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1996
The lovely clear anime-style graphics of the
initial level hark back to the classic original
Lock-on weapons away as two
players take on
the first level's Ayako Special bomber boss.
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19XX eh? Looks like Capcom ran
out of war-years! With the curious sub-heading 'The
War Against Destiny' this game was the
first vertical shooter to be released on Capcom's
marvellous new CPS2 JAMMA
system. After many unsuccessful years of wanting
to play this game I finally managed to track it
down in an arcade while on holiday in Singapore
around 2000 I think. And I wasn't let down. I can
safely say that 19XX is by
far the best game of the series, with
fantastically stylish, colourful graphics, oodles
of playability and some unique and excellent
design features.
 
Chief
among these new features is the ability to 'lock-on'
to enemies with your weaponry, in a similar
manner to that seen in Layer Section. To 'acquire' their target
the player has to first hit the enemy's weak spot
with their charged 'lock-on laser', a whole skill
in itself, before hammering the fire button to
deliver the kill. Brilliantly implemented, this
new system adds a whole new level of playability
to the series. The game is fast and smooth with
larger, clearer graphics than its predecessors,
and with some beautiful stage backgrounds and
lovingly animated bosses. One, an enormous
batlleship several screens high, is particularly
impressive. Another new feature is the ability to
hold the bomb button down and charge a 'super
smart bomb', great in boss battles. One
of the very best vertical shooters of the 1990's,
I was lucky enough to acquire the JAMMA board a
few years back and still play it regularly to see
how far I can get on one credit. It's definitely
a game I will never want to part with..
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is for....
One of
their most famous franchises in the early days,
there's not a great deal to be said about these
games content-wise (er.. kill lots and lots of
enemy aircraft.. that's about it!) but their
arcade incarnations were certainly a lot of fun,
and I'm still very fond of the original 1942
even after all these years. Special mention has
to go to the soundtrack and jingles in the first
game, they drove you barmy while playing but you
would end up humming the damn things to yourself
for days afterwards.. 
