Ikari III: The Rescue
System: NES
Release Date: February 1991
Developer: SNK
Publisher: SNK
Genre: Action
Defeat a terrorist crime organization and save the president’s daughter in Ikari III: The Rescue! The Ikari Warriors, Paul and Vince, are summoned back into action to save Elise from the Crime Ghost syndicate. Use all of your skills to beat up all the bad guys in your way. Punch, kick, and jump your way through six levels of action to become the hero of the day once again!
I hope you’re ready to do some punching and avoid getting hit, because that’s the point of this game. Enemies either exist or come on screen and you can throw a punch with the B Button, prepare to throw up to nine to drop an enemy, or you can do a roundhouse kick with the A Button. You turn as you throw the kick, so hitting it properly is quite difficult. I rarely used it. A jumping kick is accomplished by pressing the A and B Buttons together. It’s easy to pull off, but actually connecting is another story.
Enemies are annoying to hit. They’ll phase right through your attacks sometimes and then hit you with unblockable spinning kicks. If you can get a hit in, keep throwing the punches, because letting them go is asking to lose some health. Luckily, there are health pickups scattered around the levels, usually when you need them. Much more rarely, there are pickups that allow you to throw a grenade or shoot a gun for a few bullets. These aren’t very useful, as they take away your punch.
Many enemies can kill you in one hit, instead of draining your health bar. Keep an eye out for grenade or gun wielding enemies. Level 4 puts you under water and only lets you shoot to the top of the screen, so you can’t let anyone get past you. If you find yourself fighting enemies in waist high water, you can pick them up and throw them for a quick kill.
The end of each level has a boss. Some of them equip you with a gun that you can shoot forward, while avoiding getting hit yourself. Others require you to hit jumping kicks over and over while avoiding their attacks. The final level has Elise following you around. It doesn’t seem like she can get hit or anything, but having a kid follow you around as you kill enemies feels weird.
Graphics: 1.5
There’s a lot of flickering and slowdown. Backgrounds are alright looking, but sprites are plain and ugly.
Sound: 2.0
Music and sounds are alright, but don’t impress much.
Gameplay: 1.5
The core of the game is fighting bad guys and it doesn’t work that well.
Difficulty: 2.0
You get 1ups every 30,000 points, so as long as you’re fighting and collecting, you’ll amass many chances. Levels are also pretty short.
Fun Factor: 1.0
It’s not fun to play. Maybe it would be better with a second player, but I can only assume the slowdown and flickering would be worse.
Overall Rating: 1.6
Ikari III: The Rescue earns a C-. It’s taken three Ikari titles and a few similar playing games to finally get something playable, but I wouldn’t call it good.