One would expect WW II games set in Europe to come out of Western countries. 1945 Air Strike, however, takes the player through Germany and the Soviet Union for two thirds of the game and only one third has you roar through the Pacific skies against Japan, despite being developed in China, a country that traditionally churns out movies, series and games based on the Second Sino-Japanese War. All of this and the horribly generic name aside, 1945 Air Strike is a surprisingly well made shooter.

The presentation takes a note from Under Defeat and PC real-time tactics games like Sudden Strike to some extent, presenting its mostly European battlefields using an isometric perspective giving the game a fake 3D effect, where Under Defeat was truly three-dimensional. The colorful backdrops nicely alternate between nearing photo-realism and bringing back childhood memories of toy soldiers duking it out. The landscapes (except for the ones in the Pacific region) are littered with trees and all kinds of buildings. Refineries, civilian houses, shacks and such can either be bombed directly by double-tapping the plane or alternatively by shooting down enemy planes right above them and blowing up entire miniature cities feels just as rewarding as it sounds.

Battling enemy planes, tanks and ships also has a nice feel to it, not only by giving the act of destruction itself a satisfactory feel with its explosions and sounds, but also by offering a well balanced difficulty. On one hand the screen is often flooded by bullets, while on the other hand you will rarely feel overwhelmed thanks to your plane sustaining a couple of hits and your ability to purchase various upgrades between stages. The gameplay, while well executed, mostly relies on genre staples like standard smart bombs, with two major exceptions. You can manually activate temporary bullet-time, which replenishes automatically over time, and losing a plane doesn't necessarily mean the loss of a life. Once your energy bar is depleted a circular countdown starts ticking down, giving you a few seconds to hit the eject button. Once done so, your pilot glides down to the bottom of the screen, hanging on to a parachute and if he manages to leave the screen without getting hit, you're not penalized. Get hit even once, however, and the screen is covered in blood, not-so-subtly indicating your death and loss of a life. This mechanic mitigates frustration caused by being shot down, while at the same time adding some strategic flavor ("Should I really leave the lower end of the screen while near-death? Should I quickly leave the plane after being taken down or rather wait for a more appropriate moment?") and not lowering the difficulty too far.

1945 Air Strike isn't the most ambitious shooter on the iPhone, but it does offer a few nice unique selling points and combines them with otherwise tried and true gameplay and a neat presentation. One could do A LOT worse than this, so if you're looking for more shooters and have already purchased all games above this one in the article, then there shouldn't be anything stopping you from downloading it.

Please excuse my choice of words, but the one thing going through my mind half the time when thinking of Sky Knight Ex is "What. The. ****?!"

It's the exact same game as 1945 Air Strike, being published by a different publisher and allegedly being developed by a different developer, and having been released later than the aforementioned game. The menus, the level design, the graphics, the sound and music, the intro video...everything has been carried over, with only two changes being made: Although the download isn't free, you have to endure an ad bar placed not at the top or bottom, but right on the screen, rendering the game basically impossible to play. What's more, while the App Store description is mostly kept in Chinese, all text in the app itself is completely in Japanese. Everything about Sky Knight Ex appears utterly bizarre, but the most likely explanation would have to be a Chinese studio trying to earn an easy buck here.

I had already rather comprehensively covered Capcom's iOS-exclusive sequel to the 19XX series for the article dealing with the series as a whole, so here is the same text once more for your daily dose of déjà-vu pleasure.

Whoever thought that Capcom couldn't push the 19XX series into casual shores any more than by releasing a PSN and XBLA sequel obviously was proven wrong when an all-new sequel hit the App store in January 2000. Still, even when taking the platform into consideration, one shouldn't easily dismiss First Strike as an attempt to use a somewhat revered brand name for a quick cash-in on the Starbucks-Abercrombie crowd that obnoxiously has to place its collection of i-devices on the table whenever they sit in a café, restaurant or any other public place. Well, ok, the Frappuccino IS pretty good and having your iPhone rest on the table to browse the internet while eating IS comfortable, so...No! I still can only raise and shake my fist in disgust of everyone else doing it.

