1943 has already been released on Capcom Arcade Cabinet before as a part of the 1987 Game Pack. So when you are playing 1942 as a part of this 1984 Game Pack (bear with me, there’s a lot of years used as titles in Capcom Arcade Cabinet), unfortunately you’re going back in time a bit. One of the first differences between 1942 and 1943 you’ll notice is the rather annoying drill sergeant whistle and snare drum sounds that are tied together to create the background music. It’s a lot of whistling, man. Another thing is the power-up items are a bit harder to understand. Different shades of the letters "Pow" mean significantly different things. An orange one jams enemy guns for 15 seconds. A yellow one gains you an additional evading Loop ability. Needless to say, it’s hard to remember all this while you’re playing the game and frantically trying to avoid enemy fire and collisions with planes. 1943 definitely improved the situation by using different icons to represent different power-ups.

While the two games are pretty much identical in the gameplay style, 1942 also had a traditional one-hit, lose a life design. 1943 allowed a bit more leeway with its power bar system that let you gamble a bit and spend it on a screen-wiping super-powered Tsunami, or just keep it and use it as a life bar. There’s far more spacing between boss type battles in 1942 as well, so the action can get a little repetitive.

While 1942 is still a pretty nice vertically-scrolling shooter, it just doesn’t have some of the bells and whistles of 1943. 1942 is pretty comparable in graphics as well, though it doesn’t have some of the cool level features like clouds that the enemies could dive under. You can see the roots here, and it’s a good game to get the reflexes going. It’s just unfortunate that 1943 is so much more fun that it’s hard to stay attached to this old timer.

SonSon is a game that seems to be based on the Chinese mythology of the Monkey King. I couldn’t possibly name all the references that appear in the game, but knowledge of the story is not needed to enjoy the game. You seem to be playing as the Monkey King and the second player comes in as a Pig character from the myth named TonTon. I’m sure that in Japanese, these names are cute puns or something funny that references the mythology. I am terribly apologetic to my Japanese teacher that I don’t know what they might be.

Something about SonSon just brings me back to the real fun of arcades back in the day. The gameplay concept is pretty simple. You run along horizontally and shoot enemies, but you can turn around, and jump up or down several levels. It’s like an auto-scrolling platformer, basically. Collecting small food items, which are various things like carrots, tomatoes, and other snack items, will trigger a large food item to appear. Collecting these will gain you points. There’s also an item that will transform all the onscreen enemies into food as well. You can also play simultaneously with a second player. That’s always a fun bonus there.

But the game takes these concepts and puts them together in a fun, fairly addictive way. You always see where you could have moved just a little differently, where you could have held out just a bit longer until you could trigger a power-up item, so you want to try again. You start seeing patterns and you wonder if you can work together with the second player to herd enemies together. You learn the obstacles and the level patterns and get just a bit better each time. You always want to grab that next little food item, even if it’s only for points. There’s that great feeling of "just one more time" with this game that only the really good arcade games had.

Pirate Ship Higemaru is a puzzle game reminiscent of Bomberman in it’s style. You play a sailor named Momotaro, though he’s not named in the game, as he fights off pirates that have attacked his ship. You spend the game picking up barrels and hurling them at enemies until you’ve cleared each stage. There’s an added twist when a pirate takes up residence in a barrel, making your weapon run away from you, as well as your target.

This game would be a lot more fun if the controls felt a bit better. Picking up barrels and maneuvering in front of a barrel feels a lot slower and more tedious than it should. If you’re not standing exactly in the right spot to pick up a barrel, you’ve got to move and turn around and start over. Likewise, it’s sometimes hard to simply turn and toss a barrel when you’re already in an intersection of a couple isles. It just feels a bit slippery compared to how a modern game would take on these controls.

Once things really get rolling, however, Higemaru can be a lot of fun. You can start combinations by stealing barrels off pirates and taking out him and his buddy at the same time. It’s a game where planning a few moves ahead can really pay off, even though your targets are always moving.

For the variety of gameplay options, Capcom Arcade Cabinet: 1984 Game Pack is a pretty good pack in the lineup so far. Actually, I’d say the only thing that brings the pack down is the older 1942 game. If its more recent sequel were in the pack, that would just be the icing on the cake. But again, we’ve got a simultaneous two player game in this pack, a puzzle/action game, and a vertical shoot-’em-up. If you were to plan an arcade throwback party, you could do worse than these 3 enjoyable games.