
STORY / GAMEPLAY
The story is based around the Nu-Earth War where a group of G.I. (Genetic Infantrymen) were betrayed by a mean General. Most of the group's members were slaughtered and only one finally survived. Collecting up the dead troopers' bio-chips, our hero turns rogue and sets off to avenge the death of his war brothers and kill the traitor. The action takes place over four levels, combining different styles of gameplay. Initially you need to escape from the Nort prison playing in beat 'em up (and shooting when needed) style until you find your way out and then proceed to the next level where you fly on a spaceship and battle with hostile crafts in a Space Harrier style gameplay! During the 2D levels there is quite a lot of interaction with the backdrops. You collect several items and need to operate certain spots to unlock doors and collect advanced weaponry and armor. Each level is swarmed by guards varying from armored androids (the Norts) to hovering robots. You may collect money as well that'll help you buy extra armor. The flying-shooting levels are the next part. These levels play like Sega's Space Harrier and have you flying low and fast over the Nort area. Credits can be collected upon destroying incoming enemies, increasing the power of your puny craft! Rogue Trooper is a good game and definitely worth a look. It offers great gameplay with some great visuals and sound, although a little more variety would have been awesome.
GRAPHICS / SOUND
The Atari ST version looks very close to the Amiga, well at least on the backgrounds and the sprites' design, but with fewer colors on-screen and some minor problems since scrolling suffers from brief slowdowns when too many sprites occupy the screen. The sound on the ST is great, with a variety of sound effects (but unfortunately not sampled) along with a nice in-game music which is totally different from the Amiga version, and it's also one of the best in-game music scores on the Atari ST games library.
GAMEPLAY SAMPLE VIDEO
On our video below you may watch both the Atari ST and Amiga versions of the game.
The Atari ST version is at 00:21