My aunt used to send us a bunch of hand-me-down Nes games for Christmas. For at least two Christmas' this uncured. I could never tell if these were just games my cousin's had and didn't like, but I really didn't care. They were games, and I enjoyed them, even the bad ones, because I didn't know any better. In one of these Christmas game lots one year came 1942. Probably the best game in the bunches she sent, except Sid Meters Pirates, which I love, but has never held a battery save.
1942 hit the North American NES market in 1986, and was a port of Capcom's 1984, controversial, in Japan at least, arcade original. It was controversial in Japan, because it featured an American, from the looks of it, P38 Lightning, airplane shooting down Japanese aircraft in the South Pacific seas. In other words, it was a game made by a Japanese company, that featured Japan as the enemy. I've heard it described as, imagine if An American company made a game where you play as the Viet Cong, killing Americans. Which, for the age in gaming this game was developed, I can understand the reason it was controversial at the time.
World War II wasn't really a subject gaming had explored much at this point, if at all, and my best guess is, it was not only offensive for the reasons stated, but may even had been seen as a means of making light, or, even, profiteering off something as tragic, and serious as World War II. Today, the World War II theme is old hat, but this game was made in the age of killing Space Ships, and aliens, so the controversy is understandable.
1942 has shades of Galga, and sades of Xevious, minus the bomb dropping. Players fly over unfriendly oceans, and pacific islands single-handedly vanquishing what could only be described as the entirety of the Japanese airforce. Similar to Xevious, your plane has the ability to move forward on backwards on the play field, not being stuck at the bottom of the screen as in Galaga. This is useful to move and dodge the massive amounts of enemies and oncoming fire hurled at the player.
Basically, this game consists of, move, shoot, dodge, shoot, move, dodge, shoot, and maybe hit the loop button which turns the plane invincible for a few seconds, allowing players to re-situate to a safer spot on the map, in those few times you'll remember to actually use it. 1942 is pretty simple, don't die, kill everything that moves, survive till your aircraft carrier. Occasionally, power ups will show up requiring players to destroy strings of orange enemy aircraft, and collecting the POW symbol. The color of the POW Symbol determines which powerup you receive like extra shots, or two allied planes flying on your wings.
The basic enemy types consist of the green planes which swirl around the screen firing and dodging, and the white planes which are the kamikaze that try an maneuver into you. As the game prgresses, both types fire a barrage of bullets at players. As you play the larger planes come at you from behind your plane, causing you to always keep awareness of what's behind you as well as dodging what's coming at you from the front. This game gets pretty intense, and very challenging as you get further into it. The difficulty curve jumps up slowly, but the final levels in the game are rough for anyone but those overachievers who put in no-hit runs in this game. Seriously, you aren't human.
1942 is one of only two shooters I had in childhood, and it's just straight, simplistic, oldschool fun and challenge. I forced myself to finally beat this game for the first time for this review, as I never just buckled down, and beat it. Technically, you can only lose at this game if you give up, because despite it's difficulty, you are given infinite continues with which to beat this game, meaning, any determined gamer can see it through with enough patience.
The reason I never beat it as a child had to do with my general view of the majority of NES games. I never believed all of them were able to be beaten. I would play them, get as far as I could, or as far as I felt like getting, shut them off, and go on about my day. I just didn't believe the vast majority of NES games were capable of being beaten, and I was OK with that. Now that I am older, I am convinced that the the vast majority of NES aren't capable of being beaten...by me that is, and I'm OK with that. I had tons of fun just playing them and trying to get as far as I could. It wasn't until the Genesis days that I believed games could be beaten. For some reason, it just never bothered me.
This game is fun, challenging, but doesn't over complicate things. The controls are spot on, the graphics, while a step down from the arcade version, are decent. Far from the best the NES has to offer, but this game throws an absurd amount of enemies your way. There is slowdown that occurs, but with the sheer amount of planes on screen at one time, I would be more surprised if slowdown didn't occur. The game throws carnage your way from all directions, and the gameplay is all the better for it.
The sound, however, might annoy people. In mimicking the arcade version's slightly annoying sond that had what sounded like a whistle playing, the NES version substitutes with Atari sounding beeps for the one and only song that plays endlessly throughout the entirety of the game with a few exceptions. I used to think maybe it was imitating radar beeps, but with the original using a whistle sound, all I can think is maybe they used whistles to communicate on the decks of aircraft carriers in WWII. Either way, you do adjust to the music, and find a way to tolerate it, but I don't it being anyone's favorite NES tune, ever.
The Bottom line: I still love this game. The swarming, intense action, and challenging gameplay. I did force myself to finally beat it for this review, and now I never have to beat it ever again. I will be perfectly satisfied doing what I have always done: pop it into my NES, or in this case, Retro-Bit Super Retro Trio, play it until I am content, and shut it off again. But I will still pop it into a system for occasional play. With it's infinite continues offered from the start, this is a game that can be beaten by anyone willing to tough it out. I find it a lot easier and more playable than Sky Shark, which was the only other Shoot em up I owned throughout the entirety of my childhood gaming years. 1942: Classic game, simple fun.
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