I spent SOOOOOO many quarters on this game, it wasn't funny... Or maybe it was. Either way it was a lot of FUN. A buddy and I used to team up and play it double. We'd try to take turns getting the final piece to the HEAVY BARREL gun, for which the game was named. Sometimes, in the heat of battle, however, greed would take over, at which point, the greedy weapon hog would get called some profane name. It was all in fun, though, and the game promoted teamwork.
Basically, it's a side and forward scrolling action game for up to two players. You get weapons upgrade pickups, and pieces to the HEAVY BARREL gun. Some of these are just lying there, bu others are within crates that you have to destroy to open up. Once you've collected enough pieces to the HEAVY BARREL gun (6), everybody in the arcade knows it, because a booming voice proclaims, "HEAAVVVYYY BAAAARRRRREELLLLL!" After that, you have the rifle to end all rifles. It's bigger than you are, and it blows away anything in its path (well, until the ultimate boss, at the end of the game). It fires as fast as you can punch the fire button, and the arc of fire covers
nearly half the screen. In short, it is DEVASTATING. I can't remember, at this point if it's timed or if it lasted until you were "hit", but I think it was timed. The beautiful thing, however, is that you can collect the six pieces all over again, and build the weapon again. In fact, sometimes it was better to “sandbag”, and wait on collecting the sixth piece, until you knew you were nearing a tough spot, or a boss.
This game was one of the first that came out, where you could continue, by adding coins, if you were killed. What an ingenious, insidious idea those game developers came up with; rather than ending your game, upon death, and giving you an excuse to walk away from the machine, they gave you a compelling reason to stay and pay, I mean play. The influence of this development can still be seen today, even outside the arcade, with all the games that let you “respawn”. Ever get unlimited respawns on Yar’s Revenge? I didn’t think so.
Anyway, HEAVY BARREL was one of the most fun games I ever played, as a kid. Hell, I’d like to have a stand up Heavy Barrel machine in my basement, so I can get my old arcade buddy to come over, and we could get on the wives’ nerves every time the machine yells, "HEAAVVVYYY BAAAARRRRREELLLLL!" All in all, this is one of the most fun of the old arcade scrolling action games, and the graphics were cutting edge for their time. I’d highly recommend this game.
