Ikari Warriors

STORY / GAMEPLAY
During a special-ops mission, your plane crashes in a jungle many miles away from your headquarters and this hostile jungle is your starting point of action! You can play the game alone by choosing one of the two available commandos (Ralf or Clark) and there is also the option to play the game with a friend in a 2-players mode. Your main mission is to shoot your way to the Ikari Village and destroy the enemy forces (which vary among soldiers, tanks, cannons and more). Your main weapon is a machine gun and you also carry a limited supply of hand grenades that, thankfully, can be restored by destroying enemy buildings and barracks. Additionally, the game offers the opportunity to ride a battle tank and bomb everything on sight. Your tank is immune to bullets but vulnerable to mines and cannons. This means that you must immediately abandon it once it's badly damaged. In that case, the tank will start to warn you by flashing and you have 3 seconds -or so- to get out and go away from it, otherwise you'll be killed by the explosion. The fuel is limited but you can replenish it with extra galons found along your way. Ikari Warriors is a unique arcade shooter for its time and many similar games that followed were actually based on its formula. It was SNK's attempt to "out-gun" Capcom's great Commando arcade game, a title that plays the same way but lacks some features like the use of a Tank.

GRAPHICS / SOUND
The MSX2 version is great, with huge, fast moving, sprites and smooth vertical scrolling. The level design is exceptional, with some really nice details and vivid colors. What is awkward here is the, almost colorless, tank sprite. The sound is great as well, offering in-game tunes along with some "catchy" sound FX. There is also a digitized voice of the hero, screaming after being hit! The sound here is only comparable to the Commodore 64 version. Overall, the MSX2 version is the best 8bit home computer port in terms of graphics and sound.