Strikers 1945 is a shoot 'em up game released in 1995 by Psikyo for Arcades. It was later ported for the PlayStation and Saturn.
Story[]
In 1945, the second world war ended. Soon, there was peace, but an organization of high-ranking military officers from all over the world form a global army known as CANY. Their mission was to conquer the world. CANY activity was found in areas like the Soviet Union, America, Japan, and even Germany. It is revealed that CANY had weapons never seen before from rockets to mechanical walkers. The world quickly formed a group of pilots and planes called the Strikers whose mission is to rid of CANY from the world.
Gameplay[]
Strikers 1945 draws many similarities from the 1940 series and the Sonic Wings series, feeling like a mix of both while having it's own style. The player can choose between 6 different ships: P-38 Lightning, P-51 Mustang, Spitfire, Messerschmidt Bf-109, Zero and Shinden. Each plane has it's own charged shot and bomb. The setting and general aesthetics are similar with the 1940 games, with the player fighting many WWII-era vehicles like tanks, bombers and battleships (some of which are very similar with those from 1940 titles) over various landscapes like jungles, military bases, cities and over the ocean. Unique to Strikers is that the bosses, while based on WWII war machines, can transform into robots after taking enough damage.
The gameplay is mostly drawn from Sonic Wings. Players can shoot specific enemies which will release items to power-up the main gun. When the ship's firepower in on the maximum level, it will revert to the previous level after some seconds, and if the player loses a life the ship will release a few power ups, making re-powering your ship easier. Some unique elements to Strikers gameplay are the charged shots, which puts your options in a specific formation for a powerful attack, and the power down, which makes your ship lose a level of firepower when colliding with enemies instead of losing a life.