It's a good thing I wasn't a highly relied-upon fighter pilot in the actual year 1943. I would have made it to Mission 3 against the Japs, only to be destroyed by a enormous plane 50 times the size of mine! America would have wept because the Japanese would have overtaken us. And guess what? When you die, you're dead. None of this unrealistic "extra lives" crap like in the game "1942." Death means something because war... is serious.
Truthfully, I wish my grandpa would have been able to tackle this game. Its no-nonsense approach would have impressed him. One life (continues... yes, but then it is only a game - and a port of an arcade game, at that), your health is constantly depleting, and best of all, the planes actually have strategic tactics instead of simply whirlybird-ing all around you like in '42. The smaller insect-like planes are the greatest nuisance, with their kamikaze maneuvers and bird-like patterns, but let's not discount the big boys, oh no! They're obnoxious as well, with their ability to switch between "three-dimensional" planes (avoiding your fire while doing so), and their heat-seeking missiles. Oh, and if you fail to destroy the last boss before the screen scrolls completely up, you have to try the level over again. Seriously, this is war. "1942" was a humble pipedream compared to this apocalyptic year-after.
Does anyone else find it odd that Capcom, a Japanese company, would produce a series of shooters called "19XX", where you play as a top American pilot going up against the Japanese? Perhaps there's some sort of self-loathing in the subtext of these games. Either that or these games are the ultimate revenge for WWII: a series of shooters designed for Americans that are so ridiculously hard, only crazy war psychos will be able to beat them. The rest of us will just get frustrated and put up our white flag in defeat, while Capcom laughs all the way to the bank.
B+
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