With a surprising 2-player co-op mode, "Ikari Warriors" sends players into the classic war torn jungle scenario in an attempt to rescue a kidnapped colonel. With a large machine gun at their sides and grenades on the other, these guys waste no time tearing up enemies and taking down helicopters. Hijacking tanks is also a specialty, though fuel is a concern.
This dual-joystick arcade game has been compressed into a single joystick and one button for this release and it causes quite a few problems. Firing the machine gun is hardly a problem, but launching grenades accurately is almost impossible. Requiring the player to hold down the button for over a second, by the time it fires, the controller is already moving in another direction causing it to miss the mark. Even firing a single bullet requires moving towards the target and the response time is far too slow to shoot accurately. Considering how rare power-ups are, this is not acceptable.
Though the sprites accurately portray the characters, the background is filled with strange color choices and it hardly resembles a jungle at all. Purple ground and green water hardly makes any sense. Bullets, both of the player and enemy persuasion, flicker as they fly through the air making them hard to see in a clutch situation. The classic arcade theme music is represented well, but it constantly repeats and becomes annoying in longer sessions.
Why you would play this instead of grabbing a bag of popcorn and watching a "Rambo" movie is well beyond my realm of logical thinking. If you really need the "Ikari" experience, just download MAME. There is little reason to spend time here unless you're a die-hard 2600 fanatic and can overlook the blatant and obvious flaws.
