Developer: Capcom Publisher: Capcom Release: 10/88 Genre: Shooter
Capcom and their early NES games had a bad reputation. While most of us have fond memories of games like Ghosts ‘n Goblins and Commando they were riddled with severe performance issues. The worst of the bunch was 1942, a droning mess that I cannot believe I suffered through to the end. These issues were because of developer Micronics, who clearly did not have a handle on the hardware. When they took their conversions in-house the difference in quality was apparent. 1943 is an amazing port and even better than the arcade game in some ways. What a difference a year or two can make.
1943 differs from its predecessor in a number of significant ways. The first is the energy meter. Rather than a set of lives and one hit deaths energy functions as health. Similar to Gauntlet it drains slowly with any hits you take removing time. Special weapons also use the same time system; it sounds limiting but grabbing the same weapon adds thirty seconds which is fair. Like 1942 destroying red ships reveals power-ups. In this case you have to decide between replenishing energy and getting a special weapon. Energy restoring items come in many flavors, from POW symbols to energy tanks. Some are even in the environment. Your ship is pretty resilient and can take a number of hits before death this way. But with the additions to the NES version it can become so much more.
The biggest addition to the home port is the stats system. This replaces the ranking system from the arcade that encouraged destroying as many ships as possible. Initially you can allocate two points in five categories: offense, defense, energy level (raising maximum energy), special weapons (grants access to new weapons), and special weapon time limit. Every level has a hidden shop that will grant one or two more points you can distribute how you like. These are not hard to find as chances are you will reveal them by playing normally. This system adds depth to what could otherwise have been a great if not straightforward shooter.
The ability to tailor the ship to your play style opens up many possibilities. If you suck at dodging bullets boosting defense and energy will ensure your survival. Those that are confident in their piloting skills can instead focus on their attack power to take out enemies quicker. The impact a single point in any skill makes is immediately tangible making the search for the shop of the utmost importance. If I have one criticism I do think the special weapon category should have been different. Gating new weapons behind unlocks feels unfair even though the standard rapid fire cannon is no slouch. The home port solves this by adding more content.
Compared to the arcade this version has twenty four levels rather than sixteen. This gives more opportunity to upgrade your ship and the game is paced to facilitate that. The early levels ease you into the mechanics and general pace. Rival ships do not attack in great numbers and are not as aggressive. Around mission six or seven there is a noticeable shift as they are more eager to take shots and larger destroyer class ships appear. If you have not kept up with ship upgrades than the latter portions of the game are harder if not near impossible. I find it hard to believe anyone will have trouble doing so as the shops/items will be unearthed by pure happenstance in most cases.
As much as I do appreciate the effort to add more content it does work against the game to an extent. 1943 is very repetitive but thankfully not as much as its predecessor. Every mission has three parts: the preliminary aerial attack, the descent to engage the sea forces, and a boss battle. It won’t take long until you notice that a good deal of the levels are reshuffled versions of prior stages. The enemy attack patterns might be different but the scenery and such are still the same. There are a limited number of enemies and bosses as well and it does grow tiresome after a while. To the game’s credit there are passwords to save progress so you won’t have to complete it in one sitting. It helps although more variety would have been better.
In Closing
1943 is the game the NES version of 1942 wishes it could have been. Capcom pulled out all the stops to make this game great and even better than the arcade. Despite its repetition I think 1943 is one of the best shooters for the system and has held up well.
