First Look at 1942: Joint Strike

If you’ve ever played 1942 in the arcade, you’ll know exactly what to expect here. In fact, most scrollers are like this, but this is the first one where I’m just absolutely floored.

It wasn’t the graphics. No, the HD graphics were actually pretty nice addition to the mix. And it wasn’t the music either. Nice music for the once popular series. Yes, I used to get the sore wrists from tapping the control pad too on the Super Famicom.

In fact, out of all of this, what really got to me was the online game play. At the beginning, you get confused a bit since it says “match”. Don’t fear that word. Embrace it. For it’s not a match between players. It’s actually recruitment by people that also want a second player to play with them. Yes, this is EXACTLY like in the arcade when someone hops next to you and pops in a quarter in the 2P slot. Hello, neighbor, help me shoot will ya? And it makes it all the more interesting. It has voice chat although I’ve never really found this type of game interesting enough to actually chat about while your tongue hangs out in concentration and your fingers are sore from all the tapping (don’t you wish you had a turbo button?).

It’s actually unfortunate that this game doesn’t have any trophies attached to it since there is plenty of absolutely fantastic things you could do with this given that there’s already hundreds of players already on the scoreboard. Either way though, you can guarantee that I’ll be busting out some 1942 action. Nostalgia is great, but “arcade play with others” nostalgia without having to leave the comfort of your home is even better.