Feels like an unofficial Aero Fighters game of some sorts.
Trash shooters are everywhere and have existed since the beginning of time, even on today's consoles, but as a reviewer i'm not here to write novels or books. So, let's get into the game's review.
Alright, this game offers you a quite good option of jets to play with.
The SE-11L should be part of the VFA-142 "Smiley Stars" of Happyland Air Force.
McDONNELL DOUGLAS/BOEING F-15C "EAGLE": Simply named as F-15, this jet represents Italy. The Eagle is the Linear shot type aircraft as it fires a rapid straight 3-row missile shot backed up by fast rockets. Its Supershot fires a stream of wave shots. For its Special Attack, it summons two armored B-2 Spirits that attack the enemies and absorb your bullets, acting as temporary shields for the player.
EUROFIGHTER EF-2000 TYPHOON: Tagged as "EF2000", this jet represents Germany. This jet fires a large laser shot with a low rate of fire due to its "Beam Rifle" like firing, its backed up by a twin saw blade shot that cuts through enemies. the Eurofighter's Supershot summons a Phoenix bird that passes through enemies causing big damages as it gets in contact with an enemy (probably a nod to the Phantom II's Samurai Sword '99 from Strikers 1945 III), it's good on bosses that doesn't move too much. Its Special Attack is a "Mega Laser" that passes through enemies, just like the FS-X's "Ninja Beam" from Aero Fighters.
DASSAULT AVIATION RAFALE-M: Representing France, the Rafale fires a frontal laser shot combined with 6 homing missiles that lock on enemies and generate an explosion after impact. For is Supershot uses a fast missile that generates an energy explosion upon impact. For its Special Attack, it summons a B-1 Lancer bomber that fires a spinning 8 way shot firing while absorbs the enemy attacks.
SUKHOI/UNITED AIRCRAFT CORPORATION SU-37 "TERMINATOR": Representing the People's Republic of China. Its main weapon fires a twin laser shot that swirls just like the red laser from R-Type, this main shot is backed up with a spinning 8 orb shot that rams in a frontal attack. Its Supershot releases five drones that lock on the target while they rotate. For its Special Attack, summons a Tupolev Tu-95 "Bear" that fires a 7-way spread shot as it slowly moves across the screen, acting as the shield for the player.
NORTHROP-GRUMMAN F-14D "SUPER TOMCAT": In-game named as F-14. The Super Tomcat represents South Korea in this game. It uses a three way spread shot of 3 frontal shots and 1 on the sides, backed up by Auto-aim bullets that target random enemies. Its Supershot summons a small F-14 that fires a big fast stream of lasers. Its "bomb" summons four A-10 Thunderbolt II that attacks everything in sight.
LOCKHEED MARTIN YF-22 "LIGHTNING II": The prototype of what we know as the F-22 Raptor (and the name used later in the F-35). Represents the United States of America. In this game it was given the number of the present jet. It fires a 3 way spread shot with 1 bullet on the sides and 2 on the front, backed up by fast missiles that moves slowly to the left or right while going up pretty much like the Macro Missile in Axelay. Its Special Attack summons 4 YF-22's that make a carpet bombing just like the Harrier in Strikers 1945 III.
MITSUBISHI HEAVY INDUSTRIES F-2A "VIPER ZERO": Representing Japan, This variant of the F-16 Fighting Falcon formerly known as the FS-X. Its main weapon is a 3 way bullet spread shot backed up by homing energy orbs. Its Supershot deploys a missile/drone that attacks using a flamethrower. For its Special Attack, The F-2A uses a hexagonal formation of 6 small planes that fire against anything in sight, breaking with the in-line formation of the summoned planes.
LOCKHEED MARTIN F-117A "NIGHTHAWK": The second United States jet of the game. It fires a rapid 4-row frontal laser fire backed up with the same missiles used by the YF-22. The Nighthawk's Supershot fires a missile/drone that fires a rapid 5 way shot. Its Special Attack summons a weaponized Concorde jet that fires a 7-way spread shot while absorbs all enemy attacks acting as a passing shield.
