Strikers 1945 Plus

By the end of the 1990's SHMUPS were already seen as a relic of the past in casual gaming circles. Despite a general decline in arcades and arcade style games during this transition period from 2D to 3D gaming, ardent shmup fans were treated to the release of some of the best shoot-em-ups of the era. While amazing games like Blazing Star from Yumekobo and Dodonpachi from Cave were real treats for shmup fans in the late 90's, the Strikers 1945 series from Psikyo was on fire! 

Psikyo, an off shoot of developers from Sonic Wings' creator Video System, developed and released the first Strikers 1945 in 1995 with a sequel arriving in 1997. Released to critical and commercial acclaim, these balls-to-the-wall vertical shmups didn't reinvent the aging genre, but they refined and honed the experience to a razors edge with each release being better than the last. 

While the first two games released on besoke hardware in a tate style arcade cabinet (monitor flipped to display vertically rather than horizontally), Strikers 1945 Plus released in 1999 on SNK's Neo-Geo MVS arcade hardware with a hybrid vertical/horizontal presentation. Rather than it being a wholly original game, Strikers 1945 Plus is a remix of the second game with bits of the first game sprinkled in for good measure. Like a few other shooters on the Neo-Geo released during the mid-90's, Strikers 1945 Plus did not see a home release on the AES or Neo CD - or any other home console of the day. It wasn't until the 2009 release on the Playstation Portable and the modern digital release from 2017 that fans were able to gain access to this masterful but hard to track-down game. Despite being hard to track down and play (unless you're a Neo-Geo collector), Strikers 1945 Plus is a legendary game that stands tall as one of the best (and arguably the best) vertical shmup on the Neo-Geo.

So, what makes Strikers 1945 Plus worth your time? Let's find out.

After you pop in your credits and press start, you are treated to a character select screen where you can choose one of six pilots/planes all with their own individual flight speed, bullet spread, bomb attack, and special attack. Much like the Sonic Wings series, every plane you choose is vastly different from each other so you'll need to try out every machine to see which one clicks with your personal play style. Personally, the Pancake is my favorite aircraft as it has a decent special attack that doesn't take too long to charge up (explained below), its bomb attack provides ample cover fire for you in sticky situations, and its normal bullet spread includes homing lasers that will get enemy craft in your periphery so you can focus on threats dead ahead. 

Every character has access to three types of attacks:

• Bullet Spread: The A button is your normal bullet spread shot that gains more bullets/power for every P icon you collect. The bullet spread is different per character with some having a more narrow shot radius but high firepower, while others have a wider shot radius with lower firepower. Both styles are equally useful across the game, but you'll need to decide which feels best for your individual play style. 

• Special Shot: If you hold down the A button you can charge up your special weapon, which is unique per character. Each character has a different number of special stocks they can store, and each plane builds meter at different rates based on how fast you do damage to enemy aircraft. For example: the Pancake plane has three potential special stocks it can store up, and you can reach full meter charge in less than 30 seconds. The Zero Type plane, on the other hand, can only hold two special stocks and builds meter much slower but outputs a wider shot with more firepower than the Pancake. Additionally, if you do not have any special stocks saved up, you can hold down the A button for continuous fire - which is a nice touch.

• Bomb Attack: Pressing the B button will release your bomb attack. Like in many other shooters, this is your get our of jail free card. Watch out, though, as your bomb is not instant so you have to use it a few frames before you think you're going to get hit. Each character's bomb attack calls in some form of air support from other pilots - this can be a single, large aircraft or a swarm of smaller planes that attack in a V formation. On top of adding to your firepower, this air support provides 100% coverage from enemy fire directly ahead so long as you stay behind it for the duration it is on the screen. You get two bomb stocks for each life, and you can pick up additional bomb stocks by picking up B icons dropped by certain enemy types. 

Strikers Plus has eight stages, of which the first four are randomized per playthrough. Stages five through eight never change. Because the first stage in most shmups is designed to ease you into the game, the first level the game throws at you is a bit easier overall than if you play that same stage later in the game. The stages really are the perfect length for a shmup, in that they never feel too long or too short. Like many shmups of the 80's and 90's Stikers Plus has a second loop you'll have to play through in order to see the ending. The second loop is much, much harder than the first. 

