STRIKERS 1945
This easy to pick up but hard to master
shooter masterpiece from Psikyo
is one of their most popular titles!
STRIKERS 1945 is a
vertical-scrolling shooter game that
first appeared in arcades in 1995.
Battleships and tanks transform into futuristic mechs!
Enjoy heart-stopping boss battles at every turn, the hallmark of the STRIKERS series!
The legendary Psikyo Bullets are coming for you!
Pilot your fighter plane to places beyond your wildest imagination…
STRIKERS are on the move!
Stop the secret organization CANY from taking over the world!
The game comes with options you can tweak to your liking.
Pick your preferred difficulty, max lives, max continues, key controls,
and screen orientation to make the game just right for you.
Don’t forget about the new online rankings!
Do you have what it takes to become the best STRIKER in the world?
Planes:
Six World War-era fighters are at your service, each with unique abilities.
“P” items power up your unit and add sub-weapons to it.
“B” items give you bombs that deal area damage to clear out enemies or help with emergency escapes.
Store up your shot to unleash a powerful formation attack!
ARCADE Mode:
Seven difficulty tiers to cater to all levels of players—including beginners!
Those looking for a challenge should try out HARD and VERY HARD modes!
There will be local rankings for each plane in each difficulty mode.
Options:
Play in vertical screen mode for that nostalgic arcade experience!
Two additional screen filters for your enjoyment.
Lives can be set between 1 to 9, whereas continues can be set between 0 to infinity.
Freely configure your preferred keys for shots, auto-shots, or bombs.
Vertical screen mode is playable even in landscape orientation. You decide your style!
SCORE ATTACK:
This mode has a fixed difficulty and number of lives. Serious challengers only!
Submit your high scores to compete with players from around the world!
Online rankings can be viewed from the options menu.
Game Discussion
Steam User 8
This may be my favorite "simple" shmup (if you know what I mean). The bosses are all original, distinct, and fun to watch as they transform mechanically throughout each battle, and the music is both memorable and thematically appropriate. This shmup is great for beginners: It's not insanely difficult (unlike Strikers II and III), and each ship has a unique charge weapon that can be used at will, thus encouraging strategic gameplay. As a Psikyo shmup, there are numerous difficulty settings, so even your pet "monkey" can join the fun!
I've been playing this game for years, and although I still haven't beaten it, I'm not even discouraged. I can see myself slowly getting better--recently broke my personal record in both progress and score. One of these days, I'm gonna find out what that final boss looks like.
Steam User 3
What a find.
I heard the game is about to be delisted soon, so I took a look and wow, it's that arcade game I tried so hard to beat as a kid but never could.
It was late 90s, bowling was starting to become popular here. The sports channel began broadcasting bowling matches, a commentator introduced how professionals perform a "UFO" trick, making the ball spins fast to knock down targets more easily.
Soon a bowling venue was built, and my family took me there on weekends. But I was too young to handle a bowling ball properly, and later I wasn't allowed to walk near the lanes without renting bowling shoes. Just as I was getting bored, I discovered arcades at the back - they were also very new here, and I was given some tokens to play...
Only today did I realize what I had been playing: Strikers 1945.
I believe they also had Metal Slug and Knights of the Valour, but this mysterious flight game left a stronger impression because I could never beat it. Now that I think about it, they probably set the difficulty to HARD - there are 7 difficulty levels in the game, I finished Normal in about an hour with limited lives. I remember once the arcade cabinet was opened to adjust something, maybe the number of lives or difficulty, but I was too young to understand.
That said, it's wonderful to replay a classic game from my childhood. I still remember chasing those gold scores, silly me, I'd often die for high scores. But I just learned you can actually place smaller fighter planes for support.
Overall it's a good game, but short in today's standard.
My curator page
Steam User 0
Wanting to 1CC this game is like facing a firing squad - and instead of taking the bullet and staying down, I get back up and ask for more. I abandon all reason and defy logic, because I know I could’ve totally dodged that bullet that killed me. So after taking millions of bullets and dying a thousand times, I finally reach enlightenment. The Buddha of Bullets himself smiles upon me. I break through all illusions, longing for freedom—only to stand before the firing squad again.
The game... loops.
But instead of despair, I felt kind of relieved. Standing before those familiar guns aimed at me, I exclaimed proudly:
I KINDA LOVE THIS SHIT, NOT GONNA LIE.
Steam User 0
Classic. Timeless. Good'ol fashioned fun. Challenging. Demanding. Rewards patience.
Steam User 0
What can you say.. it's Strikers.
Really appreciate the Monkey difficulty setting however a drunk Walrus option would have been ideal for me personally.
Steam User 0
Игра детства, крутой булет хелл, с необычными механиками для своего времени
Steam User 0
Psikyo SHMUPs are like comfort food, and Strikers 1945 is an absolute classic. The homemade mac n cheese of SHMUPs. It's simple yet challenging, fun and endlessly replayable, with a nice selection of planes to play as, each with slightly different stats and abilities, as well as 7 difficulty levels. It's a perfect choice for novice players looking to get their feet wet, and veterans alike. Very fun and satisfying.
Unfortunately, there are some minor bugs. Alt-tabbing, whether you're in fullscreen or windowed mode, is likely to break the game in one way or another. The menu will often become unresponsive until the game is restarted whenever I alt tab, for example. Also there are some occasional graphical bugs after dying, where your ship may appear invisible until your post-respawn invulnerability wears off.
Those minor annoyances aside though, the settings and options available in this port are very in-depth and offer a great number of ways to customize and enhance your experience with the game. I won't go into all of the settings, but bugs aside it is a very good port. I would highly recommend this (or the even more excellent Strikers 1945 II) to anyone who's interested in SHMUPs.