Even if it made several improvements over the original game, 1943: The Battle for Midway wasn’t exactly too much better in comparison to said original. It gave you pretty much what one could want from an arcade vertical shooter, with plenty of different power-ups, screen nukes, and even a health bar, but it did still carry several of the problems that the original game had, while introducing its own unique issues that did somewhat drag it down. Nevertheless, I did end up having a good enough time with that game, and it did make me wanna seek out the remaining games in the series, just to see where they would take it from here. Even though I didn’t expect it to go much further from where we already were. But either way, continuing on this journey, we now arrive at the third confusingly named title, 1941: Counter Attack.
I didn’t expect too much from this game when I went into it. I just thought it was gonna be yet another 1942 game, with some slight improvements here or there, but nothing more, and it just serves as another game for the sake of… having another game to play. However, upon actually playing the game myself, I was not only proven wrong, but was pleasantly surprised at what I got here. This is, without a doubt, the best game in the series so far, and a fantastic vertical shooter all on its own. Sure, it doesn’t really do too much different from the previous title in the series, and it still does carry some issues that does drag it down, but not only does it solve some issues I had with the previous games, but it also manages to be fun, fast, and frantic enough to where I didn’t care too much about those issues.
The story is almost non-existant in this particular installment, taking place before the first game and just being about WAR, which is to be expected at this point, so no use in complaining about it, the graphics are a definitely a step-up from the previous games, with plenty of new animations and details seen for all of the vehicles and enemies throughout, even if it doesn’t stand out too much from other similar arcade titles, the music is good enough, once again being what you would expect from one of these games, and also once again being constantly hidden amongst the loud-ass sound effects, the control works well enough, being mostly what you would expect from a vertical scrolling shooter, even if your movement speed could be just a liiiiiiiiiiiiiiiitle bit faster, and the gameplay is also what you would expect, except when compared to the previous game, it is now super-charged.
The game is a vertically scrolling shooter, where you take control of a P-38 Lightning once again or a DH.98 Mosquito, go through a set of six different levels that take you through plenty of different locations in the sky or near the ground, shoot the fuck out of every single thing in sight, whether it is hostile, is moves, or even if it doesn’t move, gather plenty of different weapons, power-ups, and upgrades to give you a huge advantage over the many different foes that you will be facing, and take on plenty of larger-than-life bosses, each one providing quite a challenge and testing out your shmup skills to their limit. It is very similar to many other arcade shooters, and it doesn’t introduce too many new elements to the formula this time around, but it makes up for this in plenty of ways.
All of the staples of the series are here and accounted for, such as the health bar, the different weapons and powerups to try out, the bombs you can use as a screen nuke, and the side fighters that can line up alongside you to give you two other additional shots. What is new this time around is that you can now charge up your weapons to release a barrage of missiles, which does get pretty helpful in certain situations, especially when you are all out of bombs.That’s all good and all, and this would’ve all been good enough to make a satisfying title here, but what makes this gameplay much more fun than the previous is the speed of everything. Everything goes much faster than the previous game, including the progression through stages, the firing rate of your weapons, the amount of things happening on screen at once, and your base speed as well. It all feels incredibly invigorating, shooting down hordes of enemy fighter pilots and dodging all enemy fire with extreme precision, giving off a much more satisfying feeling that the other two games simply couldn’t match. And thankfully, this game manages to fix one of the problems both of the previous games had. This game only has 6 stages, which is quite a decrease from the previous two games, but thankfully, this makes it so that the length of the game feels just right, and you won’t feel worn out when it is all over.
Unfortunately though, not all of the problems from the previous titles were fixed. The weapons that you do acquire throughout the game, much like last time, are limited use, having a time limit that will revert you back to your regular weapon. Like the last game, this isn’t really that big of an issue, since you won’t be completely overpowered the entire time, but it does suck whenever that happens, and the game is already hard enough as is, so you won’t feel completely overpowered. And speaking of which, this game does have its fair share of arcade syndrome this time around. There are so many enemies that bombard you and so many shots that are sent your way, even more so than the previous titles, making this without a doubt the hardest game in the series as well. I guess that helps balance things out to not make you too powerful.
