Tizoc
Member
I decided to replay this lovely shooter that released on the Neo Geo in 1997, developed by Saurus.
The game is available for play on PSP, Vita, Switch and PC (via Humble Bundle or Steam, I recommend getting it via Humble and dropping the game into an emulator).
It is a 2D Shooter but played from an overhead view, think Legend of Zelda AlltP, where you play as a group of mercenaries, soldiers, whatever, who go about blowing stuff up and dismembering enemy soldiers to stop Bipson's long lost brother who shares his fashion sense for shoulder pads, capes and blood red vests from taking over the world. I think.
The game has a very simple control scheme; mash the A button to fire your gun while you are moving and it will fire in the direction you are facing. Hold down A button, and you strafe but only fire in the direction you were facing before holding the A button.
Much like Metal SLug, if you are close to an enemy you will perform a melee attack to damage them instead; some just punch enemies, others attack with a knife.
The B button is used to perform a dodge roll which can be handy to help avoid getting hit by enemy bullets for one thing. C button will have you toss or fire your Bomb which is different for each of the 8 characters for the most part.
You can pick up special weapons as well such as stronger guns and even a short range flame thrower.
The game's visuals are really nice, and the sprites give off an SNES Final Fantasy vibe with their simplicity and design. The game should also get credit for featuring a black canadian woman as one of the playable characters, going by the codename Big Mama
I won't deny that one of my fav. stuff in the Metal Slug games are the death animations of enemies, and Shock Troopers have some interesting animations for enemy deaths; there is animation of them dying with their arm dismembered, or them dying from a wound where lots of blood gushes out. Big Mama's melee attack is a punch, and the game doesn't differentiate between the death animations so it's kinda cool that her punch is so strong it dismembers them.
If you own a Switch, you owe it to yourself to get this, esp. if you use your Switch for multiplayer games.
If there is one fault i have with the game, it's that I would've liked if there was a re-release that offered the option of using 2 Sticks for the controls and firing of the gun, but as is the game plays and runs fine.
If I ever got to make a list of 1,000 greatest video games of all time, this game would surley be in it.
Note that the 2nd game isn't as well regarded as the first by some, but I played it and quite enjoyed it.
