Publisher: Capcom
Developer: Backbone Entertainment
System: XBLA
Genre: Shooter
Release date: Available now
Review by: Andrew Clark

1942: Joint Strike stimulates my thoughts of the future. Will prevalent games such as Grand Theft Auto IV eventually be remade or reworked on some future platform? Should we expect that a game’s graphics will shadow its predecessor’s, as Joint Strike’s do its arcade grandfather’s? The possibility breaks some fifth-wall process in my mind and makes me wonder all kinds of magnificent things, not only in the visual department, but also in terms of gameplay extensions developers haven’t yet begun to imagine.

Joint Strike is a reconditioning of a 1984 arcade shooter in which you control a World War II-era fighter in a battle against squadrons of Japanese planes. This time, however, every aspect of gameplay and graphics has been expanded, polished and toned to accommodate both the modern gamer and fans of the original. Elements from all of the 194X games are combined, giving the player multiple planes to select, health bars (instead of 1942’s one-hit kills), a compliment of powerups to augment your firing pattern, charge shots, and the ability to eliminate every enemy on screen with a super bomb.

Your mission pits you against swarms of fighters, tanks, battleships and, at the end of each stage, a gigantic boss machine that often takes up most (if not all) of the screen. The graphics are fluid, fun to look at and busy enough to keep you dodging incoming fire in all sorts of contorted ways. Of course, you’ll be fighting back the whole time, utilizing a variety of special shot powerups such as spread fire and lasers, plus a special missile attack and the aforementioned enemy-clearing WMD first introduced in 1943: The Battle of Midway.

The improvements also feature more action, better incoming fire recognition and a fully 3D-modeled environment. Also added are a clean, navigable interface and easy-to-read indicators for life, weaponry and point totals. Joint Strike trumps its grand-daddy’s looks and does so with next-gen panache.