PANAVIA TORNADO ADV: Short for "Air Defence Variant", this fighter of the United Kingdom features a three way twin spread shot for its main weapon and is backed up with 6 homing missiles that explode on impact like the Rafale. For its Supershot, it fires a massive volley of fast giant missiles (probably a nod to the Super Hornet's "Rapid Missile" in Strikers 1945 III) that causes great damages to the enemies, and very useful against bosses. It summons a 5 plane formation of AV-8B Harrier II's firing frontal twin shots while the jets absorb the enemy attacks.
SE-11L: The secret original jet of the game, and representing an original nation/or fantasy land of some sorts. This ship can only selected luckily by choosing the random select option. This ship fires a rapid and powerful frontal 4-row laser fire similar to the F-117A, backed up by 8 homing orbs just like the F-2A. It deploys a single mini-Tomcat firing a rapid big laser fire just like the F-14. Its Special Attack summons the Tu-95 just like the SU-37.
PATHETIC FOOLS! THERE'S NO ESCAPE!
This vertical scrolling shooter is a clone of Strikers 1945 III, but the gameplay is more similar to Strikers 1945 II / Strikers 1945 Plus as the game rather than using a bomb, it uses a "Squad formation" acting as a shield for the player, with the exception of the EF-2000's "Ninja Beam" and the YF-22's carpet bombing, and the Supershot is the "Pseudo-Bomb" which strength varies depending on how much the bar is filled, something that only causes trouble in bullet hell games like this one because you'll feel outgunned and outnumbered once that defensive advantage runs out. The medal "Flash" scoring and "Chain" feature of the Strikers' series was changed into a more traditional bonus items, this time based on lucky symbols of slot machines, depending on which one you pick, you'd get from 500 to 3,000 points. Ironically, getting a Power Up item when your power is maxed will give you 10,000 points.
Something that i've noticed is that if you die and you try to continue the game as Player 2 so you can keep your score, you won't be able to do that as if the continue countdown screen won't go away even if you've picked Player 2's jet, forcing you to continue the game as Player 1 and resetting your score to zero. This is what i call a "Nice try, sucker!" move from this game.
Top Gun: Above the Earth
The graphics are decently made, as the levels feel very early Neo Geo-esque, reminding me of games like Alpha Mission II and Aero Fighters 2. However, the simplicity is just a false impression as the bosses are improved as the player reaches Stage 5, where the boss makes a transformation for its second form, but the best part is in stage 6 where the rolling asteroids are well animated and the boss has some solid animation as it spins in its "relic" form and transforms into its second form, but the second form is unanimated and this is where the game slightly reverts to the simplicity of the previous levels 'cos the game's final stage is a mix between your typical lava stage and high-tech alien base. The digitized portraits of the jets look like Genesis-style digitized graphics as they're way too bright.
Like the Strikers series and Aero Fighters, this game uses the modern day military as its theme since we have a variety of 9 real world jets and there's even factible weaponizations of civilian aircraft like the Concorde and the armored variant of the B-2. As a shooter there's sci-fi elements like the laser weaponry and alien machinery that transforms (a nod to the Strikers series). But the game also makes a turn into fantasy as we have the EF-2000 shooting a giant phoenix and the most fantastic thing of the game: Jets in space and fighting in Mars just like in Strikers 1945 III and Sonic Wings Limited.
The sound department is the trash part of the game, with a repetitive 3 second drum that plays during all the stages, it feels extremely boring and rather than keeping you playing, it does the opposite: Stop playing by crashing the plane as soon as possible. The sound effects are ripped off from other games, you can hear the explosion sounds from After Burner II when an enemy is destroyed, Raiden II sound effects are heard when you get an item, and when the bosses explode, and if that's not enough your Supershot charges using the X-Buster charging sound from Megaman X, this game has zero creativity on this department due to the lack of effort.
CURIOSITIESk III
- Although the attract mode credits Oriental Soft and Team Muhaha, the credits give the copyright to Promat.
In conclusion, we're with another game that relies on plagiarism, but still retains originality in the gameplay and graphics (learn from that, Comad!). Just like Pulstar is an R-Type clone, 1945k III tries to be the alternative to Strikers 1945 III. The only bright thing of this game is that at least they have a playable F-14, something that Psikyo's shmup doesn't have, but still, 1945k III is just a waste of time and thank its soundtrack for that.