1943: The Battle of Midway

"That song again....ARGH!"

When it comes to overhead shooters for the Nintendo Entertainment System, Capcom has always tried to do a good job in creating a rather fun and addicting game that keeps the gamer riveted to their chair for hours on end. With fighting games and survival horror being their mainstay these days, you have to take a look back in time to see what Capcom has produced in the past, and you’ll find a gem of a game called 1943. Set after the game 1942, you take control of a fighter plane and go through several stages of overhead shooting action in a little fighter plane that takes on a ton of enemies from all directions, trying to stay alive throw a hail of bullets! While not the most scientific of shooting games, what it does do is create a gaming environment that is rather addictive and makes you want to kill everything on the screen that looks like an enemy. Something else that comes into effect when you play this title is that the simplicity of the game play, the controls and the fact that you have nothing advanced that you have to do {such as in Top Gun} makes it a fighter plane type of title that is fun and easy to complete!

The game play works along the lines of any other overhead shooter that you might have played in the past. All you have to do is maneuver your fighter plane around a screen full of enemies while firing off shots and collecting as many points as you possibly can before you are either shot down or the stage ends. That’s all that you have to do, and the only thing that works against you is your patience because the game stages are so damned long it seems, that your butt goes numb from sitting there for too long! The stages themselves really never change from one to the next, with the main enemy of the stage being a huge battleship that fires of continuous bullets and you have to try and strafe the different targetable portions of the ship in order to defeat it. The challenge really rests on your ability to clear the different waves of enemies, which can range from small ships flying in from either side to larger ones that float ahead of you. Through this, you’ll collect power up items that will allow you to upgrade your gun and therefore help you on your way to victory overall!

Control of your little fighter plane rests solely in your ability to dance on the NES control pad. Considering that there are only two buttons that you use for the game, you have the firing button and a roll over option that doesn’t do much but put you in a bad spot. The response time on the control pad could be a little better, but as a NES gamer, I’ve seen much worse out of games of this type! With no real advanced maneuvers that you have to go up against, you’ll find that the game doesn’t have much more than a ten minute learn time, and any gamer of any age and skill can pick it up and play like a pro. Later stages require some tight flying, so get used to the easy waves of enemies in the first few stages and learning how to dodge incoming fire before you get there and you should do just fine!

Visually, the game has taken a slight change for the better over the 1942 title. With more lush environments that you fly through and the huge bosses at the end of the stage, you’ll find that plenty of detail and time was placed in this title than was in the previous! This goes to show that the NES does have the ability to create games with improvements, and you’ll see that with the various speeds of the game as well as the different enemy types. One gripe that I personally have with the game, and that most people will see is that the game really doesn’t variate from one stage to the next! This is something that is noticeable, but it really depends on how much of a stickler for detail and variation you really are in the long run. Special effects are limited to the planes exploding and even that really isn’t much of a leap from the first title, so be prepared to see more of the same but with slightly better color.

The audio of the game is something that hasn’t changed at all from 1942. With the same damned music that stuck in your head from the first game, you’ll find that it has been recreated and spruced up just slightly for 1943! The sound effects are also of the same origin, in which your planes exploding and the machine gun fire is all blaring and blazing through your television speakers. What would have been nice to see, is some variation on the game music, because once you’ve heard that damned March of Midway tune, you can’t get it out of your head for weeks. This is both a good and a bad thing, because you don’t want to be humming it all day for a week after you shut the game off!

Overall, 1943 is an improvement over the 1942 title but with some visual detailing and a slight bit of audio thrown in for good measure. While not the most stellar of games, it is something that you wouldn’t expect from the NES and that is improvement! With the different enemies that you can shoot down and the dodge and fire game play that made the first one so addicting, you’ll find that 1943 is a worthy investment of a buck if there ever was one. Collectors will probably see this game as a finish to the series that was one of Capcom’s attempts at creating an overhead shooter genre that actually did very well, and it didn’t revolve around Street Fighter! Worth having to hum the March of Midway tune for a week, 1943 is a solid game for overhead shooter fans and is worth having in your collection as a game that shows that the NES can create improved games, even if the improvements are minimal.

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 12/04/01, Updated 12/04/01