"The tender sunlight shining through the window, the calm breeze, song of birds.
Happiness is made up of such trivia."
Actually it is made up of giant tanks and explosions
A couple of days ago I figured that I had exactly $8 to spare for a video game. This happened to be the exact price for any one of Hamsters Arcade Archives Neo Geo releases. So I grabbed Shock Troopers
It did NOT disappoint
I'm absolutely shocked that this game isn't regarded as some sorta classic, at least a minor one. How could this have happened? Is it because it released too late into the 3D era, when the collective gaming community felt they were too cool for 2D games? Was it stranded in the arcades until more recently? I'm not sure.
All I know is that this game is SICK.
It is an overhead run & gun in the style of mercs. You can shoot in eight directions. Shooting locks your aim into a given direction so you basically have to recommence firing every time and a lot of targets are acquired via strafing mid-fire. This might take some getting used to for those used to proper twin-stick shooters, but it works well enough and the game is a blast.
You have not 1, not 3, not 4, but EIGHT visually diverse characters with some appreciable gameplay differences. For one thing, you can roughly separate the cast into two general categories - lighter characters with higher mobility and heavier folk with stronger default weapons (they fire two streams of bullets so I can only assume that these mad lads and lasses are sporting two assault rifles duct-taped together), then you have the fact that the bomb button deploys a unique explodey weapon for each and every character. Each character has some unique dialogue in the middle of each route and has an ending post-card style picture showing them off-duty in the ending cut-scene.
The game features a dodge roll with invincibility frames which you will use frequently to weave through plentiful bullets, missiles and explosive rounds and to reposition yourself against hordes of colorful henchmen who will not only surround you given the chance, but will frequently try to run you down for melee. If you shoot at an enemy point blank, your character will melee in Metal Slug fashion, which will often result in your enemies dropping score bonuses and sometimes even health pick ups upon death (woah, Nu Doom's glory kill system.... sorta... kinda). Even human bosses will drop big health kits if you finish them with melee. You have many weapon pick ups including gatling guns, flame throwers, threeway rapid-fire sniper rifles. Although you don't have to worry about weapons anyway, since your basic infinite ammo assault rifle is more than adequate for anything, be it tanks or giant boss tanks.
The game has so much charm and character. Nice, well animated sprites with plenty of humorous animations give this entire game Metal Slug vibe... this is game is pretty much like Metal Slug's overhead cousin of sorts. In this Switch version I played, you can turn the gore on for grizzly but cartoonish death animations. And there's so much destructibility in the environments (both mandatory and completely optional). Oh there's a random windmill? FUCK THAT WINDMILL, FUCK THOSE HOUSES, FUCK THOSE BOATS, FUCK THAT FORKLIFT, FUCK THAT PARKED PLANE, FUCK THAT ROCK... oh wait there's a tank behind it.... FUCK THAT TANK
The ost is also pretty cool
What really sets this game apart is the sheer amount of content. You have three different routes (Jungle, Valley, Mountain) and each route will have a set of completely unique levels besides the very last one. Your experience will be quite different in every route. Only one will have fighting on a motorcycle, only one will have a sequence where you climb a cliff while firing at paratroopers and dudes coming out of the caves and then fight jetpack soldiers while suspended from a tightrope. That is not even all, deep into the route you're given an option of switching to another route and there's one fucking connecting level with a unique scenario too .
GODDAMN THIS GAME IS RAD
Between levels you're treated to some cutscenes revealing a deep, award-winning narrative: Wolverine M. Bison, who runs a bootleg Cobra, kidnapped some professor and his granddaughter to make some drug or something so your posse of maximum soldiers has to go in and ejaculate many guns over everything that moves or doesn't move. I'm sure that Brock Samson would appreciate the intent, if not the execution.
Oh and I forgot to mention that this game features two modes of character selection, a standard one where you pick a character and go in with three lives per credit and another one called TEAM BATTLE where you select tree different characters with one taking up each stock and are able to switch between them strategically with the press of the button.
If you wanna explode some sprites go give this game a try. It is what they call a "hidden gem" (metal jesus actually made a playthrough of this game on his channel).
