Strikers 1945 II (1998 / 2003)

Official Title : Strikers 1945 II
Common Title : Strikers 1945 II
Serial Number(s) : SLPS-01637 / SLES-03510
Region : NTSC-J / PAL
Genre / Style : Action / Shooter

Developer : Psikyo
Publisher : Psikyo
Date Released : 22 October 1998 / 31 October 2003

Strikers 1945 pits you in the middle of World War II and offers several fighters, jets, and bombers based on period aircraft during the period. Fighters include the Lightning, Flying Pancake, Ta152 Focke Wulf, Hayate, Shinden and Mosquito. The game is played from a top-down perspective and is reminiscent of 1942 and 1943 by Capcom.

Enemies include various forms of fighter jets swarming the player throughout each level, as well as mid- and end-mission bosses, some of which take up half the player's screen. Destroying onscreen enemies and obtaining power-ups will affect the standard guns on the fighter you are piloting. Traditional powering up of weapons leads to more guns shooting at once as well as additional tracking bullets and lasers.

Each fighter also has a custom special weapon that can be used when enemy situations get too hectic. For example, using the Pancake's special weapon will call in two stealth bombers that will not only shield you from oncoming attacks for several seconds, but also attack all onscreen enemies.

Each aircraft has a charge bar at the bottom left hand corner of the screen. Destroying enemies causes this bar fill up, and once a desirable level has been reached, the attack button can be held down to "charge" a super weapon that can help you dispatch enemies easier.

Strikers 1945 also features seven difficulty levels: Monkey, Child, Very Easy, Easy, Medium, Hard and Very Hard. Each setting affects the number of onscreen enemies as well as the challenge involved in dispatching them. This game uses one block on the standard memory card to save high scores, and a two-player simultaneous mode is also supported.

In the PSX NTSC-U version one major change has been made: The Japanese release of Strikers 1945 II on both PSX and Saturn had an optional third mode of presentation: the flip-mode, arcade-style scroll for those who can flip their TV's.