Arcade Archives: P-47 (PS4|5 - Switch)

[Sturmvogel Prime]

DANGER ZONE (PART XCII)
FREEDOM FIGHTERS! IGNITE JAH!



The "Danger Zone" series of reviews so far.
DANGER ZONE VOL. I

Spoiler

I: REVVIN' UP YOUR ENGINE, LISTENIN' TO HER HOWLIN' ROARING - (E.D.F.: Earth Defense Force)
II: IS THIS YOUR IDEA OF FUN, MAV? - (Binarystar Infinity)
III: PLAYING WITH THE (ARCADE ARCHIVES) BOYS - (Arcade Archives: Thunder Dragon 2)
IV: THAT'S RIGHT! ICE...MAN. I AM DANGEROUS (SEED) - (Arcade Archives: Dangerous Seed)
V: THE ELITE. BEST OF THE BEST. WE'LL MAKE YOU BETTER. - (Super E.D.F.: Earth Defense Force)
VI: GONNA TAKE YOU RIGHT INTO THE DANGER ZONE - (Star Hunter DX)
VII: IT TAKES MORE THAN JUST FANCY FLYING - (Earth Defense Force 4.1: Wing Diver The Shooter)
VIII: INSTRUMENTS OF DESTRUCTION - (Devastator by Radiangames)
IX: ¿WHO'S AFRAID OF THE BIG BAD TUBES? - (Arcade Archives: Tube Panic)
X: SWIMMIN' IN THE FLOODS, DANCIN' ON THE CLOUDS BELOW. I AIN'T WORRIED 'BOUT IT - (Arcade Archives: Fighting Hawk)
XI: PULLING A RABBIT OUT OF THE HAT - (Arcade Archives: Rabio Lepus)
XII: WINGS OF SILVER, NERVES OF STEEL - (Arcade Archives: Darius)
XIII: FULL SCALE ASSAULT - (Arcade Archives: Assault)
XIV: WE'RE GONNA NEED A DIFFERENT KIND OF BUGSPRAY - (Arcade Archives: Gaplus)
XV: DOWN THE ALIEN SECTOR - (Arcade Archives: Baraduke)
XVI: WHEN YOU'RE DRAWN TO THE GROUND BY THE DRAGONS - (Arcade Archives: Dragon Spirit)
XVII: SOME RETICENT GODDESS PUT THE CHILDREN TO SLEEP - (Arcade Archives: Metal Black)
XVIII: I SHOT THE WILD LIZARDS - (Arcade Archives: Gun Frontier)
XIX: HOW WE GONNA GET THIS MUSEUM PIECE IN THE AIR? - (Arcade Archives: Galaxian)
XX: SHATTERED KAWAII SKIES - (Arcade Archives: Ordyne)
XXI: ENTER THE DRAGON (SABER) - (Arcade Archives: Dragon Saber)
XXII: SEEMS LIKE WE'RE NOT THE ONLY ONES HOLDING ON TO OLD RELICS - (Arcade Archives: Galaga)
XXIII: OLD WARBIRDS, RETRO ARCADE ACTION - (Arcade Archives: USAAF Mustang)
XXIV: ARCADE STYLED HELICOPTER BATTLEFIELD - (Arcade Archives: Metal Hawk)
XXV: CLASH OF THE GODS - (Arcade Archives: Phelios)
XXVI: BACK IN (METAL) BLACK - (Metal Black S-Tribute)
XXVII: NAMCO'S TAKE ON THE NBA - (Arcade Archives: Grobda)
XXVIII: DOUJIN SHMUPPING "GM" STYLE - (Graze Counter GM)
XXIX: MIXED AND REMIXED - (Raiden IV x Mikado Remix)
XXX: EXPLICIT DIFFICULTY - (Arcade Archives: Gradius III)

