1942

• Release Date: 1986
• Genre: Shooter
• Style: Vertical Scrolling Shooter
• Similar Games: 1941: Counter Attack (Arcade), Delta Fighter (Commodore 64/128)

Game Description

The war comes to America! It's less than a year since the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor and America's naval forces are on the high seas, engaging the Japanese navy in sea and air combat, protecting the United States from invasion. 1942 is a 2D, top down view, vertical scrolling shooter that lets you pilot a propeller-prop naval fighter to engage and destroy hostile planes over the sea. Armed with a pair of forward mounted machine guns, your fighter is designed for shooting Japanese aircraft out of the sky.

However, the Japanese planes are armed, too, and do their best to reciprocate. One shot is all it takes to destroy your plane while some of the enemy planes require more than one shot to eliminate. The odds are against you, although you're not entirely defenseless. Your agile plane can perform loops to evade enemy fighters and gunfire. When each new life, you have three loops available to use at any time and some destroyed enemies leave power-ups behind to increase your plane's firepower. You also have three planes to use and, if you lose one, can continue the level with another. Do you have what it takes to be a naval aviator and dogfight with Japan's elite pilots?

Roots & Influences

The Commodore 64 version of 1942 is a loose adaptation of Capcom's Arcade original.

Review: Overall

Since Arcade machines have considerably more processing power than the Commodore 64, the developers of this iteration of 1942 had to make some liberal cuts and interpretations to facilitate design. Still, this Commodore 64 version captures the essence of the original Arcade gameplay.

Graphics are not the game's strong point and, although adequate to the task, are not very pleasing. Unit sprites don't have much detail and the coloring scheme is a bit plain. On the plus side, though, the background scrolls without jerkiness and foreground units move across the screen smoothly. One decidedly unwelcome aspect in the graphics area pertains to how some enemy planes flash after they've been hit, especially larger aircraft that require more than one hit to destroy. The color changes to indicate damage, but flashes in two different colors for a gaudy effect. The use of simple smoke graphics would have been better.

Unlike the graphics, the music is quite impressive. It's uncomplicated, consisting of a few relatively simple melodies that are pleasant to listen to and complement gameplay nicely. The main problem with sound, however, is when you shoot down an enemy plane down, the game produces a high-pitched effect that can only be described as a bird-like chirp -- usable for the sound of a dropping bomb, but inappropriate for an exploding plane. It's distracting and the game would have been better served with no explosion effect at all.

Then comes gameplay -- a bit simplistic compared to other shooters. You can't do much more than shoot, move, and do the occasional loop to get out of tight spots. Maybe you won't mind the simple gameplay system because 1942's level designs keep throwing new and interesting things at you to keep the experience fresh. For example, the enemy units will come at you from all sorts of angles and sometimes even from behind. Some enemies can even ram you while you're looping. The game rapidly accelerates to an intense gameplay tempo that doesn't let up, constantly throwing enemies at you, resulting in a fast paced and enjoyable shooter experience that might make you overlook its simplicity. Additionally, the game's responsiveness to controller input is superior when compared to other Commodore 64 games -- always a good thing for shooters.

Because it doesn't have much in the way of gameplay frills and thrills to impress you, the Commodore 64 version of 1942 can arguably be called a classic style shooter that delivers the kind of solid shooter gameplay fans of the genre will find well polished.

Review: Enjoyment

This "no frills" shooter delivers solid shooter gameplay.

Review: Graphics

Adequate but unimpressive graphics.

Review: Sound

Some catchy songs and good sound effects.

Review: Replay Value

The lack of features hurts replay value.

Review: Documentation

Includes gameplay essentials.

1942	1942 dime
battlefield 1942	1942 s penny