P-47 Aces Longplay (Arcade) [QHD]

Game Info
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Developer: Jaleco
Publisher: Jaleco
Year of Release: 1995

Game Review & Impressions
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Diving into the extensive catalogue of coin-operated shoot 'em ups, P-47 Aces is another relative obscurity from Jaleco I'd never heard of. This World War II inspired shoot 'em up looks and sounds pretty good, and whilst not quite to the standard of your typical SNK or Irem release, it's fair to say Jaleco put a lot of effort into spit and polishing this particular production, at least from an audio-visual standpoint. The pastel backgrounds featuring snow-capped mountains, tropical jungles and lakes surrounded by pine forests look great, lending the game a unique visual appeal.

Before play commences, players are treated to a rogues gallery of the different pilots and accompanying planes that can be flown into combat. Kim Blair appears to be some kind of mashup of Kylie Minogue and Madonna, whilst Captain Uncle -- yes, they really called him that -- looks at least 20 years older than his bio would seem to suggest; looks a little bit like Donald Sutherland perhaps? Each plane is equipped with a different loadout of air-to-air and air-to-ground ordnance, plus a small armament of screen-clearing smart bombs, which you'll most definitely be requiring.

Launching into the game proper, it's your typical affair: waves of enemies, an occasional sub-boss, with a final showdown against a variety of howitzer packing behemoths gatekeeping the exist to the next stage. Blowing up enemies reveals power-up tokens that beef up your gun power and projectile spread; all pretty typical for this type of game.

For the first stage at least, P-47 Aces is a fairly decent experience, even fun, but that changes quickly after the first stage is done. Subsequent stages ramp up the difficulty, featuring more enemies that literally spew waves of projectiles of varying sizes and speeds in rapid succession, leaving you and your somewhat bulky plane sprite precious little room for manoeuvre. This is very much a hardcore game that's going to appeal to a hardcore audience - a casual experience, this is not.

Ultimately, the game impresses as an aesthetic showpiece, but it's difficult to recommend it much beyond that. Stick it on free-play and you might get some enjoyment out of it, but the constant wall of enemies and projectiles results in an experience that's overbearing instead of being actually fun, which is, after all, what a video game is supposed to be.

Chapters
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00:00 Attract mode
01:50 Stage 1
03:22 Stage 2
05:25 Stage 3
08:33 Stage 4
12:20 Stage 5
15:30 Stage 6
17:54 Stage 7
19:59 Stage 8
23:35 Ending