DANGER ZONE VOL. II

Spoiler

XXXI: HAVING THE EARTH IN MY SIGHTS - (Layer Section & Galactic Attack S-Tribute)
XXXII: FAST, FURIOUS AND DANGEROUS - (Arcade Archives: Turbo Force)
XXXIII: CHORUS AND CHORES - (Chorus)
XXXIV: SAVE THE SUN - (Sol Cresta)
XXXV: NAMCO WHISPERS IN OUR EARS AND SAYS THAT "YOU ARE IN NAVARONE" - (Arcade Archives: Navarone)
XXXVI: A SHORT (ASTEROID) BREAK TIME - (Space Scavengers by Xitilon)
XXXVII: GIVE ME A "REZON" TO HOLD ON TO WHAT WE'VE GOT - (Arcade Archives: Rezon)
XXXVIII: A COSMIC TROUBLESOME GANG - (Arcade Archives: Cosmo Gang The Video)
XXXIX: WHAT'S THE PLAN? SAVE THE MOON, SAVE EARTH - (Arcade Archives: Moon Cresta)
XL: A HERO FOR THE EARTH - (Arcade Archives: Terra Cresta)
XLI: BACK TO THE '88 - (Arcade Archives: Galaga '88)
XLII: SUPER ROBOT SMASH - (Arcade Archives: Mazinger Z)
XLIII: FREEDOM FIGHTERS OF THE FUTURE - (Arcade Archives: Thunder Dragon)
XLIV: HAMSTER SAID "IT'S SHARK WEEK ON ARCADE ARCHIVES" - (Arcade Archives: Mad Shark)
XLV: MESSED UP NETWORK - (RayCrisis)
XLVI: AN INC-RAY-DIBLE COLLECTION - (Ray'z Arcade Chronology)
XLVII: AN INC-RAY-DIBLE COLLECTION II - (RayStorm x RayCrisis HD Collection)
XLVIII: 99 NAMCO BALLOONS GO BY (Arcade Archives: King & Balloon)
XLIX: ATTACK ON BOSCONIAN - (Arcade Archives: Bosconian)
L: MIXED AND REMIXED II - (Raiden III x Mikado Maniax)
LI: ALLUMER'S TOON SQUADRON - (Arcade Archives: Zing Zing Zip)
LII: GO STRIKE! - (Arcade Archives: Strike Gunner S.T.G)
LIII: A THING CALLED TUNA SASIMI - (Arcade Archives: Darius II)
LIV: RAIDER ZONE: YOU KNOW, IT IS WHAT IT IS - (Arcade Archives: Raiders5)
LV: COMET OF DESTRUCTION - (Arcade Archives: Halley's Comet)
LVI: FORCE AND BURN: NO FLY ZONE - (Arcade Archives: Burning Force)
LVII: THE SHENANIGANS OF SHENANDOAH - (1993 Shenandoah)
LVIII: GREAT, JUST LIKE A KING - (Arcade Archives: Daioh)
LIX: THE TIMELESS CLASSIC - (Arcade Archives: Gradius)
LX: A NINTEN-SIVE ARCADE PORT - (Arcade Archives: VS. Gradius)

