This is a budget offering of sufficient merit to get its own page: smooth, colourful and well animated.
The dense undergrowth darkens. The camp fire, the only source of light, flickers and
crackles. Flames dance and cast reflections on the sleeping figures of army officers.
One upright and resolute figure circles the encampment keeping watch, listening for any approach.
Suddenly a twig cracks underfoot and General Alexander Bonn's head turns to the direction of the noise. Nothing. Hurtling overhead, a grenade drops into the fire. General Bonn dashes for the radio and transmits a mayday alarm.
The grenade erupts and destroys the camp and all in it. Bonn rushes from the
scene straight into the clutches of the revolutionaries.
Lying asleep, your buddy twitches and is awoken by a loud crackle from the radio
transmitter. Tuning the unit he hears the message from Bonn and shakes you awake.
Retrieving your ammunition and weaponry, you set off for the heart of the jungle.
You and your mate clamber into the small plane and take off. Climbing over the
trees of the jungle the engine coughs and splutters; the propellor stops and the
plane takes a nose dive towards the uninviting ground two thousand feet below.
The trees break the descent of the aircraft and it comes to land in the soft undergrowth, both occupants bruised but alive.
You and your buddy are the Ikari Warriors. Your mission, to rescue General Bonn
from the revolutionaries, is going to be a tough slog through miles of scrolling
jungle. Blue uniformed revolutionaries appear from all sides and open fire trying
to pump lead into your sun tanned chest and back. You turn towards the blue baddie and let him have it. The bullets fly and the enemy fall.
One enemy marksman pulls the pin from a grenade and lobs it in your direction.
You see it coming and run. Arrrgh! Bang! Things darken. Another man runs on to take his place, invincible at first. Further on a manned gun emplacement takes a disliking to you and your pal. A single grenade will take good care of that one. After the dust settles all that remains is a bit of unexploded ammunition which you can collect.
Survival gets harder later on as more gun wielding thugs stroll onto the scene
and take aim. More bloodshed later and you stumble across a tank. It proves too tempting and you both clamber in. Let's see the swines escape the attentions of the caterpillar tracks. And they don't. You can almost imagine the squishy sound of blood and guts under track! But it's all good clean fun. Fuel is limited and it soon gets used.
Once the tank is unable to move under its own steam it's back into the jungle on
foot for more killing. Ikari Warriors is just a classic conversion of the SNK coin-op. The scrolling is smooth and colourful and the animation good. Unfortunately your character can get stuck on the scenery and doesn't seem to want to pull loose.
In this situation you just have to wait to be killed. Sound effects are good and the action fast. Ikari Warriors was a good buy before but at £2.99 it can't be beaten.