Ikari Warriors was one of the best scrolling shooters of its time.
Made in 1986 Ikari Warriors was SNK’s first breakout game in the U.S. and was ported to several platforms. It is considered a classic in the gaming world and was instrumental in the development of video games in general. I remember long ago when my brother and I would spend hours playing this game on our Nintendo. The game play was intense in its day but now can seem little slow to modern gamers.
If you want to know everything about this game, I recommend you check out the Ikari Wiki article. It is very well done, and has a lot of information about the game and its ports.
There are two playable characters one red (Ralph), and one blue (Clark). The game seems to be set in a Central American theme with ruins, rivers, and an overall jungle looking environment that eventually turns into a space age fortress. With machine-guns and grenades which have to be restocked from time to time this game delivers a great gaming experience that is challenging but not too hard. There are plenty of power-ups to give a diverse style of killing things, which is always, fun. The tanks were
a nice touch giving you the option to run your enemies over or shoot them with your big tank cannon. There are not many different enemies to kill and the levels can be a bit long and slow. There is not much of a story line and different theories as to what you are actually supposed to be accomplishing.
This old school game is definitely worth playing. There is no save so if you want to finish the game be prepared to play for an hour or more. The animation in this game is done very well for the time it was made and still looks decent today. The scrolling action is fun and keeps up the games pace while adding yet another challenging gaming factor. The environment is extreme and has multiple ways of ending your rescue mission with dead ends and surprise enemies. The usual game progression is on full display in this game with the enemies becoming stronger and faster the further you get in the game. There are not a lot of different units in this game and the killing can get a bit repetitive at times. Overall, I would not recommend this game to someone who wanted a deep playing experience but for someone that wants to have some fun without thinking too much than Ikari Warriors is a great play.
