1942 is a game that at one time gained immense popularity and became the basis for a large series that visited almost all gaming platforms. It first appeared on arcade machines in 1984 and was made and published by the now very famous Capcom studio. It was also released on the NES in 1985.
Despite the popularity and good reviews of the game, 1942 can hardly be called a good game. It’s worth starting, perhaps, small, with the plot, or rather, with its almost complete absence - here you play as some abstract American "Super Ace" alone fighting the entire Japanese fleet - there are no details, cut-scenes or briefings here. However, this is not surprising for that time. Most of all, one unusual fact is interesting here - in the game, completely made by the Japanese, and produced, among other things, in Japan, players will have to fly to Tokyo in the person of a brave American warrior, completely destroying the Japanese air force along the way.
In the game, the graphics are simple, poor and suffer greatly from monotony - most of the time you will have to fly over the ocean, occasionally flying over small deserted islands, and only at the very end you can see the city below you. It is also worth noting the bad design - the models of enemy aircraft and their bullets merge with the texture of the island and sometimes you have to play blindly. It’s also not encouraging that at later levels, during particularly fierce battles, the game starts to slow down rather robustly.
Sound and music. I find it hard to find words to describe how terrible, ugly and disgusting the music in this game is - I have not heard anything worse yet. It will be a long time before you, while playing, will understand with bewilderment that that annoying and sharp noise, similar to Morse code, seasoned with a strange chaotic rustle, IS the "musical" accompaniment of this game! The sounds also do not shine - there are few of them, they are faded, monotonous and uninteresting.
The game has as many as 32 levels, 3 lives and an infinite number of continuations are given for their passage, because of this, 1942 is a very easy game, even despite the large number of enemies in the last stages. There are very few varieties of enemy aircraft, all of them can be seen in the first couple of levels, and then endless repetitions begin. From time to time there are bosses - always the same big green bomber, which is killed in 5-10 seconds. There is no final boss. Occasionally, groups of red planes will spawn, dropping power-ups that call on small allied ships to help you or increase firepower, give extra life and destroy all enemies on the screen. There are no additional weapons, there is only the opportunity to make a dead loop 3 times per level to avoid enemy fire, but this function is completely useless, because on the way out of the loop you are usually in the same plight from which you tried to escape. In general, the gameplay is extremely monotonous and boring, so few people willingly wish to go through 32 absolutely identical levels.
The game can only be viewed if you are a hardcore fan of this genre or the Capcom studio. The rest is better to turn their eyes to its much more successful continuation.