Developer: Psikyo Publisher: Atlus Release: 06/28/96 Genre: Shooter
Imitation is a sincere form of flattery. Strikers 1945 bears more than a passing resemblance to Capcom’s 19XX series, down to the player ships and level design. But it quickly deviates and becomes its own thing in short order. For years message board chatter painted it as one of many great Saturn games you will never get to play in the US. And you know what? They were right. Strikers 1945 is an excellent conversion of a great arcade game and one that I return to regularly.
World War II had ended and peace has returned to the world. But in the background an organization named CANY plots to take over the world and keep the war going using alien technology. Six veteran pilots from around the world come together and form Strikers to battle this threat.
The weapon system is simple but has more depth depending on the pilot you choose. As you collect power-ups you gain options that fly alongside your ship. You can have a maximum of four and these behave differently, be it homing shots, firing diagonally, or following your ship as in Gradius. Charge shots further add another layer and the effects are wild. The Messerschmidt’s bullets track enemies and they become drills when charged up for example. Oddly colliding with enemies does not immediately result in death. Instead you power down and lose an option. This is detrimental for ships that rely on being at full power to be effective.
Six pilots offer a lot of choice. Every pilot has a unique ship with its own firepower, speed, and hit box. You have the P-38 Lightning which is eerily similar to the Super Ace from Capcom’s game. The charge attack makes your options form a wall, allowing you to be in two places at once. The P-51 Mustang is the slowest ship. Its charge shot takes a while to build up but can destroy enemy bullets! Its bombs carpet bomb the area. The Spitfire has a similar charge to the P-38 except these options fire diagonally and follows you. The Shinden is the hardest to control but has the coolest bomb, a shadow ship that slices through enemies in a straight line. There is a lot of nuance to using each ship and playing as each offers a unique gameplay experience. That does wonders for the game’s replay value.
At first Strikers 1945 resembles an Aero Fighters title with its militaristic hues and short stages punctuated by a protracted boss battles. That comparison goes away when you fight your first miniboss and it transforms into a giant mecha, signifying that this is not a simple alternate retelling of World War II. The first four stages are random before you destroy the enemy base at which point it gets really weird. You follow the enemy in to outer space where you fight a variety of alien crabs, scorpions, and what I can only refer to as a vagina monster.
Despite the absurdity the game plays it straight and is better for it. I enjoyed learning the nuances of each ship, even when I had a tough time. For my first run I chose the P-51 Mustang rather than the standard P-38. Its slow charge shot confounded me to no end but the tradeoff of destroying enemy bullets was indispensable during particularly troublesome boss battles. The game’s length is also conducive to multiple runs. Despite there being eight stages most are short yet feel like the appropriate length. Now if they were like Robo Aleste where the levels were agonizingly long I would be one and done.
Strikers 1945 provides a tough challenge on the default setting. The first half is a warm up to get you acclimated to the game’s mechanics. The second half is where it picks up. Bullet showers are more frequent, enemy density is greater and the bosses take a lot of punishment. Using a credit at this point sends you back to the beginning of the level to make it that much harder. If you are playing for points trying to collect gold at their shiniest for the maximum bonus while dealing with the chaos is no joke. For those that want a higher challenge the second loop ups the ante in every category considerably. I tapped out after two stages as it was too hardcore for me.
In Closing
What a great game. Strikers 1945 is a fantastic game and one of my top ten favorite shooters for the Saturn. It is very accessible in terms of difficulty while providing a greater challenge for those that want it. At this point Strikers 1945 is available on every modern platform if you do not want to track down the Saturn version as it is readily available otherwise. No matter which platform you play it on Strikers 1945 is worth it.
