1942

1942 is a top down, vertical scrolling shooting game released by Capcom in 1984. The game takes place in World War 2 where the player plays as the pilot of a military plane. His objective is to complete all of the 32 stages.

The player starts the stage from an aircraft carrier and land on another aircraft carrier to refuel at the end of the stage. The player starts the next stage from the same carrier after refueling. As the stage increase, the number of opposing air force also increased and tougher enemy planes will appear at later stages.

Even though the main objective is to survive, the game encourages the player to be aggressive and destroy opposing planes whenever possible. The game offers a number of upgrades or power ups to help the player. Upgrades such as power upgrade (increase fire rate/number of bullets in one firing action) and wing man upgrade (adds 2 smaller, weaker planes as wing man for the player). The upgrades can be obtained randomly by destroying enemies. Therefore, it encourage player to be aggressive to increase their chance of winning the game rather than taking conservative approach.

The player’s plane will be destroyed if it collides with enemies or shot by enemy’s bullets. The player is given 3 lives at the start of the journey. When player’s plane is destroyed, all upgrades will be reset.

The player will gain points for destroying enemies. They also got bonus points at the end of each stage. The points will then be used for the high score board.