When First Strike first struck (har har) the iPhone it was a rather bland experience, maybe relying a bit too much on the original 1942's concept in some ways. Before each new game you were given the choice between three different planes, varying in speed, damage and defence, which however only mattered on your first few run-throughs as you would be rewarded money after each stage depending on your score. This money was used to buy various upgrades before stages, ranging from permanent stat boosts, weapon upgrades and extra lives (which in turn increase your score, leading to more money again) up to purchasing two additional secondary tools. Stupidly enough, while all purchases except for the 1 Ups are permanently stored even for future games starting from the first level, they only apply for the plane you had chosen when buying them, so unless you want to change the game into some sort of RPG simulator, requiring you to grind for money again and again, you will probably just stick with one plane, slowly upgrading it and ignoring the other two.

The game itself consisted of only 8 stages, each lasting about 5-10 minutes, which, while falling a bit short compared to its prequels, made for an adequately long stroll down memory lane, especially considering the low price of admission. It was however not all that enjoyable to play, due to an array of reasons. First, the playing field was too large to fit onto the small screen, so you would constantly fly left and right to scroll to the sides, as the width was about 1.75 screens, making for many blind spots. Second, enemy, boss and background variation was rather confined with mostly grey, red, yellow and blue planes flying over tropical islands, seas and harbors. Third, and maybe the smallest nuisance to most, the 19XX series is often encouraging the player to hunt down as many enemies as possible, showing the percentage of opponents downed, so why do retreating enemies fly faster than your bullets in First Strike? It's incredibly annoying to dodge an incoming Kamikaze pilot, trying to get behind him right as he retracts, only to see your bullets safely accompanying him home, instead of hunting him down.

The final reason for why First Strike was rather forgettable in the beginning was its weapon system. As in next to every shoot 'em up you started out with a standard pea shooter and once you would have cleared out a row of yellow planes you got to upgrade it to...another wimpy pea shooter! Weapon items cycled through a laser, a vulcan style machine-gun, that unlike most shooters was not the game's spread gun, but fired only up front, and a gun firing off some sort of green balls that might be a spiritual successor to the old shotgun. Now, weapon items that cycle through different phases before being picked up are already a bad idea in a game that never shows you the whole playing field, but making every gun feel like you're doing something wrong is plain terrible. The laser needed pinpoint precision and lacked the punch you would usually associate with such a weapon, the shotgun was good for accidentally clearing out large clusters of enemies, but good luck aiming it at some specific target, and the vulcan at least came close to a decent weapon, as its shot was broad and hence easy to aim. Picking up additional items for the weapon you were already equipped with upgraded it up to a few levels, though picking up one of the other weapons would mean you have to stick with it for some time, seeing as those items were not that common. Furthermore you had to buy (!) the ability of upgrading (!) each individual weapon, before being able to do so. If you had finally earned and spent enough money to be able to upgrade the vulcan to level 4 and picked up enough upgrades, you had better also purchased the permission to fully upgrade the other two weapons, because otherwise if you would have picked up the wrong weapon, you would be back to the lowest level for that. So in short, the weapon system was a mess to deal with, despite not being all that complicated. You were off to a difficult start, slowly earning money before you would have a somewhat functional plane that still needed to watch every single weapon item very closely.

The game wasn't all bad, though. For starters, the loop the loop was completely absent with traditional bombs and three secondary abilities taking its place. Of course you had to purchase two of those in the store. Silly to think Capcom would take it that easy on the player. Available from the start were heat-seeking missiles that packed quite a wallop. Arguably even better was the shield that looks like it came right from the distant future. Maybe the designers were playing Psykio's 1945 series a bit too much? The shield not only absorbed any hits, it also allowed for revenge Kamikaze-style. Activate the shield, fly into enemy clusters and enjoy, as long as you can predict when it was going to lower again and watch out not to hit enemies that leave behind a weapon item or else you might instantly pick it up accidentally. The final ability was to power up for a while and to heal yourself. In an effort to counter the frustration of not being able to deal as much damage as you would want to, at least you can also take some yourself before losing a life. Before each stage you would have to choose one secondary ability to take with you and it even recharged after a while, giving the game a nice strategic touch.

Choosing the correct ability for each level and deciding when to use it also was key to gaining respectable high scores (maybe not as much as the simple necessity to buy all upgrades in the shop before attempting to) that could be uploaded to an online ranking board. The scoring system kept it nice and simple with enemies leaving behind medals, rewarding taking down complete enemy formations and the destruction of as many of the bosses' parts as possible granting yet another bonus. As long as you didn't get hit by anything you would also increase a multiplier up to x5.

