaxian, for Konami, it would be Gradius among others, and for Sega, it would be Thunder Force, Space Harrier, and several others. As for the company I can’t shut up about, Capcom, they had developed plenty of shooters back in the days of the arcades, a handful of them not being themed around space, but one particular shmup that they would make would go onto be their main shmup franchise for years to come. It was one that was made solely for the Western market in mind, this time not taking the player to the far reaches of space, but one that would bring them back down to the real world and into the sky. This shooter would come to simply be known as 1942.
I had known about the 194X series for quite a while now, and I had dabbled in and out of several of the titles in the series back in the day, but I had wanted to give the series a proper look-at. Not for any particular reason, just because I was more interested in whatever franchises Capcom has kept locked away in their vault while they focused on making more Monster Hunter and Resident Evil. So, I checked out the original 1942 in the arcades, and it is pretty much exactly what you would expect from a shmup of that era. Granted, it was made in 1984, so it does have some unique elements that weren’t commonly seen in the genre at the time, but if you are going to play it thinking you are gonna get anything unique, you better think again.
There is actually some kind of story here, with you being an American fighter pilot fighting the Japanese air fleet in World War II, so the story is essentially just WAR, and that should be enough to get you in the air fighting, the graphics are the exact same that you would expect from any Capcom arcade game, MOVING ON, the music is… pretty much nonexistent, with the only real “music” being these noises that play throughout the entire game that I think are supposed to be the sounds of your plane, and it gets pretty grating to listen to after a while, the control is what you would expect from a shmup, and it works well enough, even if I wish your plane could go a little faster, and the game is your typical shmup of the arcades, but with a few quirks that make it stand out from others at the time.
The game is a scrolling shooter, where you take control of a Lockheed P-38 Lightning plane, go through a set of 32 stages (no, I’m not kidding), shoot down as many enemy fighter pilots as you can while quickly dodging all of their attacks, gather plenty of powerups to upgrade your arsenal and get extra points to get that top high score, and take on one boss several times throughout the game that will put your reflexes to the test. As you have come to expect, the game is pretty stereotypical for the genre and for the time period, but what matters most is if the game does indeed play well, which I think it does, and I would say you could certainly have plenty of fun with it. Not to mention, there are certain features that weren’t commonly seen in shmups at the time.
Obviously, the biggest difference between this game and other shmups at the time was that it took place in a realistic setting where you are fighting in a war along the Pacific Ocean. Most other shmups at the time typically stuck to a space setting, which is understandable, as there is limitless potential for what you could include in that kind of setting, but after a while, many would agree that you would get sick of staring at stars and the empty void of space after a while. So this setting and set of enemies you get to fight is a nice change of pace, even if there isn’t that much variety when it comes to the enemies you fight. In addition to this, you also have the powerups, which can upgrade the range of your shot, as well as adding two additional planes to the sides of you, which increases your range even further, which does really help in tight situations. And finally, you can pull a Star Fox and perform a somersault over enemies so you get the advantage and attack them from behind, and trust me, you will NEED to master this maneuver, as it is essential and very useful.
With all that being said though, this is still your typical shmup of the 80s. If you have played one of them from a top-down perspective, you have basically played all of them, and while this one does manage to stand out with its setting and scenario, you probably won’t get that much out of this if you aren’t that into shmups in general. In addition, as you would probably expect, this game goes on for WAY too long. Like I mentioned before, there are 32 stages in the game, and while that is certainly a lot for a game like this, there is barely any variety in these stages whatsoever, aside from how enemies enter the screen and if you will fight a boss. There is actually an ending at the end of all of that, but it is your typical “Oh wow, you are so cool! All the girls are gonna want you!” kind of ending, and that isn’t really something I want to see after spending 32 stages doing the same shit over and over again.
Overall, despite still being pretty fun at points, and having a unique enough setting and scenario for ‘84, it is pretty much yet another generic shmup of that era, and while it can still be a good time in short bursts, that’s really all you can get out of this game. Maybe the sequels will enhance this formula in some way, but for now, what you got here is basic as basic gets, for the most part. I would recommend it for shmup fans, but for everyone else, you are best off just trying this once and then moving on. Besides, it’s not like the Pacific War actually happened or anything………………….. yeah, I couldn’t come up with anything better to end off with.
