Uploaded August 2026 | Updated September 2026, 3 weeks ago
Playthrough of P-47: The Freedom Fighter, Aicom’s 1989 PC Engine conversion of NMK and Jaleco’s 1988 arcade shoot ’em up. Released exclusively in Japan on HuCard, it puts you in control of a Republic P-47 Thunderbolt fighter-bomber battling Axis forces across a series of horizontally scrolling World War II stages. Its historical setting immediately gives it a different identity from the many science-fiction shooters on the system, while the side-scrolling viewpoint makes it feel somewhat like a horizontal counterpart to Capcom’s 194x series.
Rating: 7/10
P-47 is a simple shooter at heart, but it handles the fundamentals well. Your aircraft has a permanent forward-firing machine gun together with one secondary weapon at a time. These include straight-firing missiles, downward bombs, angled projectiles and a wider explosive attack. Collecting the same weapon repeatedly increases its strength, while speed upgrades improve the handling of the otherwise rather sluggish P-47.
The secondary weapons are the most important part of the combat system because the standard cannon cannot be powered up and remains relatively weak throughout the game. Choosing the right weapon for the situation therefore matters, particularly once ground targets and airborne formations begin attacking simultaneously. Bombs are useful against tanks and ships below you, while the other weapons provide better coverage against enemies approaching from different directions.
The early stages are fairly relaxed, with sparse formations and plenty of room to avoid incoming fire. The difficulty rises noticeably around the middle of the game, where larger bombers, battleships, artillery and denser waves of fighters begin filling the screen. From this point onward, memorizing enemy positions and managing your weapon choice becomes increasingly important.
There are no screen-clearing smart bombs to rescue you from a bad situation, so survival depends mainly on positioning, movement and pattern recognition. Losing a life can also be costly because your speed upgrades disappear, making recovery during the later stages considerably harder. Limited continues add further pressure and make completing the entire game a respectable challenge.
Visually, the PC Engine conversion is impressive enough for such an early HuCard release. Aircraft and military vehicles are clearly drawn, and several stages feature attractive scrolling backgrounds with clouds, landscapes, oceans and large naval targets. Parallax effects add some depth to the scenery, although the colors can look somewhat muted compared with the arcade game. Enemy bullets can occasionally become difficult to distinguish against the backgrounds as well.
The home conversion does make some sacrifices. The arcade version’s simultaneous two-player mode is absent, leaving this release strictly single-player, and some graphical details were naturally simplified to fit the hardware. There is also a certain amount of repetition in the later stages, which prevents the campaign from feeling as varied as the best shooters on the system.
The music is upbeat and energetic, creating an arcade-like atmosphere even when the action itself becomes demanding. It works well enough during play, although neither the soundtrack nor the effects are particularly memorable compared with the strongest PC Engine shooters.
P-47: The Freedom Fighter is ultimately a solid, no-frills horizontal shoot ’em up. It lacks the spectacular weapons, speed and personality of classics such as Blazing Lazers, Soldier Blade or Gate of Thunder, and its slow opening can make the first few stages feel uneventful. Once the difficulty increases, however, the game becomes considerably more engaging. Responsive controls, useful secondary weapons and a distinctive WWII setting make it a worthwhile early PC Engine shooter, even if it falls short of the system’s very best.
Playthrough of P-47: The Freedom Fighter, Aicom’s 1989 PC Engine conversion of NMK and Jaleco’s 1988 arcade shoot ’em up. Released exclusively in Japan on HuCard, it puts you in control of a Republic P-47 Thunderbolt fighter-bomber battling Axis forces across a series of horizontally scrolling World War II stages. Its historical setting immediately gives it a different identity from the many science-fiction shooters on the system, while the side-scrolling viewpoint makes it feel somewhat like a horizontal counterpart to Capcom’s 194x series.
Rating: 7/10
P-47 is a simple shooter at heart, but it handles the fundamentals well. Your aircraft has a permanent forward-firing machine gun together with one secondary weapon at a time. These include straight-firing missiles, downward bombs, angled projectiles and a wider explosive attack. Collecting the same weapon repeatedly increases its strength, while speed upgrades improve the handling of the otherwise rather sluggish P-47.
The secondary weapons are the most important part of the combat system because the standard cannon cannot be powered up and remains relatively weak throughout the game. Choosing the right weapon for the situation therefore matters, particularly once ground targets and airborne formations begin attacking simultaneously. Bombs are useful against tanks and ships below you, while the other weapons provide better coverage against enemies approaching from different directions.
The early stages are fairly relaxed, with sparse formations and plenty of room to avoid incoming fire. The difficulty rises noticeably around the middle of the game, where larger bombers, battleships, artillery and denser waves of fighters begin filling the screen. From this point onward, memorizing enemy positions and managing your weapon choice becomes increasingly important.
There are no screen-clearing smart bombs to rescue you from a bad situation, so survival depends mainly on positioning, movement and pattern recognition. Losing a life can also be costly because your speed upgrades disappear, making recovery during the later stages considerably harder. Limited continues add further pressure and make completing the entire game a respectable challenge.
Visually, the PC Engine conversion is impressive enough for such an early HuCard release. Aircraft and military vehicles are clearly drawn, and several stages feature attractive scrolling backgrounds with clouds, landscapes, oceans and large naval targets. Parallax effects add some depth to the scenery, although the colors can look somewhat muted compared with the arcade game. Enemy bullets can occasionally become difficult to distinguish against the backgrounds as well.
The home conversion does make some sacrifices. The arcade version’s simultaneous two-player mode is absent, leaving this release strictly single-player, and some graphical details were naturally simplified to fit the hardware. There is also a certain amount of repetition in the later stages, which prevents the campaign from feeling as varied as the best shooters on the system.
The music is upbeat and energetic, creating an arcade-like atmosphere even when the action itself becomes demanding. It works well enough during play, although neither the soundtrack nor the effects are particularly memorable compared with the strongest PC Engine shooters.
P-47: The Freedom Fighter is ultimately a solid, no-frills horizontal shoot ’em up. It lacks the spectacular weapons, speed and personality of classics such as Blazing Lazers, Soldier Blade or Gate of Thunder, and its slow opening can make the first few stages feel uneventful. Once the difficulty increases, however, the game becomes considerably more engaging. Responsive controls, useful secondary weapons and a distinctive WWII setting make it a worthwhile early PC Engine shooter, even if it falls short of the system’s very best.
