1945 I & II for the Playstation 2

After purchasing a cheap Playstation 2 in 2008, my beloved and I were having a shuffle through the selection of games in one of the bigger high street retailers and there, nestled amongst a couple of old FIFA titles if memory serves and priced up at a couple of quid, was 1945 I & II, a compilation of two games that sports what must be the most unwieldy name ever. Although that name didn’t initially ring any bells, with me being something of a shoot ‘em up fan (in the same way that bears are somewhat prone to defecating in forest areas) a quick glance at the screenshots guaranteed Gamestation a sale because for reasons best known to the publishers (presumably it’s a misguided attempt to ride the “retro” bandwagon by trying to make the games sound like an extension of Capcom’s 194X series) these are merely re-titled versions of the Psikyo shooters Strikers 1945 and Strikers 1945 II, both of which are classy examples of vertical scrolling shooty goodness.

The player is presented with all manner of game options from play area positioning (and indeed the option to rotate for that authentic arcade experience) to difficulty level and a choice of six aircraft each with different attributes. Its well worth spending a few goes to acquaint yourself with each of those planes too since the differences between them are quite substantial with the power and spread of the weapons, how the support drones work and even the smart bombs varying from craft to craft. There’s something for every kind of shoot ‘em up fan player and my personal favourites are probably the Spitfire mk. 7 in 1945 with it’s drones firing energy bolts that slowly grind across the surface of enemies and do huge amounts of damage and the 1945 II Hayate which is supported by a group of small planes that swarm around bigger enemies and give them a good kicking whilst the player is left free to hammer whatever else is about.

Getting in a spot of training... railway tracks, training, geddit?

When battle is joined, it takes place over some wonderfully detailed backdrops and skirmishes rage high over patchworks of fields, railway marshalling yards and arctic seas to more military targets such as air strips and shipyards. The attackers are equally well designed with most of the smaller ones based very loosely on 1940s military hardware (including something that vaguely resembles a V-2 rocket). Quite a bit of thought has gone into the environments and one very nice touch is that the order of the first group of three or four levels (depending on which game is being played) aren’t fixed, instead the game shuffles them around. The designers really went to town over the larger attackers, which usually start out as vast battleships, tanks, Zeppelins or aeroplanes but, as their armour is stripped away by the player, usually transform into huge mechas! Because despite the general World War 2 appearance and the title bearing even more of a resemblance to 1942 and it’s brethren with the “Strikers” removed, the threat here isn’t the Wehrmacht but instead comes from much further afield…

I don't remember reading about large aircraft turning into mechas during the second world war...?

The two games are both difficult on their default settings with 1945 II probably being the harder of the two and the range of aircraft and weapons available mean that even if players get exceptionally good or bludgeon their way to the end with scads of continues there are still five other craft to take to war that will change the balance of the game and, as mentioned previously, little tricks like varying the starting missions add to the overall replay value greatly. The overall package does appear just a teeny bit “cheaty” though, because all publishers Play It have done is take the two existing Strikers 1945 titles previously sold separately on the Playstation and pushed them onto a single disc for the PS2; nothing has really changed apart from one issue, 1945 II in particular is now incredibly eager for the player to continue playing because the fire button acts as start when the continue message appears – in fact, I can’t remember ever actually registering a score with the game because of this “feature”, it’s far too easy in the heat of battle to use a credit without intending to and that’s pretty annoying for players who are either playing for score or those who tend not to continue.

An idyllic rural scene... with a full scale war overhead!

1945 I&II isn’t like other compilations such as the Midway Arcade Treasures or Capcom Collection series because there are no bonus materials or features to unlock on the disk. I get the feeling it was produced either as a half-arsed attempt to cash in on retro gaming or as a bit of classy, hardcore blasting action but, whilst the cynic in me is absolutely positive it’s the former because there’s no analogue stick support, that overly sensitive continue problem wasn’t dealt with and returning to the main menu from one of the games feels rather kludged, I’m pretty willing to let those issues slide personally – for the pennies the disc seems to go for at the moment (and it’s unusually common for such a niche title) it’s worth picking one up just for the challenge.