Nintendo Entertainment System and Famicom in 1988 by Capcom. While it follows the same layout as the Arcade game
-released whereas the NES version is a bit different. For starters you get to tweak and improve your stats, allowing you to improve your plane and abilities in future levels. There are also more diverse enemies and bosses that weren’t present in the arcade and I personally feel the levels are longer, although I can’t confirm that. At first it may be difficult to figure out why you fail a mission in 1943 and you will fail missions time and
Released exactly one year after the arcade version, the NES version of 1943 introduced the ability to improve the player’s plane by permanently upgrading certain aspects of its abilities. These include the plane’s offensive and defensive powers, the maximum fuel level, and its special weapons and their durations. This somewhat alters the game balance and a different tactic is required to survive the game. For example, initially very few weapons are made available; more can be attained from power-ups by putting statistic points into “special weapons ability”.[2]
Like its predecessor, 1943 was ported to many systems. The most unique is the NES version, which adds in a feature where you can customize your plane’s statistics – at the beginning, you can allocate a certain number points to your offense, defense, energy (the size of your health bar), special weapon (which determines which weapons pop up when you shoot power-ups) and special weapon time limit (how long a special weapon lasts). You can find hidden items throughout the game which can be used to strengthen any of these after each level. There are 24 stages in total this time, as opposed to 16 in the arcade version. The port was also handled by Capcom rather than Micronics, so it’s a big step above the original’s NES port. Interestingly, the Famicom version is subtitled The Battle of Valhalla rather than The Battle of Midway, turning it from a real campaign to a fictional one.
As a follow-up to 1942, 1943: Battle of Midway places you in the pacific theatre of World War II during the battles at Midway Atoll. I always felt that this was the more popular of the two titles, but in most cases the arcade version was ported and re-released whereas the NES version is a bit different. For starters you get to tweak and improve your stats, allowing you to improve your plane and abilities in future levels. There are also more diverse enemies and bosses that weren’t present in the arcade and I personally feel the levels are longer, although I can’t confirm that. At first it may be difficult to figure out why you fail a mission in 1943 and you will fail missions time and time again because the game is of the hardest shooters on the platform. You not only need to keep up with the planes and bullets, but also your energy meter in the lower right corner – if it depletes, you crash. All kinds of things deplete your energy from what I can tell: it naturally drops with time, every time you get shot and every time you use a charged attack. Like all titles of this genre, power-ups will drop from certain enemies that can restore your energy, give you a new weapon or increase your number of special attacks.
These are all necessary variables to keep in mind as you begin to progress through the games discouraging 16 levels – or at least that’s how many the arcade version had, I have yet to pass level 8 on the NES. Each level is separated into two parts, one in the skies above the naval fleet and another closer to the aircraft carriers that ends in a boss battle. There are no second chances and you need to work fast when finally taking on bosses because you’re fighting against your energy meter running out. If it does, you get a game over and that’s all she wrote. Frustrating as this may be, you do have the option to continue at the beginning of the level you died on, but the more difficult the levels get the more heartbreaking it is
Released exactly one year after the arcade version, the NES version of 1943 introduced the ability to improve the player’s plane by permanently upgrading certain aspects of its abilities. These include the plane’s offensive and defensive powers, the maximum fuel level, and its special weapons and their durations. This somewhat alters the game balance and a different tactic is required to survive the game. For example, initially very few weapons are made available; more can be attained from power-ups by putting statistic points into “special weapons ability”.[2]
Like its predecessor, 1943 was ported to many systems. The most unique is the NES version, which adds in a feature where you can customize your plane’s statistics – at the beginning, you can allocate a certain number points to your offense, defense, energy (the size of your health bar), special weapon (which determines which weapons pop up when you shoot power-ups) and special weapon time limit (how long a special weapon lasts). You can find hidden items throughout the game which can be used to strengthen any of these after each level. There are 24 stages in total this time, as opposed to 16 in the arcade version. The port was also handled by Capcom rather than Micronics, so it’s a big step above the original’s NES port. Interestingly, the Famicom version is subtitled The Battle of Valhalla rather than The Battle of Midway, turning it from a real campaign to a fictional one.
As a follow-up to 1942, 1943: Battle of Midway places you in the pacific theatre of World War II during the battles at Midway Atoll. I always felt that this was the more popular of the two titles, but in most cases the arcade version was ported and re-released whereas the NES version is a bit different. For starters you get to tweak and improve your stats, allowing you to improve your plane and abilities in future levels. There are also more diverse enemies and bosses that weren’t present in the arcade and I personally feel the levels are longer, although I can’t confirm that. At first it may be difficult to figure out why you fail a mission in 1943 and you will fail missions time and time again because the game is of the hardest shooters on the platform. You not only need to keep up with the planes and bullets, but also your energy meter in the lower right corner – if it depletes, you crash. All kinds of things deplete your energy from what I can tell: it naturally drops with time, every time you get shot and every time you use a charged attack. Like all titles of this genre, power-ups will drop from certain enemies that can restore your energy, give you a new weapon or increase your number of special attacks.
These are all necessary variables to keep in mind as you begin to progress through the games discouraging 16 levels – or at least that’s how many the arcade version had, I have yet to pass level 8 on the NES. Each level is separated into two parts, one in the skies above the naval fleet and another closer to the aircraft carriers that ends in a boss battle. There are no second chances and you need to work fast when finally taking on bosses because you’re fighting against your energy meter running out. If it does, you get a game over and that’s all she wrote. Frustrating as this may be, you do have the option to continue at the beginning of the level you died on, but the more difficult the levels get the more heartbreaking it is to get back on the horse. 1943 stems from a time where you needed to be on top of your game and the difficulty is punishing without any caveats. There’s also no save feature, so you’ll want to do the infamous “leave the console on pause for days at a time” if you want to complete this title – it takes me at least an hour or two to reach level 8 and I’m familiar with the game. Too bad this isn’t on virtual console, because the ability to save your state (which is available if you emulate the game) would make completing it just slightly less of a chore.
completing it just slightly less of a chore.
These are all necessary variables to keep in mind as you begin to progress through the games discouraging 16 levels – or at least that’s how many the arcade version had, I have yet to pass level 8 on the NES. Each level is separated into two parts, one in the skies above the naval fleet and another closer to the aircraft carriers that ends in a boss battle. There are no second chances and you need to work fast when finally taking on bosses because you’re fighting against your energy meter running out. If it does, you get a game over and that’s all she wrote. Frustrating as this may be, you do have the option to continue at the beal console, because the ability to save your state (which is available if you emulate the game) would make completing it just slightly less of a chore.
