"One of the best that I've played, it's only topped by 19XX..."

When looking at it logically, you'd figure that this should have been the first, and then it should have gone 1942. Well, in the line of 1940 games that were in the line at Marvellous Marvin's, there was only one that I couldn't play and that was 1944. Bummer! However, when I looked down the row, I noticed Counter Attack, and never really thought anything of it until I started to play. With enhanced visuals, awesome audio and the familiar game play that everyone has come to love, 1941 is one of the best in the series! Considering the different games that have come and gone throughout the shooting game genre, you may find that playing any of the games in the 1940 series is pretty much a given to what it is that you’ll be trying to accomplish. Games such as this one really kept a genre moving when it got a little stale, and even if you’re not a complete shooter game fan, you’ll still find that this lonely arcade cabinet is worthy of playing a few times, even if to grab some nostalgic value!

Featuring the same fly and shoot game play that the other games in the series had to offer, 1941 doesn't deviate from the original formula of kill or be killed! It does however offer up an endless supply of enemies that blaze across the screen in formation, attempting to lay the smack down. Bonuses are collected the way they were before, by shooting certain points on the screen to reveal them, but the weapons can only be found by taking down the huge cargo planes that seem to have more firepower than you can hope to obtain! Boss battles are no longer limited to ships, but include some wild looking fighter planes that can wipe you out if you don't have the strategy to take them down! Throughout the game, you’ll find that the challenge will either increase, or decrease, simply on your ability to play through the game and not get yourself killed in the process. While this may seem as though the game play is based solely on what is on the screen, it really is your ability to get through the waves of enemy fighter planes and what they fire off at you that will determine just how far you’ll really get.

The control is all still here, including the roll option which will ultimately save your skin from getting blown out of the sky! The easy to learn, but hard to master back and forth will take practice when it comes down to the heavy fire that blazes across the screen, so learn and master ways around the incoming fire, and you'll do fine! Gamers who have any sort of experience in this type of game play will find that the game really isn’t all that hard to figure out and play with. Beginners may have some trouble in the later stages when it comes down to actually making it through the incoming enemy shots, but it’s nothing that a little practice and some patience can’t accomplish with some time thrown in for good measure.

Hard hitting and just right for the game, the audio rings through with plenty of pulse pounding action! Each stage has a different tune, all of which keeps the fast and furious pace of the game at maximum overdrive. The sound effects have also been toned, utilizing the speakers of the machine with almost surround sound like audio with incoming planes and rocking explosions! However, throughout most of the game, you’ll find that the audio you find throughout 1941 is simply a recycled track that appeared in all of the other ones with just enough feeling behind it to make it passable as a sequel worthy track. Combine this with the sounds from other games that you find in the arcade, and you may find that if the audio tracks on the sound board aren’t turned up enough, there is plenty of the music and the effects that you’ll miss throughout the game.

Finally, something that really shows off the visuals of a series! 1941 gives you all the design, all the detail, and all the flowing fires and rocking explosions that you would hope to see out of a game of this type. Through several stages, you'll encounter several different plane designs as well as a ton of huge and impressive looking boss characters. Truly, a feast for the eyes! The stages themselves really aren’t all that different with each passing stage, but you’ll find that there is enough to notice that there are improvements over the other games in the series. You would figure that with enough time, there would be those small visual improvements, and you’ll find that throughout the game, there are just enough small details in all of the stages that will give you something to look at. Possibly one of the best examples of what the visuals have to offer is with the planes and when they go down in flames, shooting debris all over the sky, which does immerse you within the overall theme of the game.

As with all the other games in the series, you'll find that the challenge is greater in later levels. However, in 1941, you'll find that the challenge is set at hard from the very start, so have your quarters ready! Cheap shot planes and hard to beat bosses will find you digging for another quarter just to continue on with the fight. Those of you who are really into the overhead shooting games will find that the challenge is just enough to warrant you throwing in a ton of quarters in order to reach the arcade equivalent of an ending, but even then, the ending really isn’t all that much.

1941 is a great game that brings to life everything that you could hope for in a series of action games! With impressive visuals, a higher difficulty, and a supreme game play, you're looking at a game that could do no better but to improve on what it already has! Rarity is also a factor, in which I've seen this game at one place, and it specializes in rare games alone...Marvellous Marvin's! Unfortunately, as time goes on, games such as this, that really are gems to any particular genre are becoming increasingly hard to find throughout any arcade in the country. While one of my personal favorites amongst the other games that feature the same style of game play, you’ll find that any money you dump in is definitely worth spending, just on the challenge and improvements alone.

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 09/30/01, Updated 01/04/02