1942

"It is 1942, and war is raging in the Pacific. The enemy's fleet and air force are growing in strength. It is up to you to restrict their numbers in a daring solo mission your carrier will take you as far as it dares, but from then on you are all alone. Fly your plane over enemy territory and installations, scattered islands and rough terrain. Smart manoeuvring and skilful aerobatics are required to outwit the enemy planes, recovering the mystery "POW" er capsules will give your plane extra capabilities. Be prepared, enemy gunners have their sights set on you, and their pilots are prepared to die to thwart you mission. The carrier awaits your safe return — but have you the skill to survive!!??"

Not much to say about this one. It's very C64 in its incarnation of 1942 and whilst it looks a fairly simple game, it's anything but. There are 24 levels to get through and even though they are short, the enemy are fully prepared to kamikaze and end you. Power up are few and far between without much variation. They also don't seem to display right so it's easy to miss them.

There is no sped up powerup so it can be quite annoying trying to get out of the way of the enemy fire at the same time as avoiding planes coming up from behind and / or planes flying in as a group into you. Speaking of enemy fire, there is some weird glitch going on with the enemy bullets being able to home in on you. It;s strange to see a bullet zig zagging determined to get to you and in some cases it cant be avoided.

Overall, not a bad conversion to the c64 even with some silly moments such as planed spinning as they fly across the screen. The game is smooth and the music isn't too annoying.