Bullet Ballet- Strikers 1945 Plus Portable Reviewed

Strikers 1945 Plus Portable for the Sony PSP. Developer: Psikyo Publisher: PM Studios ESRB: E

Despite the videogame industry’s general apathy towards shooters, I still get an overwhelming sense of excitement whenever another shmup gets announced. I find the bullet-dodging, ship-destroying action curiously therapeutic, and derive a strong sense of satisfaction when a particularly difficult boss is defeated. Contrarily, I will occasionally reduce the difficulty to one of the easier settings, for an entirely different experience. Sometimes after a grueling day, spacing out with a solid shmup can be oddly revitalizing.

PM Studio’s recent addition to the Playstation Store, may not foster an inner zen-like tranquility, but will offer a significant challenge for fans of the genre. With only a single mode of difficulty, Strikers 1945 Plus Portable, offers a faithful, albeit diamond-hard diversion for PSP owners. As a recreation of the 1999 NeoGeo title, Strikers is a wonderfully faithful port, offering seamless ad-hoc cooperative play to compensate for the Playstation Portable’s single stick.

Although players can choose between the digital or analog stick from the options menu, I found that the nub offered slightly less hand cramp during extended durations with Strikers. Each of the six available ships offer similar mobility, but differ in loadout and size- while the Flying Pancake carries an awesome amount of firepower, it’s bulky size makes it particularly difficult to maneuver through thick bullet fields. 

Most of the time, gamers will be holding down the rapid fire button to eliminate the swarms of ground and air foes. Once specified amount of enemies are downed, a ‘super shot’ becomes available, radically increasing the amount of munitions released by the player. Additionally, the gamer has a limited amount of bombs, which instead of the full-screen devastation of the Raiden series, offers a squadron of bombers that provide a shield to the player. While gamers are only given a three ship sortie, Strikers does give the player an unlimited amount of continues.

Although Strikers is a port of a ten year old game, it offers a competent visual delivery on the PSP platform. Players may choose between three screen sizes, which range from the game’s original aspect ratio, to a screen filing full screen mode. Each allows the players to clearly see every pink, blue and red bullet launched toward the player, and wisely keeps vital player info confined to the borders of the screen. Players with a limited amount of room on their memory cards will be happy to know that Strikers takes up a scant 34 megabytes of space.

Shmup aficionados undaunted by thumb-blistering will find plenty of enjoyment with the bullet-hell skies of Strikers 1945 Plus Portable. The title will test the most arcade-hardened skills, offering an awe-inspiring humiliation that will delight hardcore shmup fans. Those without cat-like reflexes may recoil from the game’s sadistic difficulty; we wish PM Studio’s would have offered a difficulty selection to make Strikers accessible to all.

About Robert Allen

Since being a toddler, Robert Allen has been immersed in video games, anime, and tokusatsu. Currently, his days are spent teaching at two southern California colleges. But his evenings and weekends are filled with STGs, RPGs, and action titles and well at writing for Tech-Gaming since 2007.

61 comments

  1. Never heard of it, but I might check it out. What’s the price?

  2. Cool. I really wish Sony would give us Raiden Project for PS1 to download.

  3. $11.99, weird price.

  4. I also get all warm and buzzy when I heard about a new shmup. No matter how good or bad, I always buy them.

  5. RamBOT First Blood

    Can you tell us whether you think the price is worth it, Deagle?

  6. Cool review. Yep, I love a good shmup. I’m glad you always cover them.

  7. How can they sell this for 12 bucks, when Raiden Fighters Aces was $20?!?!

  8. Whats with the letters in the second screenshot? looks like a Russian bootleg..

  9. $11.99 seems a bit much. I think 9.99 would have been ideal.

  10. What’s that big gap in the top right part of the screen?

  11. Lord knows, I love me a hard as hell, shmup. You had me at NeoGeo.

    BTW, whats with all the NeoGeo love, DE?

  12. I love these types of games. Just load them directly into my brain and I’ll be happy.

  13. Man I love these 194x games. So funnnn!

  14. Seems really niche. I can see my friends likely this, though.

  15. Actually these are by a different company even though the games look play similar. 194x are by Capcom, these are Psikyo.

  16. I saw Joystiq was giving some codes away too. You down with those guys?

  17. Painless Fragger

    Shooting games are my second favorite, after RPGs.

  18. Yeah, I noticed two N-G related articles in a row. Coincidence?

  19. Cool, thanks for the review. I need something for my PSP to keep me busy this weekend.

  20. This game is just awesome, I want it… 🙂

  21. Man, they look alike.

  22. Man, I so want this game.

  23. Awesome review. The PSP needs more of these types of games? Please PM Studios, bring us more shmups!

  24. I loves me some shooters. This looks like a great one to follow Raiden Fighters Aces (the last one I played).

  25. Shmups are my anti-drug. It’s what got me into gaming BTW.

  26. hmmm…looks like a nifty game.

  27. Huh, I didn’t know Strikers 1945 was bound to the PSP! It sounds like a great game though!

  28. Game looks sweet!

  29. I would love to see Raiden Project too! Strikers 1945 Plus is an awesome shooter.

  30. Oh, man, I loved this in the arcades. The difficulty was what made these games so much fun.

  31. Strikers is a great series. Glad to hear the game was ported to the PSP.

  32. Glad to see the game finally made it to the psp. Loved playing it on the arcade machine.

  33. I’m at peace when I’m dodging a shitstorm of bullets 😉

  34. Walker Texas Rapist

    How many levels are there?

  35. Shooting is fun, yes?

  36. Can we expect to see more shmups in the future?

  37. this looks really good
    I love these type of games I grew up with them =]

  38. I’d love to see a Strikers 1999 port or the Gunbird games.

  39. While a single DLC game is good, I could really go for a UMD compilation. Hopefully, PM Studios will come through on that.

  40. Any boss rush/time attack modes?

  41. hell hes to both of those!

  42. Let me put my tutu on and dance this ballet of bullets, please.

  43. Just bought it, and yes it’s balls hard. I must have continued ten times by the second level alone.

    I completely agree with you guys, this needs a difficulty switch.

  44. I agree that $9.99 might have been better, but this still seems like a blast.

  45. Very nice review, I’d like to check this game out. :]

  46. Oh man, I just love getting my ass kicked… in that sadistic sort of way. So this looks like my type of game!

  47. Awesome i use to play something like this on my old nintendo back in the day.

  48. This game looks pretty great, would love to try it out.

  49. Nice review! I love these types of games.

  50. This really old game should be 5 bucks imo.

  51. Shmup = win. Except for Galaga Legions. That sucker’s hard.

  52. I love shumps, and I’m especially loving the small resurgence as of late.

  53. This is harder. Much harder.

  54. $12 for a cool loking shump? I’m in!

  55. Great review

  56. This sounds like the hotness. Definitely interested!

  57. I need some PSP shump in my life.

  58. hey, good review. i didn’t even know this version existed, lol.

  59. Hmm. Seems like an adequate shmup.

  60. Sounds very fun. I’ll be picking it up.