1941: Counter Attack

NEC console exclusive

The year: 1941. The place: 20,000 feet in the air over the North Atlantic. Lightning flashes across the skies of war-torn Europe. Your mission: beat back the imperial forces before they can use their new weapon!

Released: 1990
Platforms: Arcade PC Engine SuperGrafx TurboGrafx-16
Genres: Arcade Shoot 'em up Shooter World War II
Developers: Capcom
Publishers: Capcom
Series: 19XX
Modes: Single-player
Perspective: Bird view / Isometric
Themes: Action Fantasy Science fiction Historical Warfare
Country: Japan
Languages: English, Japanese
Composers: Manami Matsumae

About

1941: Counter Attack is a 1990 vertically scrolling shooter video game developed and published by Capcom for arcades. It is the prequel to 1942, and the third game in the 194X series. A conversion for the SuperGrafx was published in 1991.

1941: Counter Attack is included in Capcom Classics Collection Remixed for the PlayStation Portable and Capcom Classics Collection Vol. 2 for PlayStation 2 and Xbox. It was followed by 19XX: The War Against Destiny in 1996.

Keywords

world war ii - ww2
shoot 'em up
bullet hell
high score
boss fight
explosion
vertical scrolling
auto-scrolling levels
fascism
previously on - gametap

Media

The articlegameplay, story, development, reception

Gameplay

The goal is to shoot down enemy airplanes and collect weapon power-ups (POW). The game uses a vitality system instead of life system in which if the player is hit, it loses one point of vitality and the player is destroyed if hit with 0 vitality then the player is given the option to continue. Lightning attacks can be used by pressing the B button which sacrifices a portion of life energy. Three loops can be performed per level and a bonus is awarded at the end of the level for unused loops.

98 Mosquito. The game shifts from the original Pacific Front setting with that of the Western Front, in the north Atlantic Ocean.

Reception

In Japan, Game Machine listed 1941: Counter Attack in its March 15, 1990 issue as the third most popular arcade game of the month. The game garnered positive reception from reviewers and awards from Gamest magazine. However, the original arcade version had mixed reception from western publications. In contrast, the SuperGrafx conversion had very positive reception from Japanese critics. Readers of PC Engine Fan voted to give the SuperGrafx version a 19.44 out of 30 score, ranking at the number 368 spot in a poll.