Capcom Arcade Stadium: 1942 Review (wrygrass)
I rate Capcom Arcade Stadium: 1942 3/5. OK overall but also mediocre by today's standards. This is a simple, vertically scrolling bullet-hell type action game which was originally released in arcades way back in 1984, making it one of the earliest such games of this particular type (though Galaga, released in 1981 and Space Invaders, released in 1978 were definitely earlier and are similar in many respects).
Despite its responsive controls and basically having everything this type of arcade game is usually known for, by modern standards 1942 feels repetitious and boring with its simplistic graphics and laughably antiquated "music." 1942 is really only going to be of great interest to hardcore fans of this particular type of arcade-style game and to those who are keenly interested in the annals of videogame history. This particular arcade game did spawn a number of sequels and helped further popularize this basic style of arcade game. Remember, the first Raiden arcade game didn't come out until 1990 afterall.
+ Controls: Highly responsive, excellent controls. Like all game controls in Capcom Arcade Stadium, they can be rebound to other keys.
+/- Simple sound effects: Each sound has a particular, useful meaning though.
+/- Graphics: Mediocre at best though they would've been considered pretty good back in 1984. The early levels have a certain style to them as do the middle and ending levels giving a nice, visual sense of progression through the game.
+/- Game play: The core game play is fairly good but its lack of variation causes 1942 to become repetitious. All enemies and bosses are repeatedly reused throughout this game. Usually more levels is better than fewer but the levels and enemies in them are so similar to one another than I'm not so sure this time. This might've felt like an even better game if it had been shorter. Getting through this game from beginning to end feels like a tiresome slog. It is nice (and adds some interest) that this game has a setting and level structure very loosely based on the Pacific theater air war against the Japanese in World War 2 (particularly the battle of Midway apparently) rather than being set in a mostly undefined fantasy or futuristic world (which is what the vast majority of games of this type do) causing 1942 to have a sort of historical fiction setting.
On a side note, I do wonder if 1942 was ever controversial in Japan (seeing how this is an arcade game which depicts a single little American fighter plane literally mowing down swarms of Japanese airplanes but I guess they somehow managed not to mind too much as I've read that this game was quite popular in Japan (and this game was designed by a Japanese national afterall). Still, I wonder if we Americans would be so forgiving if some American citizen made a popular arcade game at this time which also happened to depict a cartoon Viet Cong soldier mowing down swarms of cartoon American soldiers and also named the game '1968'?)
- Music: Laughably outdated, awful sounding music. Sounds like nothing more than a series of repetitious beeping and clicking noises.