DANGER ZONE VOL. III

Spoiler

LXI: THE (LIFE) FORCE AWAKENS - (Arcade Archives: Life Force)
LXII: THE TIMELESS CLASSIC RETURNS - (Arcade Archives: Gradius II)
LXIII: HEARTFUL TRIGGERHEART (Triggerheart Exelica - Switch Re-release)
LXIV: RETURN OF THE AERO FIGHTERS - (Arcade Archives: Aero Fighters)
LXV: THE POWER OF THE (TASK) FORCE - (Arcade Archives: Task Force Harrier)
LXVI: THIRTY MINUTES (AND MANY HOSTILES) OVER TOKYO - (Arcade Archives: Scramble Formation)
LXVII: THE HAMSTER EDGE: ARCADE ARCHIVES BLASTS OFF XEVIOUS - (Arcade Archives: Xevious)
LXVIII: HIGHWAY TO THE SECTOR ZONE - (Arcade Archives: Seicross)
LXIX: THE GALAXY'S LOUDEST HEAVY WARHEAD CRUISE - (Arcade Archives: Space Cruiser)
LXX: STRATO FIGHTER: THE (OUT OF THIS) WORLD WARRIOR - (Arcade Archives: Strato Fighter)
LXXI: WE'RE MESSIN' UP IN SPACE - (Arcade Archives: Nova2001)
LXXII: (MEGA)BLASTED AWAY - (Arcade Archives: Megablast)
LXXIII: DRIVE OR FLY? - (Arcade Archives: Silk Worm)
LXXIV: A (GUN)NAIL ON THE RISK COFFIN - (Arcade Archives: Gunnail)
LXXV: JALECO AND HAMSTER'S EXCELLENT EXERION ADVENTURE - (Arcade Archives: Exerion)
LXXVI: ...AND THIS WORLD WILL BECOME A BATTLEFIELD - (Arcade Archives: Master of Weapon)
LXXVII: SOME ASSEMBLY REQUIRED - (Arcade Archives: Magmax)
LXXVIII: CYBATTLER AND THE EXTREMES OF DIFFICULTY - (Arcade Archives: Cybattler)
LXXIX: WHO OR WHAT IS MEIOU? - (Arcade Archives: War of Aero)
LXXX: THE TIME-BENDING LEGIONNAIRE - (Arcade Archives: Legion)
LXXXI: THE OLD SHMUP TESTAMENT (PART I: SCRAMBLED PILOT) - (Arcade Archives: Scramble)
LXXXII: THE OLD SHMUP TESTAMENT (PART II: MORE THAN A COBRA) - (Arcade Archives: Super Cobra)
LXXXIII: THE OLD SHMUP TESTAMENT (PART III: TO THE MOON AND BACK) - (Arcade Archives: Moon Shuttle)
LXXXIV: TRANSFORMS FROM PLANE TO ROBOT AND BACK! - (Arcade Archives: Finalizer Super Transformation)
LXXXV: BLASTED OFF INTO THE ARCADE - (Arcade Archives: Blast Off)
LXXXVI: STRAIGHT OUTTA NEO-GEO - (Andro Dunos II)
LXXXVII: FOR MY ALLY IS THE (FINAL STAR) FORCE - (Arcade Archives: Final Star Force)
LXXXVIII: ONE PHASE IS ALL WHAT IT NEEDS - (Arcade Archives: Viper Phase 1)
LXXXIX: GOING NOVA - (Raiden Nova)
XC: PLAY (AND BULLET HELL) HAS NO LIMITS - (Danmaku Unlimited 3)

After the horrendous descent into trash gaming, let's take a break and go back to the Arcade Archives to give a classic military shmup a try.
Time to check Jaleco's P-47.




You play under the sun while others fight and dies away
But I say if you don't like it this way, then why stay? Go away

Developed by NMK and distributed by Jaleco, P-47 is an horizontal scroll shooter that pulls difficulty in a basic shoot'em up game. Before figuring out why, let's check the weapons give in this game.

BOMB (B): Basic "fall in angle" conventional bomb. Very effective against ground targets, fulfilling its purpose as an Air-to-Ground weapon. The initial drop is of a single bomb, but it can be maxed up to four.
EXPLODING SHOT (E): Fires a large frontal projectile that splits into smaller spread firing missiles. If an enemy hits the large missile before it splits, it will cause great damages.
MISSILE (M): Fires a frontal volley of missiles on top and bottom of the ship, leaving the center space free for your regular shots. The initial volley is of two on-screen missiles, but can be powered up to a maximum of eight.
SPEED UP (S): Increases your Thunderbolt's speed.
TWIN SHOT (T): Fires a diagonal-down V-styled twin shot. But here's the catch; you can aim the weapon to any direction, acting as a multi-directional weapon. Powering up this sub-weapon increases its rate of fire.




