1943 (NES Game)

I used to be a huge fan of vertical and horizontal scrolling shooters. Something about blasting away countless numbers of enemies and picking up crazy powerups just seemed like a whole lot of fun. Nowadays I've reached a point where I've seen games that interest me a whole lot more and I rarely play a vertical shooter like 1943.

Despite my personal fallout with such shooters, 1943 is a very technically advanced game for the NES. There are dozens of enemy planes flitting around the screen at any given time. As a result, there are some flicker issues, but nowhere near as much as you'd expect considering what this game asks your NES to do.
1943 puts you behind the cockpit of a P-38 Lightning (oddly enough, the "clear the screen" power that you use in this game is lightning) which is one of my favorite WWII planes. You make your way through dozens of small fighters, medium sized bombers, and a few really large bombers. Some of the planes dip down and pull back up from time to time, making them a little harder to kill. If you kill a whole squad of red planes, you get a powerup. Other powerups are hidden elsewhere on the screen. It's best to find an NES controller with autofire and just go berserk. Once you've killed all your smaller foes, the screen will clear and a boss will appear. Sometimes it's a ship, and sometimes it's a huge enemy plane than can kill you with a single touch. 1943 starts off pretty mild, but it gets fairly difficult as time goes on.

I have to recognize the fact that this is a very well done NES game. It's visually appealing and fairly challenging. That said, I got really bored after the third level or so. It just felt like it was repeating. But if you're the sort of person who still loves vertical shooters, you'll love 1943. As for myself, I give it a solid yet not spectacular...