The graphics had a neat if low-tech Google Map look to them and while the music would constantly loop, its heroic, yet somehow soothing style matched the mostly slow action nicely and would get stuck in your head for a while. The controls get the job done. As long as you stay away from the tilt control scheme, that is. If you use touch controls, then unlike the ports of 1942 and 1943 the plane is not controlled via a virtual pad. Instead you tap the screen, swipe your finger and your trusty plane will try its best to catch up with your finger. Given its low speed, this will rarely obstruct the view on your plane or its close surroundings.

Not content with having created a rather bland and ultimately unremarkable little shooter, Capcom released an update a few months later. Some of the complaints still remained unchanged, though overall it marked a great improvement. For one, Capcom added Game Center support, allowing for more online scores to compete with as the scores are uploaded automatically now. More important, though, was the change in level design. New enemies like a big zeppelin ( I don't remember the Japanese using those), mine dropping planes and incredibly cheap missile turrets were thrown into the mix, making for some interesting stages that now truly feel different from one another. The weapon system also saw an overhaul. Anyone hoping for the weapon system to require less grinding or to cause less frustration when picking up the wrong item was in for bad news. The good news was that a fourth weapon had been introduced, that not only required additional grinding for money, but also meant that the weapon cycle had become more complicated. Still, this is very well worth it, since the „combo shot“ as it is called is relatively easy to aim, also shoots diagonally and finally deals a good amount of damage.

With these changes First Strike might still not have become the pinnacle of the series, at least it now is more than worth the current price of one dollar and allows for some fun point boosting, trying to beat other people's high scores, especially given that your progress is saved after each stage and you can also press the home button at any time and jump back in, making it perfect for short sessions as well as prolonged sessions where you try to memorize the stage layouts and develop strategies for your secondary abilities.

By the end of 2010 Capcom released yet another update that added a whole new campaign consisting of five stages set in deserts and canyons, probably meant to be a fight against Nazi Germany, instead of Japan this time. The new campaign cranks up the difficulty quite a bit and adds a new boss plane. The only other addition worth mentioning is a stupid trenchrun bonus stage only serving to make you realize that the control scheme while workings well with the slower shooting stages, just isn't up to snuff for such fast action. At least it marks the return of the Yashichi in a Capcom game.

If you've been following this article somewhat closely, you might have realized by now, that I consider relative touch controls to be the peak of iOS shooter controls evolution, as opposed to tilt controls being the bottom of the barrel. Aeronauts: Quake in the Sky offers both (and virtual joypad controls), but due to a twist in its gameplay mechanics the accelerometer actually works best here. In addition to a run-of-the-mill machine gun, that starts off as a mere peashooter in each stage before being upgraded to a decent tool, your plane comes equipped with infinitely replenishing lock-on missiles. In order to use these essential explosives, you need to tap the desired target. This grows tedious within the first ten seconds and it makes touch controlled steering cumbersome as hell. The latter can be compensated for surprisingly well by using the aforementioned tilt controls, whereas the constant tapping remains a nuisance no matter what.

The remainder of the game is fairly decent. Nothing more, nothing less. The backgrounds are varied and colorful except for the first stage's snowy planes, while never being visually impressive. The few enemy kinds are repeated throughout the whole trip, but the relatively high amount of bullets will still keep you on your toes. The soundtrack consists of a single rock track relying mostly on an electronic guitar, and while it is perfectly tolerable and inoffensive, it's neither anything to write home about.

At the end of each stage awaits an impressive boss. Unfortunately, these further go to show that developer JCE is just a small, amateur studio, that lacks the experience and polish of more renowned developers such as Cave. The first boss is a giant train constantly moving left and right, equipped with roughly a dozen of turrets, that need to be destroyed one by one. So far, so promising, but the battle won't end until you've also blown up the left-most and right-most points of the train, which can't be assigned as a target to your rockets. Plus, the train moves by quickly and its rear often protrudes outside of the screen, so hitting these two final targets becomes a real chore. The second boss is a huge floating ball with three cannons and a myriad of smaller foes surrounding it. As soon as you've successfully blown up one of the cannons, you're completely safe in the lower corners of the screen.

Aeronauts is kinda rough around the edges, while still maintaining an undeniable entertainment factor. The one aspect that is truly hard to swallow, though, is the length of the game or rather the lack thereof. Three short stages with an additional two available for $1 each, is simply ridiculous