> IKARI WARRIORS (US version) by Data East

COMMENTS:

• Vinny: I feel sorry for Gaz Spence who had to endure playing the game to get to this ending.
   
• Gaz Spence: The game is frightfully shoddy - one of the worst commercial releases on any platform, surely. And the ending, yuck!
   
• Kungfufurby: It's role reversal time! Europe gets the better version. Ending-wise, you still see the colonel... but he's no longer so big and the text is on a separate screen. But now the text is on a black screen...
  
  Neither ending works, but I'd pick Europe's version over the American version.
   
• Andrew Fisher: First of all, both endings are inspired by the original arcade game's ending. The European version is closer, and at least has the Colonel animating.
  
  And second, there's no way these were written with SEUCK. There's far too many (stable) sprites onscreen in John Twiddy's version, and it would be very tricky to add the grenade ability to a SEUCK game. Yes, the American version and its ending are poor in comparison.
   
• Brendan Phoenix: Some of these US versions really suck (thinking Bionic Commando here).
  
  Neither are great endings, but as merman states - faithful to the arcade, the Euro version deserves the higher mark for the animated (and bigger) colonel.
   
• Guerilla: Could someone fill me in on the European vs. US version of this game? Why on earth would they do this? Were there technical reasons for a special US version? The colonel looks way worse, the background on the screenshot too, and also the status at the bottom of the screen is badly drawn as compared to the European version.
  
  Btw. I have fond memories playing this game: I can very well remember the full-page ads (featuring a nice action scene) for it long before it became available. Being a huge fan of Commando, Ikari Warriors with 2 simultaneous players seemed like an instant winner! Then came the Amstrad version, which apparently had spectacular graphics. The c64 port seemed to take forever...when it (the European version!) finally became available, I was bummed at first, but it started to grow on me: The graphics were certainly not spectacular, as was the sound, but the gameplay was alright! You had machine gun or grenades, which could be upgraded, and could also drive tanks and upgrade the tank grenades, too! The enemy formations were tough, but not impossible to beat. Actually, I managed to finish the game multiple times without any cheats :D
  
  0.5 for the US version seems a bit harsh to me, at least there's an additional graphic as opposed to a mere text-only ending. Wouldn't give it more than a single, full point, though.
   
• Andy Vaisey: Some formulae:
  
  Arcade version of this game = ACE!
  UK C64 version of this game = ACE!
  US C64 version of this game = ARSE!
  
  Ending of arcade version of this game = ARSE!
  Ending of UK C64 version of this game = ARSE!
  Ending of US C64 version of this game = ARSE!
  
  ACE + ARSE x C64 / ARSE - ARCADE = .... er, where was I...?