1943: The Battle of Midway (NES review)

Developer: Capcom
Publisher: Capcom
Released: 1988

1943: The Battle of Midway is a vertically scrolling shoot-em-up that was ported to the NES one year after the Arcade original. 

Unlike the previous game called 1942 (NES, 1985) Capcom developed this in-house instead of relying on the questionable talent at Micronics. As a result the production values and gameplay have dramatically improved; for example, if you manage to shoot all the red planes in a formation a 'POW' icon will appear which gives you more energy. However, if you keep shooting it will change to a special weapon icon such as multiple direction shots. This adds real strategy to the game as you'll need to think about whether to get some life, pick up a special weapon or top up your existing one as they only last for a limited amount of time. By finding a hidden entrance you can also power-up your ship and choose to upgrade your offensive / defensive power, energy level, special weapon and its time limit. If you hold down the B button you'll be able to fire a powerful charge shot which is vital to progressing past some of the ships that fire masses of bullets in your direction. What this does mean though is that you can't really use a rapid fire controller unless you're willing to lose the charge shot ability. The gameplay feels a little bit faster than 1942 and it's also way more difficult; personally, I found it to be too brutal as enemy bullets frequently litter the screen, especially when your plane swoops down to battle the armed ships. Also, it seems ridiculous to criticise an NES game for being too long but each level takes ages to complete and there are 29 of them - couple this with the lack of variety and it feels more like a hard slog than anything else.

1943: The Battle of Midway is well thought-out with tons more strategy and depth than most other NES shooters. It's by no means a bad game but I just wish Capcom would have included a difficulty setting and added some more variety to break up the monotonous action.

Random trivia: If you're looking to play the original Arcade version of 1943: The Battle of Midway it was ported to the Xbox Live Arcade and PlayStation Network in 2013.

Shinobi (Master System review)

Developer: Sega
Publisher: Sega
Released: 1988

Shinobi was originally released in the Arcades in 1987 alongside other titles such as After Burner and Thunder Blade.

There are five missions that consist of four stages each and your objective is to free the kidnapped children. You have punch, kick and shuriken attacks but rescuing kids will occasionally reward you with a katana slash or gun; having the latter is a big help as it kills most enemies in one hit. One of the most enjoyable things about Shinobi is that it features multiple floors that you can switch between on the fly. This adds an element of strategy and forces you to methodically work your way through the level. There's a nice mix of horizontal and vertical platforming stages and lots of variety in the level design. While the first-person bonus stage doesn't look as impressive as it once did I still love the mock scaling effect as the ninjas get closer to the screen. Sega did make some minor changes for this home console port, the main one being that there are no longer any one-hit kills; instead, you now have a health gauge and it takes multiple hits to lose a life. This is a great idea as the game gets really tough towards the end. The music is unbelievable and Sega did a fantastic job porting the tracks over. While it's a shame they didn't include the speech samples from the arcade version it's understandable due to space limitations. I would have given Shinobi a 9/10 score were it not for the final boss battle against the Masked Ninja. He has several transformations but the charge attack is ridiculous as it's almost impossible to hit him without taking damage. After 70 minutes, about 150 lost lives and a complete stroke of luck I was finally able to win by accidentally cornering him.

It's such a shame that the last mission leaves a sour taste as the rest of Shinobi is beautifully crafted and an incredibly enjoyable experience. Sega did a masterful job porting the title from the Arcades to the less powerful Master System and it's seriously impressive how little they left out.

Random trivia: Alex Kidd in Shinobi World (1990, Master System) is an excellent parody of the original Shinobi game with many of the same bosses and music tracks!

Goal! (NES review)

Developer: TOSE
Publisher: Jaleco
Released: 1988

Goal! is a soccer / football game published by Jaleco who are perhaps best known for their Bases Loaded series on the NES.

As you start the game the first thing you'll notice is the multitude of options available. The main mode on offer is World Cup which, as you would expect, features national teams. There's also Tournament mode (competition between local American teams), Shoot (a 2 vs 3 set-piece competition), and Vs. Mode (2 players). The nice touch about the latter is that 2 players can play against each other, or on the same team! The game adopts a strange overhead / isometric viewpoint and the camera is a little too zoomed in. This means that you can't really see where your team members are and most of the time you'll end up kicking the ball ahead and hoping for the best. Speaking of teammates, why do they never bother to tackle the opposing player? They much prefer to follow him around the pitch until he either scores or you manually take control and put in a sliding tackle. The game also refuses to let you pause the action unless someone is in possession of the ball which strikes me as a really odd decision. However, the main problem with Goal! is that it's simply way too slow. Even on an NTSC 60hz machine the action crawls along, so you can imagine the horror that I faced as a kid when playing this on a PAL 50hz NES! The game doesn't appear to be very well optimised either as moving your player diagonally causes the framerate to drop dramatically. On a positive note, Goal! has some great upbeat music and a well animated cut-scene during scoring celebrations. The cheerleaders during the half-time show look really strange though and as my wife pointed out: "They're not even in-sync!"

With a few tweaks this could have been a really good football game. As it stands though, it's just too slow and unpolished to be anything more than a short gaming distraction.

Random trivia: The Goal! franchise was seemingly successful for Jaleco and they eventually published a NES sequel in 1992. It was then followed up with a further two games on the Super Nintendo (SNES) called Super Goal! 1 & 2.