GRAPHICS SOUND CONTROL FRUSTRATION FUN FACTOR OVERALL

NES 2 Player Shooter/Action Why SNK would ever allow a developer to program this game is beyond my level of thinking. For some strange reason my bros used to love this game back in the day. I guess they kind of rubbed off on me, because I actually played it a lot too. I think I might have conquered it once (with codes of course) but I really can't, nor want, to remember. I finally whipped it out again and after playing for short periods of time then going in the bathroom to throw up every once in a while, I decided to save some people time and sum up the game in a review. You play as two guys (who were matching clothing none the less). You can tell Paul and Vince apart because one wears BLUE clothing and the other wears RED clothing. In the game you have to stop some evil general guy by traveling slowly through four painfully long levels. Now that the very intricate plot is finished lets move on... Graphics: Everything's detailed to the extent that you can clearly tell the difference between the color red and the color blue. Most of the enemies in this game are exactly the same, as well are the landscapes. Nothing really changes in this game. Everything is so bland and...Bland. Sometimes, in later levels, it looks like the enemy is shooting a very large programming glitch at you (which he probably is, because the developers never expected people to make it that far into the game). Overall, I give props to the three year old that made it. Sound: The music is so memorable, that you'll forget it immediately. I'm pretty sure its just the same tune playing throughout the whole entire game, but I'm not exactly sure because I didn't really want to find out (out of sheer laziness, other wise I would have just made up some comment that was long and boring so nobody would read it anyway). The sound effects are pretty much like you would expect them to be, with the explosions and the gunfire. Gameplay: The game involves you playing as one (or two, if you have some pot head friend that'll play, but really has no idea what's going on) of the two main "heroes", and trying to make it through one whole sitting of the game. You do this by shooting, getting in tanks or helicopters, and moving very slowly. Sometimes you might find a power up that makes your bullets go further, or makes your grenade explosion bigger, but they're gone pretty quickly and help in almost no way what so ever. The tanks sort of help out, but are hard to exit and you usually end up dying (which happens a lot). The game only has two bosses, one of which just sits there and is practically impossible to beat, and the other, which still just sits there but shoots stuff. The control is equally bad and helps bring the game down to a lower score than it already has. Your characters move VERY slowly. Imagine if Rambo was played by Marlon Brando instead of Sylvester Stallone. Plus, the game features a variety of glitches ranging from your guy not being able to move because he's caught inside something, to enemies mysteriously disappearing for no apparent reason. All of that equals out to what it would be like if your cat tried to make a game while it was high. Replay: The difficulty of this game really just depends on how long you can stand it. The levels are EXTREMELY long, and your characters move so slow that each level seems like it takes an hour to finish. There is a code (A,B,B,A) that lets you continue, and without that code this game would be impossible. The frustration can lead up to many holes in the wall, as well as broken Nes items. If you really want to play this game, watch out, due to safety reasons of both mental and physical importance. ......BOTTOM LINE: I don't know why I actually played this when I was younger. I wouldn't consider it torture, but more a test of mental ability. It isn't the crappiest game on the Nes, but could compete for that title. This game has "the distinctive aroma of bovine fecal matter", and if you have a 10-foot pole around the house, don't touch this game with it (err...). Overall, Ikari Warriors was just another nail in the coffin for SNK. -lynx561