So let it be said this is an easier and shorter 194X game than any of us have ever played, at least on the default 2 stars difficulty. The game has a look and feel similar to the new Commando game on XBLA, and if its similar in how the difficulties ramp up, the highest difficulty level of 4 stars should provide a true challenege to any hardcore, old school arcade shoot-em-up fan.

In terms of enemy spawns, bullet patterns, and boss battles, 1942 Joint Strike easily tops many other XBLA arcade shooters including its half-brother game WOTB Commando. If WOTB Commando is a 7+/10, this game is easily an 8+. I havent tried any of the coop options, but Im sure just like with WOTB they will add a great deal of replay value to the title.

There are only 5 missions and they last roughly 5-8 minutes each, culminating in a boss battle with a giant battleship, plane or tank. Once the boss is defeated the player is given a ranking for how quickly he defeated the boss, and the total score for the level is calculated. To get a high score, you need to not only defeat the boss quickly but also pass through the level getting as many score multipliers as possible. The multipliers are attained by shooting down enemy planes as close to yours as possible; if you hit them from across the screen, there is no multiplier, if you hit them with a point blank shot you receive a 16X multiplier which adds up quickly. There is also one bonus scoring stage which occurs after stage 1, where the player has no weapons and must dodge enemy plane formations while collecting as many bonus medals as possible - the stage lasts about 2 minutes and is quite fun.

Overall I sure cant help but wish for a more meaty experience from 1942 Joint Strike. Its very similar to the experience I had with WOTB Commando. Whats there is really quite good, but there just isnt quite enough total content to satisfy shooter junkies who can plow through the game in under an hour. If you've played any of the previous 194X games, the default difficulty wont faze you but the brevity might. Hopefully this game will be enough of a commercial success of XBLA that Capcom can start working on a more fully fleshed out sequel as soon as possible.

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http://chronicdog.blogspot.com/

the levels of difficulty do not get harder with star.  You just get less lives.  If thats not the case, then i did not notice it in this game.  Just like i didnt notice it in WOTB.

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Zombies everywhere, zombies everywhere, zombies everywhere. They're coming for your brains and it's too late to change.

I found this game harder than the original. My hand was sore after 20 minutes of play. It was really fun but I still can't complete it.

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Once a Marine always a Marine!

 ChronicBurnout3 wrote:

The game has a look and feel similar to the new Commando game on XBLA,

Do you mean it has been updated with Johnny Bravo style graphics? If so I think I'll give this a miss.

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You know you're old when you can remember as a young lad queuing for a Coleco Vision with your mother.

I had quite some fun with this arcade title back some time ago. My main concern is the limit of 5 levels out of the original 32, as well as coop. As much as I enjoy cooperative play, I fear I will not get my money's worth out of this arcade title, therefore I can't judge the price as a justifiable.

I cannot complain about much else. I enjoyed the demo a few times, and it appears fantastic, graphically one of the best arcade titles. On the toughest of difficulties, this demo was a breeze.

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Next Most Anticipated 360 Games - Dark Void, Mass Effect 2

I downloaded it today. Played it for about 2 hours. It's a brilliant update. I love the graphics and the gameplay is still excellent. I recommend downloading this game.

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'The Brave Do Not Fear The Grave' - Final Fantasy VII
Winners never quit, quitters never win.

 TodaysForgotten wrote:

the levels of difficulty do not get harder with star.  You just get less lives.  If thats not the case, then i did not notice it in this game.  Just like i didnt notice it in WOTB.

I noticed this today while playing. I have dubbed it "the poor man's difficulty balancing."
Shame-shame Backbone and Capcom...taking the easy way out because you no longer know how to properly balance a game's difficulty level. I noticed this with WotB: Commando III and with SF II: HFCE. The balancing on all of these games is downright terrible.

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http://darkdiamond.net
www.originalsoundversion.com
www.youtube.com/profile?user=KidKobun

I love it! 142 points!!

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If I win again I'm still the champion, If you win, Ha that's just impossible!!

 ChronicBurnout3 wrote:

In terms of enemy spawns, bullet patterns, and boss battles, 1942 Joint Strike easily tops many other XBLA arcade shooters including its half-brother game WOTB Commando.

Ikaruga says hello.

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Metal Gear Solid 4 pwned Halo 3.

The Truth.

I bought the game over the weekend.  Damn hard game for me.  I tried 3 times on Penguin and could only get to the 4th level.

I have a DOA4 arcade stick and it is nice tapping that green button compared to the one on the controller.  I don't think I control the ship as well though.  I really wish you could hold A button for firing.  I never use the charged up A button weapon.

 Hoffer wrote:

I bought the game over the weekend.  Damn hard game for me.  I tried 3 times on Penguin and could only get to the 4th level.

I have a DOA4 arcade stick and it is nice tapping that green button compared to the one on the controller.  I don't think I control the ship as well though.  I really wish you could hold A button for firing.  I never use the charged up A button weapon.

Is it safe to assume that you are losing most of your lives on the bosses...?
If so, the game gets a lot easier when you learn their patterns. I got to the last level on Penguin without ever firing my primary weapon. ;)

Why, just because. I wanted to beat the game without defeating any of the bosses.
After a couple of minutes they just take off. Nothing special happens.

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http://darkdiamond.net
www.originalsoundversion.com
www.youtube.com/profile?user=KidKobun

i don't like it

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Pobres Piratas! que..?
que carago digo jajaja
Baneenlos a TODOS!!!

 TBM KillerJamr wrote:

i don't like it

Troll, replied to every post. But you do not have this game....

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If I win again I'm still the champion, If you win, Ha that's just impossible!!

I was really looking forward to this game, since I'm a huge shmup fan -- by far, my favourite genre -- and I loved the old 1942 series (although some of the later, more futuristic versions were more of my kind of thing).

First Impressions:

Good:

• The updated graphics are nice, although 3D never seems to work well with 2D gameplay.
  
• Releasing updates to old classic shooters is good.  Even if the game is bad, I hope people support this so it happens more often.
  

Bad:

• The fighters move way too slowly.  Anything other than the fastest moving fighter is too slow, and with 2 players only one of you can take it.
  
• Having a shield is just a bad idea:  It allows you to get hit without noticing; you really should feel the pain of every mistake you have.  This hides gameplay flaws, such as bad bullet patterns, since you can survive through it while getting hit.  The original 1942 had a shield, so it has to be in here, but it could be made more apparent when you get hit -- that's the core issue.
  
• Acceleration of fighter = lack of control = bad.  This makes it hard to dodge in and out of bullet streams.  I'd prefer ultimate control, and immediate response.  It's an arcade shooter, after all.
  
• The first boss has a stage where you cannot shoot.  A shooter in which you cannot shoot.  Just... wow.   All I want to do is shoot and kick butt, and I don't even get a chance to shoot the boss down and kick butt -- in the very first stage.  Very upsetting.
  
• The stats screens are long and annoying; it looks like complex accounting work when all they need to show is the minimal stats that we care about.  Sub totals not required.
• The joint strike feature ended up being a gimmick that was pretty much useless.  Kudos for trying to add something new, but it should have been something that fit well with the normal positioning of the fighters; you shouldn't have to almost die (especially due to slow motion) to make use of the feature.
  

All in all, I am just disappointed.  I was hoping it'd be a game I'd want to play after playing through it once, and it's not.

If you love the original 1942, by all means, give it a shot.

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J Doucette / Xona Games
Duality ZF [Dream.Build.Play Top 20]

 HugeJuge wrote:

Bad:

• The fighters move way too slowly.  Anything other than the fastest moving fighter is too slow, and with 2 players only one of you can take it.
  
• Having a shield is just a bad idea:  It allows you to get hit without noticing; you really should feel the pain of every mistake you have.  This hides gameplay flaws, such as bad bullet patterns, since you can survive through it while getting hit.  The original 1942 had a shield, so it has to be in here, but it could be made more apparent when you get hit -- that's the core issue.
  
• Acceleration of fighter = lack of control = bad.  This makes it hard to dodge in and out of bullet streams.  I'd prefer ultimate control, and immediate response.  It's an arcade shooter, after all.
  
• The first boss has a stage where you cannot shoot.  A shooter in which you cannot shoot.  Just... wow.   All I want to do is shoot and kick butt, and I don't even get a chance to shoot the boss down and kick butt -- in the very first stage.  Very upsetting.
  
• The stats screens are long and annoying; it looks like complex accounting work when all they need to show is the minimal stats that we care about.  Sub totals not required.
• The joint strike feature ended up being a gimmick that was pretty much useless.  Kudos for trying to add something new, but it should have been something that fit well with the normal positioning of the fighters; you shouldn't have to almost die (especially due to slow motion) to make use of the feature.
  

Following your bullet points:

1. The Lightning and the smaller ship are plenty fast for this game.
2. I think you mean 1943 had a shield.
3. I never had issues dodging bullets, but the widescreen makes the screen cramped, which makes even the best reaction times seem silly if you aren't on your game.
4. I think you mean the "bonus" stage.  You can shoot the first stage boss.  The plane on the bonus stage is the last boss in the game.  I understand this gripe.  It was stupid as its way random.
   
5. I'm pretty certain 19xx had a similar stat screen, perhaps with a few lines less, but it was still extensive (percent shot, letter rank, star rank for the level, etc).
6. Actually, the joint strike feature works quite well.  The pink cloud is very effective.  It may seem moot since in coop the enemies have even more health, but it certainly tears enemies apart.
   

As the developers said they took aspects of each series.  The only real issue is they took most of 19xx and put some elements of 1943 in there, but nothing from 1942.  Unless you consider the first boss 1942. 

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Zombies everywhere, zombies everywhere, zombies everywhere. They're coming for your brains and it's too late to change.

TodaysForgotten,

1. I don't recall which ship is the fastest, but I found only the fastest one was fast enough; the others were too slow for my tastes in a single player game, where you want to race around killing everything.
2. Yes, 1943.  I presumed 1942 had a shield as well (it's been a while since I've played it) since I thought most of the concepts for 1942JS were from the original 1942.  My mistake.  All my arguments regarding problems with shields remain, and I've been yelling about this for decades.
3. I like the bullet patterns, but I expected immediate response.  It just allows the gamer more control, and you can more easily challenge harder stages as a result; the fun factor rises, and the annoyance level drops.  It's not impossible to avoid bullets; it's just a little sluggish.  My argument is: why have any sluggishness at all?
   
4. Yes, the bonus stage.  Ugh.
5. I don't mind stats.  I once made a Space Invaders game that stored every game ever played with every stat I could think of.  The stats screen was about 10 or 20 screens wide.  I love stats.  The problem is that they display is like an accounting program with sub-totals and totals galore.  Just shows the stats and make 'em easy to read.
6. The JS attack is effective, agreed.  But to get into position to use it is the flaw.

Thanks for the info.

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J Doucette / Xona Games
Duality ZF [Dream.Build.Play Top 20]

I want to point out I'm not defending the game.  I see your point about the planes being sluggish. They don't have a natural feel, but I really never took notice to it.  You're right it is there, whether input lag or whathave you. 

I guess you being a developer you get a bit more nitpicky with stats (:  I never looked at it in that light either nor will I. heh heh.

I think the problem with the ships aren't that they are too slow its the fact that there are some poor decisions on placement of enemies where you almost have to lose health just to 16x them.

1942JS didn't do much with 1942.  Here is why 1942JS should have been 19XX:JS

• The three ships are from 19xx.
• Much of the enemy formations are inspired by 19xx
• Medal drops appeared in 19xx
• Letter rank determined by speed of defeating stage boss found in 19xx
• Hold fire button down for beam shot found in 19xx
• Many planes and those weird looking enemies that throw the pink ball at you are in 19xx

1942 didnt have a shield.  The only real upgrade in 1942 was a 4-beam upgrade and your two little buddies upgrade.

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Zombies everywhere, zombies everywhere, zombies everywhere. They're coming for your brains and it's too late to change.