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The are a couple of commonly known facts about me in regards to video games, at least for those who know me:
1. I love classic games. I could play older games until the end of time; I can have just as much fun playing Breakout on the Atari, Spider Fighter on the Vectrex, or 1942 on the arcade as I would playing Call of Duty 4 or Burnout Paradise over Live.
 2. I love the Xbox Live Arcade. You can blame me for the high XBLA costs because I am one of those people who have bought most of the games that have been released. I am addicted and I cannot help it...
3. I love faithful remakes of old games... especially on the XBLA; they have to be done in a faithful manner though. I am all for adding a new paint of coat to and old classic, but I want all of the things that I loved about the original to be kept in tact.
It just so happens that Capcom's newest XBLA game, 1942: Joint Strike, happens to hit my soft spot(s) in regards to each of these things... but I am afraid that not everyone is going to feel that way.
 1942: Joint Strike for the Xbox Live Arcade is Capcom's latest entry into their 1941 shmup series (that's shoot-em-up for those who aren't in the know). As the sixth entry in the series, this marks the first time that a game was launched solely on a home console. All of the previous iterations of the game, from the original title 1941 back in 1984 to the most recent title of 1944, back in 2000, originated in the arcade(s). This also marks the first time that the series has been taken online with full online multiplayer courtesy of Xbox Live.
 I have been anxiously awaiting this title since it was first announced and shown a few months ago. I have to admit that I was getting a little worried with some of the previews and early reviews of the game that I read recently; I wasn't sure how to feel about complaints like the game being too difficult and the controls being annoying in the fact that you have to repeatedly press the A button to fire rather than just holding it down. It then hit me that these weren't issues of Joint Strike being a bad game, these were issues of it being too old school for newer players to appreciate.
 Without hesitation, I bought the full version of the game without trying the demo and I do not regret my purchase one bit. This game is every bit the old school classic that I had hoped it was. My thoughts were right, the same things that some of the current media (OXM and IGN in particular) complain about are the same things that I love. First off, the game isn't overly difficult; shmups are supposed to be difficult and I wouldn't have it any other way. The difficulty of the game doesn't really scale when you change the setting(s), but rather the amount of lives that you are given changes. You get one spare life on the hardest difficulty, so make it last... and don't expect any continues either. This is old school baby. Though, it should be noted, that the amount of enemies is scaled between the single- and multiplayer modes. The screen gets rather crowded in a 2 player game.
 Secondly, pounding on the fire button is the way that a shooter should be. This is how a shmup should be done. The other main complaint that I have seen is criticism on the length of the game. To those people, I ask this: you do know that this is a shooter, right? Were you expecting a 10+ hour game? This game is all about high scores and replays... 30-40 minutes and you can run through the game start to finish; it is expected that you will go back and do it again with a different plane, different special powers, and set a new score. That is what this genre is all about. Not interested? Why are you playing it then?
 In my opinion, this game is destined to become a true XBLA classic. They have taken the classic Capcom shooter, thrown in upgraded HD graphics, full widescreen support, online and offline cooperative play, and a slick presentation... and you have one quality game for 800 MS points.
There has also been some complaints regarding the online integration. I played quite a few games online last night with friends and we never had a single issue. The game maintained its fast pace and we never experienced and lag or disconnects. We had a great time, start to finish and intend on doing it again soon. As long as you know what you are getting into with this game, I have no doubt that you are going to love it. Shmup fans can be happy and know that this game is true to form and a perfect example of how a classic title should be updated. Everyone else, you probably won't like it so try the demo and save your 800 points.
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