Bosses are a treat in this game, with each boss having no less than two forms to move through. Bosses always begin as a large weaponized vehicle, but when you destroy their outer shell their true form is revealed - a huge mecha warrior! You can always count on the second stage of a battle being harder than the first. Boss designs are great overall, and there is a way to maneuver through all of their bullet patterns so deaths never feel cheap. Though, deaths will come often until you get the knack for the bosses' unique patterns.

Speaking of difficulty, Strikers Plus never feels cheap. Every single death you face is due to your own mistakes. There are no cheap shots, and every time you get overwhelmed in the game by enemies and bullets it is due to your lack of crowd control. Progression happens quickly, though, and each time you fail you want to jump right back in and try again. Default lives are set to 2 per-credit rather than the standard 3 in most arcade games. While this does add to the challenge, the game never, ever feels insurmountable. A seasoned shmup vet could most likely 1cc (beat the game in one credit) in less than 10 hours of practice. 

The score system in Strikers Plus is a bit annoying unless you're very, very familiar with the game. As you destroy enemy craft and background elements many of them will leave behind gold bars. If you rush to pick these up they are worth about 500 points each. If you watch and wait to pick them up until you see them shimmer you'll get up to 4000 points. This is important as just shooting enemies doesn't really boost your score all that much. Extra lives come about every 600,000 points, and because your points reset for every credit you use, you can only gain one extra life on the final stage of the game if you can get there on a single credit. If you can 1cc the entire game, you can earn just two extra lives for the entire gauntlet. It's pretty brutal, honestly.

Strikers 1945 Plus is a handsome game. While it looks very similar to prior games in the series, the pixel art is detailed and vibrant, with amazing explosions and effects that can fill the screen. Bosses and enemy air craft are all animated very well, with smooth transitions between key frames. The game even has a nifty FMV intro that introduces the game. I also assume that this is where most of the memory of the game went, as the Neo cannot handle compressed video. Otherwise, you're scratching your head as to why the game is 682 mega bits given it looks marginally better than Sonic Wings 3 (which is 152 mega bits).

While vertical shooters were not uncommon on the Neo, there are no games that run in tate mode on the hardware. Rather than make Strikers Plus a full 4:3 aspect ratio like the Sonic Wings games, Psikyo took a hybrid approach. They kept the game's main display window in tate orientation and filled both sides of the screen with your game metrics. Each player has their own side bar that includes score count, bomb stocks, power meter, charge shot stocks, and a credit counter. Not everyone likes this approach, but I dig it as the main play field is cluttered enough as is with enemy bullets and air craft. It makes your metrics easy to see without having to parse them out from the chaos going on all around you. 

Sound design is great, with awesome effects like explosions and gunfire. Music is a bit of a let down, and is certainly not Psikyo's best work. That said, what's there is fine if not a bit contrived and cliché when it comes to military march style tunes.

Strikers 1945 Plus is a brilliant update of an already brilliant game and is quite unique on the Neo-Geo. The levels are just long enough, the boss battles are exhilarating and satisfying, and the difficulty curve is not so obscene as to turn people away, but also not so easy that it can be mastered in a few hours. This is one of the best games bar-none on the Neo-Geo, and one of the top shooters on the hardware. While there are better shooters out there on other arcade platforms, Strikers Plus is a must-play experience for both hardened shmup and/or Neo-Geo fans. 

Unlike many other shooters on the Neo-Geo, Strikers Plus is arcade only. There was an AES version planned, but it was canned - most likely due to the ongoing financial trouble at SNK at the time. There is little developer data about this game and why the home version was canned, so I can only speculate. Thankfully, the MVS cartridge is not too expensive at $150 on the low-end to $250 on the high-end. Because the game was published by SNK, you won't see it on any of the modern Psikyo game collections on Switch or PS4. Thankfully you can also pick it up in Hamster's Arcade Archives series for $8 or so on Swtich, PS4, PC, and other modern platforms. 

If you're just building a Neo-Geo collection, and you love shmups, this is one of the best. That said, getting the game on AES is cumbersome as you'll need to settle for a costly conversion, a reproduction, or load it on an SD Flash Cart of some variety. To my knowledge there is no way to play this game on Neo CD at all. While I play most of my games on the AES, this one is MVS only for me and lives in my arcade cabinet - and I hardly ever take it out. :)