By Kevin "Berserker" Hall
Player(s): 1-2 (local or online)
Extra Support: Online Co-op play, Leaderboards
First introduced in our year of 1984, the 1940 series is one of Capcom's
oldest series. The series began with 1942 then stretched forward with 1943, 1943
Kai and 1941. Developed by Backbone Entertainment, 1942: Joint Strike is a blend
of the older 1940 shooter games with new HD graphics. The game plays out more
similarly to 1943 (and 1943 Kai) rather than the faster-paced 1941 and it
manages to bring in ideas from the other 1940 games along with some newer
gameplay elements.
From the beginning, much like WOTB: Commando 3, the player can choose to
control a character (or in this case plane) with different stats ranging from
life, speed and the amount of special attacks that each plane can hold. Much
like WOTB, life is usually the main factor of concern for a beginning player.
Like the other 1940 series games, the actual gameplay still retains the classic
feel of a vertical scrolling shooter.
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As usual, players start with the dual shot. Power-ups can still be obtained
from shooting all red-colored planes in a group. Instead of having to shoot the
power-ups, they now float in place and change from one of three types based on
time. The main three power-ups consist of the usual 3-way spread shot from 1943,
the 4 shot spread from the original 1942, and the dual lasers from 1943 Kai. All
of these have infinite shots as long as the plane is not destroyed. There are
also some rare power-ups that offer a limit to shots fired (the shell weapon
from 1943 and the automatic dual shot from 1943). The power-ups in Joint Strike
never do quite equal to the screen-filling amount of firepower that your plane
could obtain in many of the past 1940 games, especially when compared to 1941.
The usual bomb attack from the past games has returned as well, allowing
players to nuke the entire screen or greatly damage all areas of a boss. There
is now a homing missile attack that can be performed by charging a gauge to the
side of your bomb list. The gauge charges based on how many enemies are
destroyed. The missiles are best saved for boss fights. Sadly, the gauge cannot
be charged by damaging a boss.
1942 is showcased with 3-D rendered environments and objects, which makes the
destruction from many big enemy planes or battleships very eye pleasing along
with the animation used for each explosion. Battleships split in the middle or
rear and sink after enough damage has been taken and big planes fall to the
ground and explode. Bosses have been given a great enhancement from the past
1940 games. The bosses all feel truly unique and none of them are carbon copies
of each other.
Joint Strike can really get chaotic with the amount of bullets that will
appear on the screen at one time, especially during boss fights. Even on the
easiest difficulty, the overwhelming amount of bullets on the screen can
sometimes get the best of just about any player. Thankfully, all enemy bullets
can be destroyed by releasing a bomb attack. It sure would have been nice to
have the loop action from the previous games to help out on the constant spray
of enemy gunfire during boss fights though.
To help the player out with the overwhelming firepower, Joint Strike still
incorporates a life bar for each plane allowing for them to be able to sustain a
certain amount of firepower based on its beginning stats. Life pickups are
rather rare and you'll have the choice between a partial life pickup and a bomb
pickup whenever they appear. Life can also be instantly refilled all the way by
collecting the Yashichi item - being a hardcore Capcom fan, I was hit with a
sense of nostalgia upon first seeing the inclusion of this old-school Capcom
item that appeared often in many of Capcom's earlier games.
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