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Ikari Warriors is a 1986 arcade game by SNK (manufactured in the United States by Tradewest). This game was SNK's first well-known US release and became something of a classic. This game was very innovative and spawned several similar games.
Ralf Jones and Clark Steel (who later appeared in the King of Fighters series) battle through hordes of enemies. Ikari Warriors was presumably inspired by the then-popular Rambo films.
Overview
The game has the player in the role of a commando-like warrior. The player (or players, see below) must try to reach the village of Ikari. Enemy units attempting to kill the player first include tanks, enemy soldiers and helicopters. A number of power-ups along the way help the player achieve victory.
This game was innovative in that it was the first to use rotary joysticks--joysticks that could be rotated in addition to being pushed in eight directions. It also featured two buttons, one for the standard gun and another for lobbing grenades. The cabinet was a standard upright. This game allowed two players to play cooperatively, side by side, one of the few games to do so.
Description
The player begins as one of two commando-type warriors, garbed in red or blue (depending on whether they are player one or two). They must proceed from the bottom of the screen upwards, toward the village of Ikari. Trying to prevent them from reaching the village are enemy soldiers and other units with a frightening arsenal of firepower.
The player begins with a machine gun but, by way of power-ups found along the way, may upgrade their gun to powerful super-weapons which last for a period of time. Along the way, players may even commandeer enemy tanks to help fight their way through the enemy personnel.
The game's joysticks could be rotated in clockwise and counter-clockwise directions: This allowed the player to face in eight different directions simply by twisting the joystick. Because of this freedom, the player could attack in all eight directions instead of the usual one direction of most arcade games. This made it easier--and sometimes harder--to take out enemy units.
Because of its innovative controls, this game was initially very popular. However, the innovative joysticks proved somewhat fragile, especially when played heavily as this game was. They need to be repaired often since being unable to turn makes the game almost unplayable.
Legacy
This game spawned several similar games as well as several direct sequels. The game's sequels are:
Spin-offs of this game include:
- Heavy Barrel (1987)
- Time Soldiers (1987)
- Guerilla War (1987)
All of the spin-offs featured the innovative 8-way rotary joysticks that made Ikari Warriors so popular.
Ports
In 1986, Ikari Warriors was ported to several home systems of the era including Nintendo Entertainment System, Apple II, DOS, Atari ST, Atari 7800, Amiga and Commodore 64. Because the systems lacked rotary joysticks, however, some felt they were not as compelling as the arcade version.
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