I hear the sequel's lame though. at least lamer.
Happiness is made up of such trivia."
Actually it is made up of giant tanks and explosions
A couple of days ago I figured that I had exactly $8 to spare for a video game. This happened to be the exact price for any one of Hamsters Arcade Archives Neo Geo releases. So I grabbed Shock Troopers
It did NOT disappoint
I'm absolutely shocked that this game isn't regarded as some sorta classic, at least a minor one. How could this have happened? Is it because it released too late into the 3D era, when the collective gaming community felt they were too cool for 2D games? Was it stranded in the arcades until more recently? I'm not sure.
All I know is that this game is SICK.
It is an overhead run & gun in the style of mercs. You can shoot in eight directions. Shooting locks your aim into a given direction so you basically have to recommence firing every time and a lot of targets are acquired via strafing mid-fire. This might take some getting used to for those used to proper twin-stick shooters, but it works well enough and the game is a blast.
You have not 1, not 3, not 4, but EIGHT visually diverse characters with some appreciable gameplay differences. For one thing, you can roughly separate the cast into two general categories - lighter characters with higher mobility and heavier folk with stronger default weapons (they fire two streams of bullets so I can only assume that these mad lads and lasses are sporting two assault rifles duct-taped together), then you have the fact that the bomb button deploys a unique explodey weapon for each and every character. Each character has some unique dialogue in the middle of each route and has an ending post-card style picture showing them off-duty in the ending cut-scene.
The game features a dodge roll with invincibility frames which you will use frequently to weave through plentiful bullets, missiles and explosive rounds and to reposition yourself against hordes of colorful henchmen who will not only surround you given the chance, but will frequently try to run you down for melee. If you shoot at an enemy point blank, your character will melee in Metal Slug fashion, which will often result in your enemies dropping score bonuses and sometimes even health pick ups upon death (woah, Nu Doom's glory kill system.... sorta... kinda). Even human bosses will drop big health kits if you finish them with melee. You have many weapon pick ups including gatling guns, flame throwers, threeway rapid-fire sniper rifles. Although you don't have to worry about weapons anyway, since your basic infinite ammo assault rifle is more than adequate for anything, be it tanks or giant boss tanks.
The game has so much charm and character. Nice, well animated sprites with plenty of humorous animations give this entire game Metal Slug vibe... this is game is pretty much like Metal Slug's overhead cousin of sorts. In this Switch version I played, you can turn the gore on for grizzly but cartoonish death animations. And there's so much destructibility in the environments (both mandatory and completely optional). Oh there's a random windmill? FUCK THAT WINDMILL, FUCK THOSE HOUSES, FUCK THOSE BOATS, FUCK THAT FORKLIFT, FUCK THAT PARKED PLANE, FUCK THAT ROCK... oh wait there's a tank behind it.... FUCK THAT TANK
The ost is also pretty cool
What really sets this game apart is the sheer amount of content. You have three different routes (Jungle, Valley, Mountain) and each route will have a set of completely unique levels besides the very last one. Your experience will be quite different in every route. Only one will have fighting on a motorcycle, only one will have a sequence where you climb a cliff while firing at paratroopers and dudes coming out of the caves and then fight jetpack soldiers while suspended from a tightrope. That is not even all, deep into the route you're given an option of switching to another route and there's one fucking connecting level with a unique scenario too .
GODDAMN THIS GAME IS RAD
Between levels you're treated to some cutscenes revealing a deep, award-winning narrative: Wolverine M. Bison, who runs a bootleg Cobra, kidnapped some professor and his granddaughter to make some drug or something so your posse of maximum soldiers has to go in and ejaculate many guns over everything that moves or doesn't move. I'm sure that Brock Samson would appreciate the intent, if not the execution.
Oh and I forgot to mention that this game features two modes of character selection, a standard one where you pick a character and go in with three lives per credit and another one called TEAM BATTLE where you select tree different characters with one taking up each stock and are able to switch between them strategically with the press of the button.
If you wanna explode some sprites go give this game a try. It is what they call a "hidden gem" (metal jesus actually made a playthrough of this game on his channel).
I hear the sequel's lame though. at least lamer.
Last edited:
