Video Game Collecting

Guerrilla War… the name alone is bad-ass. And thank goodness the good people at SNK didn’t waste it on some pansy game. The game can best be described as Ikari Warriors with Fidel Castro and Che.

It plays *fast*. Even with a screen filled with a dozen or so soldiers seconds away from visiting the promise land and choppers, tanks, artillery, and hostages demanding your attention the game only slows a tiny bit, trading the slow down for flicker.

You have your standard gun and grenade buttons but you can hold them down for autofire. And thank God for that otherwise you’d have to throw your dilapitated controller away after finishing the game. You have plenty to kill and rescue.

But what’s neat about Guerrilla War isn’t the authentic plot or the censored United States Insignias on the aircrafts at the beginning of the game but rather the attention to details with the graphics. You can run under palm trees. Buildings look like real buildings with Spanish tile and are detailed with alleys, windows, and laundry hanging from clothes lines. Chickens run across the roads along with that hot Babe Athena. There is even a pig that pushes you across the screen! You can blow up bridges as you cross them and witness huge explosions from boss vehicles that are an epileptic’s nightmare. There is another stage inside a mine where you ride a mine cart rescuing hostages. Reach a turn and guess what? -the screen rotates. It’s not smooth by any means but I can’t recall another NES game that does this effect.

On two different stages you fight two men in a bulldozer. They hop out and throw you to the next level. It makes no sense but SNK has a sense of humor!

And finally this game has nothing to do with guerrilla warfare really. I has everything to do with being an awesome video game. It’s fun, its cute, has an awesome soundtrack and really captures the potential of what a 20 year old game is capable of.

One final note… the boxart would look great decorating barracks, an American Legion outpost or a newborn’s nursery.