Freedom Fighters (Live free, be free, die free)
Ignite Jah (Live free, be free, die free)
Freedom Fighters (Live free, be free, die free)
Shine Jah

As an horizontal shooter, P-47: The Freedom Fighter decides to keep the player's arsenal simple with a basic shot that allows you to have three bullets on-screen which creates trouble: It can't be powered up, you can't have a multi-directional shot and you're stucked with a basic shot without the chance of swapping it for a different weapon. Thus, the game forces you to rely on the effectiveness and performance of your selected Sub-weapon, which as you advance in the game it will prove that the idea is as bad as it sounds like. To begin with, the large enemies can take a lot of damage, making the battles with midbosses and the bosses themselves larger than they should be. Also, add the lack of blinking to confirm if the weapons are damaging the enemies or not just makes it annoying and tedious because if there's something that frustrates the player is the fact that the ship's weapons aren't inflicting any damage.

Difficulty will show you how useless your basic shot and the dependence of the sub-weapon will be since the last 3 levels will saturate you with enemies at the point that you will be losing lives and even getting a Game Over. This is a great example of how the game exploits your weaknesses to the point of compromising the game experience for the solo player. It is more tolerable when the game is played in co-op 2 players since they can focus on a specific part of the screen (Player 1 above, Player 2 below). Fortunately, you don't have to power up your sub-weapon back from level 1 after losing a life. Instead your sub-weapon will degrade 1 level and what's best, you can pick another weapon and it will power up automatically (Example: Level 1 Bomb > Pick Missile > Missile is in Level 2) breaking with the common rule from later shmups such as Raiden.




Das Troublemaker

One of the innovations of this game is that throughout the stages, you'll be discreetly assigned to take down a special type of enemy. For example this Panzer which rans off across the screen.
If you don't take it down, the enemies will get stronger or you'll be facing an additional enemy formation. Along with the tank there's also the man in a motorcycle.




Sie sind im Netz, Kommando. Senden Sie es. Authentifizieren: Lösungen 0-8-1-6.
Authentifizieren: Flamme. Noch einmal lesen.
Flamme. Möge Gott gnädig sein.

Sometimes, stages will throw you additional challenges like the missile spam on Stage 2 which I can guarantee there's no safe spot and requires to have ether the Missile or the Twin Shot in order to take most of them down. Also, you'll be facing a small jet from behind your ship, requiring you to be on constant movement.




Boom, there it is!

An interesting feature is the hidden bonus points. There's time where the sky seems to halt your shots, looks like a glitch but its not. It is the hidden bonus. Keep shooting and you'll getting a few thousand points. Other hidden items are the 1 ups.




Unharmed item grabbers get all the rewards!

Another bonus is the "Stage Clear" bonuses. First one is the item based. Getting items will give you a specific amount of bonus points. For example, Picking 4 weapons gives you 4,000 points, 7 weapons 20,000 and if you pick 8, 9 and 10 it gives you an amazing 30,000 point bonus. Also, surviving without losing a single life gives you 10,000 points. This idea of the item-based bonus is a double-edged sword because it can affect your strategy as it forces you to fight a boss with a weapon that you don't want to use (Example: Twin Shot) and fly with the speed maxed up, increasing the risk of dying even more.




Monster-sized boss battles are waiting for your challenge.

Like in R-Type, you'll be facing a four screens long boss. Seems like everyone wanted to put a giant boss to fight since IREM introduced the Green Inferno back in 1987, while this proves to be fun since later shmups followed this new rule/requirement, in P-47's can be frustrating if you don't know about the bosses weakpoints. If the lack of blinking parts wasn't already troublesome with the single screen bosses, now imagine the battleship that't four screens long that requires to hit multiple parts of the bridge along with the traditional cannons. Speaking of facing bosses, the cast is repetitive: Train, Big Plane, Panzerkampfwagen Pz. V (Green), Bismarck, Big Plane (different weapons), Panzerkampfwagen (Brown), Panzerkampfwagen (Gray), Bismarck. That's the boss roll call, being the difference between them the different weaponry and major enemy saturation in their later appearances, and to make things worse, when you defeat the final boss, the game sends you back to stage 1. The player got stuck in an infinite loop, so the only way to get out is getting innevitably killed until you either run out of credits or just give up.





