1941: Counter Attack

1941: Counter Attack is a vertically scrolling shooter that Capcom released in 1990 as the third installment in its series set during World War II, following 1942 and 1943: The Battle of Midway. The game ran on the CPS-1 board, the same hardware that powered many other Capcom classics in arcades of the time, and built on its predecessors' proven recipe - just with a denser combat pace and more elaborate background graphics.

The player controls a fighter plane and fights through waves of enemy aircraft, ships, and giant bosses, collecting power-ups that boost firepower and, from time to time, escort drones that fly alongside. Compared to its predecessors, 1941 offers nimbler movement, more weapon types, and visually richer scenery, making it one of the more technically advanced vertical shooters of its time. The game also supported simultaneous two-player play, which made it a popular choice in arcades for surviving the enemy onslaught together and splitting points for downed targets between the two pilot partners.

In Capcom's 19XX lineup, 1941 is more of a transitional entry between the classic titles of the late 1980s and later sequels, but thanks to careful level design and smoothly rising difficulty, it still holds a reputation as an honest piece of craftsmanship in the shoot 'em up genre. On the CPS platform, it's a typical example of why this hardware meant a guarantee of arcade quality for players in the 1990s, even though it never achieved the fame of the later Capcom fighting games on the same board.

Why play it: For fans of vertical shooters, 1941 offers a dense dose of action with a visible technical step-up from the previous entries in the series.