Ikari Warriors

The Good
Everything is described below.

The Bad
Everything is described below.

The Bottom Line
Ikari means anger, hatred in japanese. Ikari Warriors is a vertically scrolling shoot'em-up game that was released in 1987 for the Amstrad machines. In this game you control one or two commandos who go into the jungle and blow everything up, including tanks, helicopters, fortresses and cannons, besides the soldiers who are on foot and can be found everywhere, although they are a bit stupid, because most of the time they look and shoot at irrelevant directions. This doesn't make the game any easier though, as in some cases the area can be very crowded and you can lose a life by touching an enemy, besides the numerous bullets and bombs that fly all over the place.

The 1980's was a decade with many iconic action and war movies and the video game industry could not remain unaffected. Besides Ikari Warriors, many other classic war games like Cabal, Operation Wolf, Commando and 1943 among others made their appearance, mostly in the arcades and, after their success, they were converted for the home computer systems and game consoles.

Ikari Warriors has a feature that was not found on every game and this was the toggle button. With this feature, your soldier can face and shoot towards one direction while moving any way you need him. This way you can move backwards in order to avoid the enemy fire while at the same time you can pour grenades on them. On your way there will be some tanks too. In order to ride those, you just need to step over them and hold the fire button a bit longer. And now you have a beautiful killing machine that can step on the enemies but cannot enter water.

Ikari Warriors is overall quite interesting and it begins with an awesome soundtrack which I always like to sit and enjoy before starting to play. The game is pretty fun and, of course, it gets even better in two-player mode.

And now it's time for the rating. Graphics: 4. The game developers take good advantage of the system without overloading it and making it slower. You know what you see, you don't get confused, and its aesthetically pleasant. Sound: 4. The soundtrack is one of my all-time favourite video game soundtracks and I would love to have it play during the game. The sound effects are simple but they do their job. Gameplay: 5. It has all that you can expect from this kind of game, while the fact that the background is never the same is a very big plus on the challenge level. Very good work. Duration: 4. Some times you will get annoyed by the way your character dies, but in general you'll be coming again for more, even after you finish it, because it will always be a challenge, no matter how good you will become at it.

4.25 for one of the best games that Amstrad owners had the joy of playing.