Reviews

Not the worst shoot em up but could have been so much better, Flying Shark is the better game in my opinion.

Poor sound effects, lots of levels though

A reasonable conversion of the Capcom coin-op game. It's all rather plain-looking (more the fault of the original than anything else) but it plays well.

February 05 2009 Review:
A vertical shoot'em up, part of the bunch of good coin op conversions that Elite made between 1985 and 1986.

Once you master it and you learn how to use the loop, to avoid bullets and the other planes, it's quite playable.

The sprites are nice and well animated, as is well drawn the aicraft carrier at the start and at the end of each level.
The background, however, is rather blank, and in the early levels is constituted almost entirely of a cyan screen, which, anyway, makes it easier to see the bullets.

From the fourth or fifth level the background changes, and you fly over green and yellow islands. There's a big colour clash problem in these levels: at the beginning and at the end of the islands, where the new colour begins and ends, there is a band of pixels where everything disappears, merging with the background, and in which you can crash against aircrafts and bullets without being able too see them.

Aside that, the lack of variety and the lack of changes in the pace of the game, it's quite good.

[because tied to good memories].

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June 2016 Review:
by Syrox (Dominic Wood)
I always liked the very clear graphics and sprites, although is easy to achieve when there's almost no background.
Anyway, it's playable and fun shooting down all those cute little planes, and for once you don't have to memorize complicated waves of aliens or enemies, because each level has basically the same structure, with the apparition of a team of red aeroplanes which can give you a power up, then a medium plane, and then big one, all this for two times, before you reach the end of level aircraft carrier. It's quite pleasant a little more relaxing than a harder, busier and more varied vertical shoot'em up like Terra Cresta.

Nice shoot-em-up conversion, lots of levels and nice details in some of the planes. But I agree totally with psj3809 in that the game could have been much better, especially in the sound department. No disrespect intended, but I feel if someone like Ocean or US Gold had obtained the license rather than Elite the game would have been massive. Still nevermind, a fairy enjoyable shooter by all means.

Oh dear…Having spent vast amounts of coinage on its arcade cousin, I had high hopes for the speccy version when it was announced. After all the original didn’t rely on brilliant graphics so it should be an easy conversion? Wrong! Basically, you’re a plane that shoots its way through waves of enemy planes over a scrolling landscape. There’s bonus weaponry from wiping out certain waves and you can do loop-the loops if you get into trouble. It has two problems. The sound which was an integral part of the original is rubbish. Ok, the speccy was hardly known for its sounds but then the original was hardly a nightmare to reproduce. Instead we get no proper tunes and vague farty noises for bullets. But the main problem is speed. Both you and your opponents travel so slowly that they are both easy to hit and at times impossible to avoid. Now even shoot-em-ups produced years before on the spectrum had managed a fast scrolling game and ironically even the bad speccy conversion of the sequel 1943 manages it, but this is a strictly plodding affair. The graphics are average, a bit colourless and the collision detection is unforgiving so no weaving between planes here. Its ok, but it you knew the original you’ll be disappointed, and if you didn’t there’s better, faster shoot-em-ups around on the spectrum

1986 - Elite
by Dominic Wood

One of the best games of the genre.

The Spectrum conversion is great, although gameplay isnt as fluid as Flying Shark for instance. But at least you can see the enemy aproaching as also his fire, something sometimes hard to see in other games.

A very cool vertical shooter, quite a decent conversion of the classic arcade. In fact, Elite made many other good conversions these years: Bomb Jack, Commando, Ghosts ‘n Goblins, …

The game is based on the battle of Midway during WWII. Take off from your carrier and face a daring solo mission, flying over the ocean and enemy territory, shooting enemy planes or avoiding them by doing skillful aerobatics. Also collect power capsules that will give you extra capabilities. In spite of the lack of tune and poor sounds, it's a good game as a whole, maybe one of the best of its genre for the Spectrum.

I always remembered quite enjoying this. I suck at it now, certainly when playing it back today I suck at it anyway, but I remember it being a fun game to play. 1942 for me was always a bit of a bland game and so the conversion was going to have a bland feel, but it's still enjoyable, especially compared to other Spectrum shooters.