Guerrilla War
System: NES
Release Date: June 1989
Developer: SNK
Publisher: SNK
Genre: Shoot ‘Em Up
Guerrilla War… Are you serious SNK? Do you have any other ideas other than top down shoot ‘em ups that involve getting in tanks? I’ve played this game twice before. Ikari Warriors was all sorts of hot garbage and Iron Tank wasn’t much better. So what do we have here? Well, it’s like a mixture of both titles. At least it takes the better parts of both games.
You’re part of a guerrilla force that is looking to overthrow an evil dictator. So you need to fight the army of your small island nation all by yourself, while saving your comrades who have been taken prisoner. You have two weapons: the machine gun and its upgrades are triggered with the B Button; the grenades which can be thrown a distance are chucked with the A Button. There is the occasional tank left around the island, which you can get in. You blast away until you run out of gas, then the tank starts flashing and explodes.
Red and yellow soldiers hide powerups that appear once they die. The L upgrades your machine gun to destroy objects and increases range. The F upgrade is the flamethrower; this is stronger and shoots farther than the L. The B upgrades your grenades by increasing the blast radius. The S is your spread gun that shoots in three directions. T is the best weapon, it starts as the L upgrade, then splits off into a spread shot. C is a clearing bomb that wipes the screen of enemies when you press the A Button. K is an instant screen wipe.
Levels are all linear affairs. Kill the enemies in your way, save the tied up prisoners, avoid the soldiers and their tanks. If you die, you respawn. If you lose all of your lives, you can continue from where you died. There are no limits to continues. At the end of each level is a boss. These are typically pretty easy once you figure their pattern out. There are ten levels before you reach the final boss and liberate the island from tyranny.
Graphics: 1.5
They ditched the Chibi style, but it’s not any better.
Sound: 1.0
Music is subdued and not very impressive. The sound effects are too loud and shrill.
Gameplay: 2.0
The game plays fine. There are a lot of powerups, and they are useful.
Difficulty: 1.5
The game isn’t too hard, but the unlimited continues make it something you will actually sit down and finish.
Fun Factor: 1.0
Blowing everything up was an okay time.
Overall Grade: 1.4
Guerrilla War earns a D+. It’s way better than Ikari Warriors and Iron Tank, but not leaps and bounds better. This is the third iteration of the same game. I expect better by now.