Game #368
I had known about the 194X series for quite a while now, and I had dabbled in and out of several of the titles in the series back in the day, but I had wanted to give the series a proper look-at. Not for any particular reason, just because I was more interested in whatever franchises Capcom has kept locked away in their vault while they focused on making more Monster Hunter and Resident Evil. So, I checked out the original 1942 in the arcades, and it is pretty much exactly what you would expect from a shmup of that era. Granted, it was made in 1984, so it does have some unique elements that weren’t commonly seen in the genre at the time, but if you are going to play it thinking you are gonna get anything unique, you better think again.
There is actually some kind of story here, with you being an American fighter pilot fighting the Japanese air fleet in World War II, so the story is essentially just WAR, and that should be enough to get you in the air fighting, the graphics are the exact same that you would expect from any Capcom arcade game, MOVING ON, the music is… pretty much nonexistent, with the only real “music” being these noises that play throughout the entire game that I think are supposed to be the sounds of your plane, and it gets pretty grating to listen to after a while, the control is what you would expect from a shmup, and it works well enough, even if I wish your plane could go a little faster, and the game is your typical shmup of the arcades, but with a few quirks that make it stand out from others at the time.
The game is a scrolling shooter, where you take control of a Lockheed P-38 Lightning plane, go through a set of 32 stages (no, I’m not kidding), shoot down as many enemy fighter pilots as you can while quickly dodging all of their attacks, gather plenty of powerups to upgrade your arsenal and get extra points to get that top high score, and take on one boss several times throughout the game that will put your reflexes to the test. As you have come to expect, the game is pretty stereotypical for the genre and for the time period, but what matters most is if the game does indeed play well, which I think it does, and I would say you could certainly have plenty of fun with it. Not to mention, there are certain features that weren’t commonly seen in shmups at the time.
Obviously, the biggest difference between this game and other shmups at the time was that it took place in a realistic setting where you are fighting in a war along the Pacific Ocean. Most other shmups at the time typically stuck to a space setting, which is understandable, as there is limitless potential for what you could include in that kind of setting, but after a while, many would agree that you would get sick of staring at stars and the empty void of space after a while. So this setting and set of enemies you get to fight is a nice change of pace, even if there isn’t that much variety when it comes to the enemies you fight. In addition to this, you also have the powerups, which can upgrade the range of your shot, as well as adding two additional planes to the sides of you, which increases your range even further, which does really help in tight situations. And finally, you can pull a Star Fox and perform a somersault over enemies so you get the advantage and attack them from behind, and trust me, you will NEED to master this maneuver, as it is essential and very useful.
With all that being said though, this is still your typical shmup of the 80s. If you have played one of them from a top-down perspective, you have basically played all of them, and while this one does manage to stand out with its setting and scenario, you probably won’t get that much out of this if you aren’t that into shmups in general. In addition, as you would probably expect, this game goes on for WAY too long. Like I mentioned before, there are 32 stages in the game, and while that is certainly a lot for a game like this, there is barely any variety in these stages whatsoever, aside from how enemies enter the screen and if you will fight a boss. There is actually an ending at the end of all of that, but it is your typical “Oh wow, you are so cool! All the girls are gonna want you!” kind of ending, and that isn’t really something I want to see after spending 32 stages doing the same shit over and over again.
Overall, despite still being pretty fun at points, and having a unique enough setting and scenario for ‘84, it is pretty much yet another generic shmup of that era, and while it can still be a good time in short bursts, that’s really all you can get out of this game. Maybe the sequels will enhance this formula in some way, but for now, what you got here is basic as basic gets, for the most part. I would recommend it for shmup fans, but for everyone else, you are best off just trying this once and then moving on. Besides, it’s not like the Pacific War actually happened or anything………………….. yeah, I couldn’t come up with anything better to end off with.
Game #368
Not a huge amount you can say about 1942. A game of it's time based off of the arcade classic meaning it's the game's mission for you to fail to get more money out of you. The best way to enjoy this game is with cheats for infinite lives or a arcade collection rewind feature.
I did not expect this to be as fun as it is. It holds up very, very well!
This game gets a bad rap due to its simplicity and sure its a pretty basic shooter especially compared to what comes later but its still fun. Its more about memorizing enemy patterns than twitch hand/eye control. I played it at Galloping Ghost in Chicago on freeplay but made it pretty far without continuing or anything. I mean its not earth shattering high score or anything but I felt like I did good and I had a good time playing it so not sure what more to ask for. Scored 74520 and will play again in the future to try to better it.