The battle is heading home.
Are your consoles and PC's ready?

Despite its basic premise and unorthodox weapon system, it managed to have ports. Starting off with the Atari ST which recreates and adapts the game pretty well in terms of mostly the graphics since it redraws the graphics into a more 16-Bit styled game, the controls and weapons are pretty accurate for the ST's limitations. But only had one song for the whole game soundtrack. The Commodore Amiga version had much better graphic quality, especially on the gradient effect of the sky in some of the stages and improves the sound department by giving stages an unique theme although they're different from the original Arcade. The MS-DOS version is one of the worst because it only has music in the title screen, but no sound effects or music throughout the game. Aside from that, the gameplay is decent enough. But the lack of music and sound baffles me the most. ¿Did the developer gave a fuck for it? Well, just put Blaze Bayley's "303", some songs of Metallica and Guns N' Roses and you're all set. The PC Engine port by Aicom (Pulstar, Gun-Dec/Vice: Project Doom as Aicom, Blazing Star and Prehistoric Isle 2 as Yumekobo) is a very well made port. While Stage 1 is unaccurate to the source material, the rest of the game is faithful in other key aspects such as the fluid gameplay element, arcade-accurate graphics, arcade-styled parallax scrolling and adapting the music to the sound card of the PC Engine, and what's best of all, it has an ending, actually is the arcade's game over screen but with an ending text followed by the staff roll. The P-47 kept up with the computer that is keeping up with you as it made its way to the Commodore 64. While this version manages to adapt the game to the 8-Bit limited computer up to the 2 Player function, the game is slower than the original game. Time to move onto the hell of videogame ports with the Sinclair ZX Spectrum version. Like I said in some of my Arcade Archives reviews (Life Force for example), arcade games are too much for the Spectrum and that port is a testimony. Since it has limited graphics due to the hardware's limitations, the color palette will be blending enemies and bullets alike, making the game far more difficult than it should be and it lacks of music, leaving you with ticking sounds. Curiously, it is worth to applaud the attempt of the Spectrum of emulating the parallax scrolling of the second level. The Amstrad version is visually better than the Spectrum and plays faster, on par with the other computer ports at the point of keeping the pace with lots of enemies around the screen. The second stage parallax scrolling is also recreated but not as fast and in-depth detailed like the Amiga and Atari ST versions. It made its way to mobile phones through Dot-Emu but that was an emulation of the arcade ROM, and those were the ports. Unfortunately, Nintendo, Sega, Microsoft and Sony didn't had any luck on getting a console port of the game. Well, Sega WAS going to have a port called P-47 II MD, also known as P-47 II: The Freedom Star, which was cancelled back then until it was releases in 2025 by City Connection who acquired Jaleco's assets. As for P-47 II, the game feels more like an entirely new game more than a home port of the arcade, pretty much like U.N. Squadron on the SNES which differed a lot from the arcade version. Nintendo and Sony had to wait until 2020 to get the arcade perfect port as part of Hamster's Arcade Archives. This release utilizes the Japanese P-47: The Freedom Fighter, ditching the US P-47 Thunderbolt (published by Jaleco themselves) and Europe's P-47: The Phantom Fighter (published by Electrocoin).




Sometimes, there's great visual effects worth of appreciation.

