Retro Rumble: Round 9

[QualityChimp]

Sadly, me n' my bro's attentions were soon seduced by IKARI WARRIORS...

Ikari Warriors is a weird series, isn't it?

First game was a lot like Commando, but with a twisty joystick. Loads of soldiers to shoot.
Then the sequel, Victory Road, came out and suddenly they were on an alien planet.
How the hell did that happen?


Then Ikari Warriors 3 came out and there were these amazing HUGE sprites wading through rivers, but it seemed to have turned into a beat-em-up (or knife-em-up) with few guns. Seems like a bad strategical decision to me.


My absolute fave of all these vertical-scrolling shooters is S.A.R. Search And Rescue, which was really tense and had dramatic music as you worked your way through a space base crammed with aliens and zombies (very minimal rescuing, making the title a misnomer) and you had guns you could hold down fire to power up. My fave being the one that creates a mini black hole that slurps all the enemies up. Plus the enemies burst all over the place:

[monel]

I played the first Ikari a lot. There's another arcade game I liked but forget the name of, an SNK one.

Years later I played Capcom's Gunsmoke and was terrible at that just like Commando.

Very different but I played Midnight Resistance a lot and P.O.W.

[QualityChimp]

There's another arcade game I liked but forget the name of, an SNK one.

We can do this! What happened in the game?

[Leon Retro]

Ikari Warriors is a weird series, isn't it?

The series went severely downhill with Victory Road. The third game is also dodgy, despite the graphics being impressive for the time.

The original game is still reasonably fun to play, even if the action isn't as fast-paced as subsequent games in the genre.

There's another arcade game I liked but forget the name of, an SNK one.

Is it this SNK game from 1987? I remember it got ported to 8-bit systems, but it didn't have much fanfare. I've played it a few times, but not for ages. I'll probably give it a go on my Pi.

[monel]

It might not be an Snk game, vertical with rotating sticks (maybe). Time something...? I thought it was Heavy Barrel but that's quite slow. It had sci fi type weapons not commando type.

[Leon Retro]

It had sci fi type weapons not commando type.

It's probably Time Soldiers, which was ported to the Master System.

[samanosuke]

Time Soldiers on the SMS is a fantastic game. Used to love it BitD as there didn’t seem to be a huge amount of two player titles for the machine so this was one I used to rinse with my mates, the other being California Games.

[monel]

It was more likely Heavy Barrel, but that seems shockingly slow now.

[Leon Retro]

It was more likely Heavy Barrel, but that seems shockingly slow now.

It doesn't look any slower than other games in the genre. Feels like a mix between Ikari Warriors and Mercs.

[QualityChimp]

Out Zone?

[samanosuke]

Out Zone?

What an amazing soundtrack! Especially the second level... truly epic.

[QualityChimp]

It's a great game too.
There's an interesting selection of weapons like the triple-shot that stops you turning and some of the level design is really cool like tanks leaving tracks after they've moved.

[Leon Retro]

It's a great game too.

It has the really nice early '90s style 16-bit graphics that still look impressive. Quite a leap over the earlier 8-bit games.

[JazzFunk]

Ikari Warriors is a weird series, isn't it?

First game was a lot like Commando, but with a twisty joystick. Loads of soldiers to shoot.
Then the sequel, Victory Road, came out and suddenly they were on an alien planet.
How the hell did that happen?


Then Ikari Warriors 3 came out and there were these amazing HUGE sprites wading through rivers, but it seemed to have turned into a beat-em-up (or knife-em-up) with few guns. Seems like a bad strategical decision to me.


My absolute fave of all these vertical-scrolling shooters is S.A.R. Search And Rescue, which was really tense and had dramatic music as you worked your way through a space base crammed with aliens and zombies (very minimal rescuing, making the title a misnomer) and you had guns you could hold down fire to power up. My fave being the one that creates a mini black hole that slurps all the enemies up. Plus the enemies burst all over the place:

S.A.R. is brill, I luuuuurve the evocative, moody music, I've been listening to it loads on YouTube it's so good. Very cool, very moody.

You got that SNK collection, QC? All those games are on there...as well as the proper bad boy GUERILLA WAR, which I always saw as a TRUE successor to Ikari.

Even has many of the NES versions on, too. Sadly it only seems to go half price about once every six months, grab it while ya can, it's a grrreat compilation, I got it half price a coupla months back.

[JazzFunk]

PS: [MENTION=2924]Leon Retro[/MENTION], I had the C64 Ikari and that was the bomdiggidy, too, incredibly fun and playable. I even had a demo of the Speccy version and that was decent as well.

I never played the Amstrad version but when I saw it in C&VG, January 1987, I dropped a bollock. Looked arcade perfect!!!