Level one
and hordes of tiny fighters molest you.
Looking like
your own ship, except scaled up a bit, this
twin-fuselaged bomber takes a beating. Only
problem I have here is the fact that it has no
wings, yet is undeniably flying quite ably.
This
spitting fire attack is a standard boss attack in
1941. Reminds me somewhat of lighting farts. Not
that I ever did that of course. But I've read
about it somewhere in a book.
Daddy,
what did you do in the war? Well, son, I
drove a huge rail based tank that was at
least 200 feet wide and had huge laser
turrets.
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But
of course son, we had stealth bombers in
1941. Not like your cheap plastic
imitation ones of today, oh no, these
were solid iron and could materialise in
and out of thin air. (Don't ever let Ms
Capcom teach your kids history.)
Gotta love 1941.
My second fave game of the series after 19XX,
it's a great little shmup which I spent
many a happy hour blasting through a few
years back through untill I accidentally
managed to spill a cup of tea over the
PCB.. oops If you like 1941 it's on Capcom
Classics Collection Vol2 on PS2
along with another fave of mine Varth
which is Capcom's only other CPS1 system
vertical shooter. Mike |
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Let's
get all this sorted before we start. 1942 was
Capcom's first version, then came 1943, a
reworking as 1943 Kai, and finally 1941. Each one
added extra bolt-ons and ever increasing amounts
of sprites onscreen, with bigger and better
baddies.
The PC Engine SuperGraphix
hosted a perfect version of 1941,
but as you may or may not know, trying to play it
on MagicEngine is slightly difficult - no
sprites! It's only now, with Callus coming to our
rescue, that we can play it properly.
I
remember playing 1942 on my old Commie64 aeons
ago, and I loved it then. Swirling fighters,
looming bombers, and bullets a-flying... and
things haven't changed since. Some people might
wish for super effects and CD-music, but this
old-school shmup epitomises what a shooter stood
for: plain old blasting fun, where skill alone
dictates progress and the rewards are hard-won.
This reminds me of a thought I had a while ago. I
was wondering why we play games nowadays. Back in
the days of the prehistoric machines, I played a
game because of the immediate pleasure I got from
beating the machine, getting the highest score in
the arcade, and the sheer exhilaration of the
joystick-pumping dexterity required to win. It's
not often I see games like this today: what are
the rewards now? To see the graphics on the next
level, and to watch out for the next amazing
special effect and set-piece? Waiting 60 seconds
for the next level of 'action' that requires the
manual handy because there're too many controls
to remember!! Are we playing demos or games?
Personally, give me Scramble
before Wing-Commander, and Mario
(NES) before Pandemonium. I don't need a plot,
FMV or cutting edge 3D multi-aliased
transparent-mip-bip-blapping, and a team of fifty
people working on one game - all this extra
clutter gets in the way of the flow of a good
game, stifles any raw enjoyment that might be
left in there. That's not to say modern games are
all pish: Doom got it right, Quake (imho) didn't.
Ridge Racer was ace, Need for Speed was mince.
Mario 64 is unbeatable; Gex2, Rascal, Croc,
Jersey Devil all missed the point. Neither Doom,
Ridge nor Mario 64 needs a complex plot, or hours
of Hollywood 'film' - you pick em up, you play
em, and you have fun. They are GAMES
in the true sense, not one of these
entertainment-multimedia-showcase titles. What do
you think - am I talking bollocks or sense
here...
Oops. Got distracted. 1941 eh?
Smart wee game, give it a blast!
Score
out of Five:
 1/2
1942 Series. Click
for a Rogues
Gallery Feature.
During the second
level you discover you can scrape along the walls
and the plane spins around spitting bullets every
angle - fabulous idea!
I'm not sure about you, but I don't think they
had rockets like this back in 1941. Shall we
allow them a little creative freedom?
See, look,
there's another one doing it. Stupid eejit just
blasted a hole in its tailplane by doing it too.
.. And then
I got promoted to flying a giant steel spaceship
with extendible wings, lasers and old fashioned
propellers.
No no no, thank
YOU! It was a real pleasure, I'm sure. It's a bit
of a shock this screen, after phalanxes of drab
aeroplanes and muddy backgrounds.
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1941