Graphically looks like your typical arcade shmup that lived up to its premise to take a stand so there's not too much to talk about the graphic aspect, except for the use of parallax scrolling most of the time. From the basic 2 layers for trees and mountains to the five layered cloud levels like Stage 2, which has an amazing attempt at digitized clouds and parallax scrolling making it easily one of the most visually beautiful stages in the game. The gradient background is a bit weak since it doesn't show too much and is positioned too low compared with the rest of the background almost looking like a flat sky. The stage illustrations that ocassionally appear are quite well made and they're OK for the game itself. It was kinda strange that Stage 7 utilizes the clould layers with blue colors to resemble sea and waves which kinda clashes with the purple sky.

Being on par with the military theme, it ditches the "Modern" theme and utilizes World War II as the main setting, so the enemy is "History Channel's favorite topic": Nazi Germany. P-47 is one of those World War II shmups that put the players against Hitler's assorted war machinery: Panzers, V2 Rockets, Focke-Wulfs and Junkers bombers (I think they're). Although there's no Svastikas, the enemy can still be recognized as Nazis due to the Balkenkreuz used by Luftwaffe. Curiously, the Arcade Archives website and manual omits any mention of the Nazis calling them "Enemy Troops" and "Enemy Forces". To put it simple, "Nazi" is "The Other N-Word" and Adolf Hitler is the "He who shall not be named" (except for History, that channel LOVES to talk about Nazis, hence the "Hitler Channel" nickname).

The music is brightful and relaxing since the composer concentrated on the feeling of peace and freedom more than in the war. Stage 2's jazzy theme reminds me of the second level theme of Metal Slug, as if it was a precursor of that tune. The music is jazzy and relaxed implying order instead of war chaos predating Metal Black's use of upbeat cheerful music in a chaotic scenario. However, it doesn't mean it lacks of "speed" to fit on a shmup and it makes a turn into slight tension when the boss theme plays.


P-47 THE TRIVIA FIGHTER



Historical and Geographical Unaccuracies
"Oh boy, I do remember that history lesson about Nazis flying above Nazca."

- For an historic themed game, there's a major unaccuracy: The "North France" illustration depicts a Nazi aircraft flying above the lines of Nazca.
- It is very possible that the Nazca line depicted is the "Hummingbird" or "Colibrí".
- The lack of damage indication was later carried on another NMK shmup: Thunder Dragon.
- The censorship of "Nazi" was also repeated on Arcade Archives: Task Force Harrier by renaming the Soviet Union as the "Old Faction".
- The Arcade Archives release is the 9th Jaleco game in Hamster's lineup.
- The idea of talking down a small human with your aircraft was retaken in Task Force Harrier.




Doing a homage in CPS-1 style!

- The Bismarck battleship boss fight was redone by Capcom in Area 88/U.N. Squadron as the "Battleship Minks" boss.
- The "E" weapon is similar to the Bulpup/Bulpup II missile in U.N. Squadron.
- The player-controlled aim of the "T" weapon was utilized by Tecno Soft in the Thunder Force series as the "Freeway" (Thunder Force IV/Lightening Force) and evolved into the "Free Range" (Thunder Force V, Sega's Thunder Force VI).
- The P-47 flying across the player's ranking is very reminiscent of After Burner II.




We have the right (the right) to live in peace (in peace)
And you must fight (must fight) for what you keep (you keep)
If what you keep (you keep) holds truth inside (inside)
Stand up, defend (defend) lay down and die (and die)

P-47 is a game that despite the ideas introduced, it misses in the gameplay element with the unfair main weapon setting, making things more harder than they should be. I can only recommend this game to World War II-themed shmup fans and Jaleco fans, because most retro shmuppers will perfer to play something else instead. Just hope this game doesn't get delisted due to legal drama by Northrop-Grumman (they own Fairchild-Republic).
We will see the sequel P-47 Aces in the Arcade Archives? It's been a hell of a time since the last Jaleco game there and with all the heavy focus on Namco more than any other company, it might be buried and forgotten unless Hamster resumes releasing Jaleco's titles again.

In the end, Arcade Archives: P-47 gets 7/10 R-9's in the R-Scale. Blame the lack of main weapon powering up as the cause.




Eda isn't surprised at all.