Overall, despite the same limited weapon use and the ramp up in difficulty, this is a massive improvement from what we had previously seen with the two previous games, and is the best entry in the series so far. I would definitely recommend it for those who were fans of those previous titles, as well as those who are fans of shmups in general, because I’m sure that there will be plenty of things that you can find to love about this game. Now let’s just hope they don’t fuck it up from here on out in the later titles, or, god forbid, get boring! Too many shmups go down that route, it is quite common.
Game #452
I didn’t expect too much from this game when I went into it. I just thought it was gonna be yet another 1942 game, with some slight improvements here or there, but nothing more, and it just serves as another game for the sake of… having another game to play. However, upon actually playing the game myself, I was not only proven wrong, but was pleasantly surprised at what I got here. This is, without a doubt, the best game in the series so far, and a fantastic vertical shooter all on its own. Sure, it doesn’t really do too much different from the previous title in the series, and it still does carry some issues that does drag it down, but not only does it solve some issues I had with the previous games, but it also manages to be fun, fast, and frantic enough to where I didn’t care too much about those issues.
The story is almost non-existant in this particular installment, taking place before the first game and just being about WAR, which is to be expected at this point, so no use in complaining about it, the graphics are a definitely a step-up from the previous games, with plenty of new animations and details seen for all of the vehicles and enemies throughout, even if it doesn’t stand out too much from other similar arcade titles, the music is good enough, once again being what you would expect from one of these games, and also once again being constantly hidden amongst the loud-ass sound effects, the control works well enough, being mostly what you would expect from a vertical scrolling shooter, even if your movement speed could be just a liiiiiiiiiiiiiiiitle bit faster, and the gameplay is also what you would expect, except when compared to the previous game, it is now super-charged.
The game is a vertically scrolling shooter, where you take control of a P-38 Lightning once again or a DH.98 Mosquito, go through a set of six different levels that take you through plenty of different locations in the sky or near the ground, shoot the fuck out of every single thing in sight, whether it is hostile, is moves, or even if it doesn’t move, gather plenty of different weapons, power-ups, and upgrades to give you a huge advantage over the many different foes that you will be facing, and take on plenty of larger-than-life bosses, each one providing quite a challenge and testing out your shmup skills to their limit. It is very similar to many other arcade shooters, and it doesn’t introduce too many new elements to the formula this time around, but it makes up for this in plenty of ways.
All of the staples of the series are here and accounted for, such as the health bar, the different weapons and powerups to try out, the bombs you can use as a screen nuke, and the side fighters that can line up alongside you to give you two other additional shots. What is new this time around is that you can now charge up your weapons to release a barrage of missiles, which does get pretty helpful in certain situations, especially when you are all out of bombs.That’s all good and all, and this would’ve all been good enough to make a satisfying title here, but what makes this gameplay much more fun than the previous is the speed of everything. Everything goes much faster than the previous game, including the progression through stages, the firing rate of your weapons, the amount of things happening on screen at once, and your base speed as well. It all feels incredibly invigorating, shooting down hordes of enemy fighter pilots and dodging all enemy fire with extreme precision, giving off a much more satisfying feeling that the other two games simply couldn’t match. And thankfully, this game manages to fix one of the problems both of the previous games had. This game only has 6 stages, which is quite a decrease from the previous two games, but thankfully, this makes it so that the length of the game feels just right, and you won’t feel worn out when it is all over.
Unfortunately though, not all of the problems from the previous titles were fixed. The weapons that you do acquire throughout the game, much like last time, are limited use, having a time limit that will revert you back to your regular weapon. Like the last game, this isn’t really that big of an issue, since you won’t be completely overpowered the entire time, but it does suck whenever that happens, and the game is already hard enough as is, so you won’t feel completely overpowered. And speaking of which, this game does have its fair share of arcade syndrome this time around. There are so many enemies that bombard you and so many shots that are sent your way, even more so than the previous titles, making this without a doubt the hardest game in the series as well. I guess that helps balance things out to not make you too powerful.
Overall, despite the same limited weapon use and the ramp up in difficulty, this is a massive improvement from what we had previously seen with the two previous games, and is the best entry in the series so far. I would definitely recommend it for those who were fans of those previous titles, as well as those who are fans of shmups in general, because I’m sure that there will be plenty of things that you can find to love about this game. Now let’s just hope they don’t fuck it up from here on out in the later titles, or, god forbid, get boring! Too many shmups go down that route, it is quite common.
Game #452