1943: The Battle Of Midway, 1987 Capcom (20 From 1987 #11)
12Great sequel to the seminal vertically scrolling shoot-em-up 1942. This takes what worked with the first game and improves greatly upon it, and takes what didn't work and makes it so it does! Your P-38 Lightning returns with a new weapon system-- shooting the POW symbol (which like the first game is gleaned from taking down a group of red planes) will cycle through the different weapons you can get in the game, so keep shooting until you see the weapon you want. They are: Shotgun, which is a spread shot that takes out enemy bullets; 3-Way, which fires in 3 directions; Auto, which fires a fast burst of 8 shots when you hold down the fire button; and Super Shell, which is also rapid-fire and fires very damaging shots. There is also a very rare Laser and can be gleaned from collecting the very rare "Maneki Neko" which teleports all over the screen and is very hard to catch. All weapons are timed and when the timer expires you are back to your standard double shot. 1943 also improves over 1942 in that it gives you a life meter-- your plane will not be destroyed with one bullet or collision with an enemy-- but it depletes simply over time, and enemy damage is especially draining. There are no extra lives, so once you run out of energy you must put in another credit to continue. The high score list is an odd exercise in this game.. it records your highest score during your gameplay, and any of your lesser scores that would have made the list during that gameplay are not recorded. At any rate, a couple other great additions to this sequel are the hidden bonus items that appear if you shoot at certain places enough (many Capcom cameos appear this way, like the cow, yashichi, strawberry and barrel), and the special codes you can put in to start each stage to begin with a certain special weapon. Great sequel, followed by 1941: Counter Attack. There was an arcade enhancement in Japan only called 1943 Kai, which had some relatively minor differences, and there was a great NES port of 1943: The Battle Of Midway. Thanks for watching and I hope you join me for not only game #10 in my 1987 series, but also my 2nd 1987 time capsule!