Awards: Best Gameplay, 2nd Best Value, 8th Best Interpretation
As James Brown Says, 'Take it to the Bridge!'
Pros:
Killer gameplay
Cons:
Graphics are blocky
Die Commie Die!
Overview: Ikari Warriors is an arcade classic that plays very similarly to another infamous 7800
port, Commando. These games are obviously influenced by the Rambo movies of that time. While
people's opinion of those movies may vary, most classic video game enthusiasts have nothing but
high praise for these carts. Does the Granny agree? We shall see.
Graphics: There is one thing for sure, this game's graphics will not cause anyone to
faint....unless it is from disgust. Bad colors combine with 5200 quality graphics to create a
palate of visual horror. I can't get the brown (the main color) not to look like baby poop on my
TV, and let's not mention how the olive/ hunter green compliments it (not). The characters are
big, but blocky, and other items in the game range from great to terrible. While the looks of
tanks are functional, hand grenades, arrows, both "arrow shooters", and helicopters are not good.
The helicopters look more like something I would call a "Whirly-Dervish of Doom". It sounds and
looks like one of the first filmed attempts at aviation that would sputter, crash, and explode.
Hardly intimidating. As with most 7800 "big" games that can be beaten, the final stage graphics
go straight to the dwelling place of Satan for the sake of space. The final compound's graphics
steep into "2600" land visually at points. With that tongue lashing, there are two HUGE
redeemable points to the game graphic-wise: The port suffers from absolutely ZERO slow down, even
with two players playing simultaneously. Also, the explosions are wonderful. If you blow up a
pill box, it will explode, it will blow up surrounding tanks, which will blow up anything else,
and everyone standing within 75 feet of the original pill box. There will be loads of Rambo-esque
testosterone flowing throw your veins when you wipe out 20 guys with a single hand grenade. Very
groooovy.
Sounds: The music is so random in this game, it is funny. Sounds like a cat on the Casio
keyboard. Sound effects are decent, except for the helicopter of doom, and explosions sound extra
crunchy and nice. Fair effort here.
Gameplay: Ikari Warriors takes the cake here. Minus one or two slight weaknesses, the gameplay is
flawless. One or two Ikari Warriors scroll upwards, shooting off guns and hurling hand grenades
at everything that comes at them. And there is a bunch of baddies to destroy. That's probably why
this game is so much fun. At times, you can wipe out almost all of your enemies at once with a
well placed hand grenade. The forced scrolling from the arcade is gone, and even though that
takes away from the frantic pace, I like it better. You can take your time and blow everything to
kingdom come. Also, if you remember the arcade version at all, you will remember the nifty "walk
1 way, shoot another way" mode. While this is not perfectly replicated, the 7800 does a great job
of capturing that feel with the limited hardware. If you hold the fire button down, you can walk
in any direction you please, shooting in the same direction. Pretty groovy, baby. Let's not
forget to mention all of the awesome power-ups we have as well. Super Bullets, Mega Grenades,
Cannon fire, Exploding Cannon Fire...lots of carnage inflicting armory here folks. Oh yeah...one
more thing...you get to drive tanks that can resist bullets and run over people. HOW AWESOME IS
THAT? Even though the tanks rock, I found firing at diagonals a little tricky...therefore the
Gameplay score can't be perfect...but it's darn close.
Interpretation: Atari did a great job squeezing Ikari Warriors into this little cart. The game
takes anywhere from 30 to 50 minutes to beat...I think, and really does capture the arcade
feeling of Ikari Warriors. The only facets to the game that vary are minor, and those include no
forced scrolling, the exact feel of the controls (which would be impossible to replicate with
standard controllers), and the graphics are weak. The guts of the game is in there in a big way.
Value: I beat IW in a reasonable amount of time on the intermediate level, and I found myself
trying to beat it again the next day (didn't do it by the way). So in a nutshell, this title is
so much fun, you want to keep playing and playing the game. I really think the reason I love the
game so much has to do with all the swank explosions. I just really enjoy seeing everything
explode with one hand grenade. I actually had a friend come over because I told him I just
received Ikari Warriors, and I played Atari with a pal for the first time in 12 years. We played
the game for over an hour, and we had a blast. That should tell you something about the fun
factor of the game.
Overall: This was a good and bad week for me. On the good side, I finally received Ikari Warriors
in the mail, and it was better than I thought it would be. On the bad side, this is probably the
last "great game" for the system I need to complete the collection. The remaining two require
loads of money to acquire them, and I'm not excited about the actual playing of those. So, in
summary, if you can look past the horrible graphics for a few moments, and try to peer into this
game's "Inner Beauty", you will find a really great game here. This is the system's "Ugly
Duckling", and if you give it some playing time, it will turn into a Swan.
Other Reviews:
Atari Gaming Headquarters: 9 out of 10
Video Game Critic: B+
CV's Atari 7800 Panoramic Froo-Froo: 4.0 out of 5.0 (Very Good)
The Atari Times: 7 out of 10
Additional Info: I would like to take this time to thank Mitch Orman, owner of The Atari 7800 Page for allowing the use of his
screenshots for this review.
