Andrew Fisher (697) on 9/11/2022 10:46 AM · edited · Permalink · Report

Played Strategy X for the first time couple days ago, aptly named as it's very strategic and methodical for the '81 arcade and with the quite primitive graphics and colours it looks and plays more like an early DOS game. I think you could call Strategy X the first of its kind, it wasn't exactly the first game where you control the forward progress/scrolling as you could do that in driving games, but Strategy X was something different, a shooting game with a tank-like vehicle that you move and stop as you please, then there is the ability to rotate your gun turret in both directions, little degrees at a time giving you high precision, not quite like Ikari where you rotate and aim at the standard eight angles.

Before Commando/Senjō no Ōkami in July '85 there was Front Line in late '82 by Taito, which followed on from the Strategy X game-type while being a step closer to Commando and Ikari, looks very crude compared to Commando, it's like Jungle Hunt becomes a commando and though you control the progress like Strategy X, it's not so strategic and like Ikari you can aim your gun in eight directions and jump in tanks as you progress further. I'm not sure what games of this type there were in '83 and '84.