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Strikers 1945 Plus Portable
Strikers will punish you as you ask for more.
July 29, 2009 | 1:44 PM PSTKombo's Review Policy: Our reviews are written for you. Our goal is to write honest, to-the-point reviews that don't waste your time. This is why we've split our reviews into four sections: What the Game's About, What's Hot, What's Not and Final Word, so that you can easily find the information you want from our reviews.
What the Game's About
Strikers 1945 Plus for the PSP is a re-release of a classic NeoGeo game. It might look similar to the classic arcade game 1942 but that is where the similarities end. If you thought that 1942 was a difficult game, that title is child's play compared to the monstrously difficult Strikers. Get some burn cream ready for this Japanese style shump and be thankful for the unlimited continues.
What's Hot
The PSP is a proud home to games that have fallen into obscurity or have been faded from the collective gaming mind with the passage of time. Strikers falls into both categories. Forget about sissy casual games, this is the type of game that real gamers crave. The gameplay is straight forward. All you need to do is survive and rack up a high score after you pick one of the planes which all have similar but unique abilities (mainly referring to when they pick up power-ups).
The punishing difficulty normally is a deal breaker for most games. Not Strikers. In fact, it makes the game so addicting and fun. There is a fine, blurry line between cheap and difficult. Contra is a good example of a game that is insanely difficult to beat but is so compelling that it becomes a fun challenge to try and tackle. To soften the blow of the bludgeoning difficulty is the infinite continues Strikers provides. There needed to be some punishment so you get your score slashed and that doesn't look good on the high-score board. You need to perfect your maneuver abilities to really get far and the bragging rights alone that you can master a game with bullets filling nearly every inch of the PSP is worth giving this game a shot.
What's Not
Strikers is a classic game getting the port treatment. This might be enough for some people but the NeoGeo age was some time ago. With classic games getting a modern face lift, it feels that Strikers somewhat misses a key element that could update the look and bring the same gameplay to a new generation of gamers. As the game stands, it is faithful to a fault. Surely, the arcade folk that get a glint of nostalgia in their eye each time a long treasured game re-releases but even they might appreciate some updated looks. Not to diminish the work that was done to modernize the game but it could have went much further.
Final Word
Strikers is something that Chuck Norris would play just to warm up each morning. While it might not look like the most visually powerful game that pushes the PSP to its limits, the challenge is reason enough to keep playing. PM Studios is getting a reputation for bringing titles to North America that are brutally hard yet strangely addicting. Strikers is one of those games and since it is downloadable on the PSN, you can have it ready for standby.
What the Game's About
Strikers 1945 Plus for the PSP is a re-release of a classic NeoGeo game. It might look similar to the classic arcade game 1942 but that is where the similarities end. If you thought that 1942 was a difficult game, that title is child's play compared to the monstrously difficult Strikers. Get some burn cream ready for this Japanese style shump and be thankful for the unlimited continues.
What's Hot
The PSP is a proud home to games that have fallen into obscurity or have been faded from the collective gaming mind with the passage of time. Strikers falls into both categories. Forget about sissy casual games, this is the type of game that real gamers crave. The gameplay is straight forward. All you need to do is survive and rack up a high score after you pick one of the planes which all have similar but unique abilities (mainly referring to when they pick up power-ups).
The punishing difficulty normally is a deal breaker for most games. Not Strikers. In fact, it makes the game so addicting and fun. There is a fine, blurry line between cheap and difficult. Contra is a good example of a game that is insanely difficult to beat but is so compelling that it becomes a fun challenge to try and tackle. To soften the blow of the bludgeoning difficulty is the infinite continues Strikers provides. There needed to be some punishment so you get your score slashed and that doesn't look good on the high-score board. You need to perfect your maneuver abilities to really get far and the bragging rights alone that you can master a game with bullets filling nearly every inch of the PSP is worth giving this game a shot.
What's Not
Strikers is a classic game getting the port treatment. This might be enough for some people but the NeoGeo age was some time ago. With classic games getting a modern face lift, it feels that Strikers somewhat misses a key element that could update the look and bring the same gameplay to a new generation of gamers. As the game stands, it is faithful to a fault. Surely, the arcade folk that get a glint of nostalgia in their eye each time a long treasured game re-releases but even they might appreciate some updated looks. Not to diminish the work that was done to modernize the game but it could have went much further.
Final Word
Strikers is something that Chuck Norris would play just to warm up each morning. While it might not look like the most visually powerful game that pushes the PSP to its limits, the challenge is reason enough to keep playing. PM Studios is getting a reputation for bringing titles to North America that are brutally hard yet strangely addicting. Strikers is one of those games and since it is downloadable on the PSN, you can have it ready for standby.
November 20, 2009
