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Question: when was the Battle of Midway? - June 3-5, 1942. Very good, go to the top of the class and jump off. As historians (and fans of PSS' Rave Battle For Midway) will recall, it marked the turning point of the battle for the Pacific. So why should Capcom bring out a game about the Battle of Midway and call it 1943? Because it's a sequel to the 'highly acclaimed' (by whom?) 1942. Simple, what could be easier? Anyway, you're the pilot of a P38-Lightning fighter-bomber on a mission from God... - errm, on a mission to seek and destroy the entire Japanese air force and navy single handed. This is no ordinary P38 though: extra weapons can be picked up to help in the destruction. A second player can also join in to provide simultaneous two player action.

Down either side of the vertically scrolling playing area is a status panel for each player. Your score, number of rolls remaining and an energy bar are all shown in the panel. Run out of energy and it's time to join the great squadron in the sky (cue violins, re-load game).

There are two main stages, air to air combat and ground attack. In air to air combat you have to shoot down the hordes of Japanese planes as they come towards (or fly away from) you. The fighters come in a variety of formations and surprisingly enough they can shoot you no matter which way their plane is facing. One shot sends them down in a ball of flame. Enemy bombers appear occasionally and shoot at you with their tail gunners. Several hits are required to blow them out of the sky.

There are two ground attack targets: shipping and a huge plane. To destroy the shipping you have to blast all of the gun turrets. Of course the guns fire back at you - it'd be boring if they didn't. If you fail to destroy all the ships then you'll have to attempt the attack again. The big plane has four engines, each of which is armed with a gun (yes, it does sound stupid!). The screen stops scrolling when you're attacking the plane and only continues when all of the engines have been destroyed. A destroyed engine can't shoot back.

Colour is used adequately and the scrolling is smooth, if a little flickery. Animation is functional, but that's about all. A good tune plays continuously and sound effects are explosive.

It may not be the most mind-blowingly original game of all time, but that doesn't stop it being fun to play. The two player option makes it more competitive: you can fight over who gets the bonus objects, for a start.

Just wish someone could explain the logic behind that title...

Compare 1943 with Flying Shark, and 1943 comes out miles ahead. Unfortunately some of the main features of the game are still as bad: the scrolling, although faster, is flickery; and there are too few stages to the game. It's fun and it'll keep you happy for a while, but to my mind there hasn't been any improvement on this genre since Lightforce.

Tricky, but still playable.

50,000 points

Graphics 74%
P. Smoothish vertical scrolling.
N. More animation would have helped.

Sonics 68%
P. Good continuous tune.

Grab Factor 77%
P. Simultaneous two player action.
P. Very easy to get into.

Staying Power 64%
N. Unfortunately it doesn't increase in difficulty much...
N. ... and there are only four different stages before it starts to repeat.

Overall 72%
A fun gratuitous shoot-'em-up to while away a few hours.