I honestly don't even know where to begin with Shock Troopers. This is easily one of the best run-and-gunners you can play, its sense of humor is worn on its sleeve, and the action is as constant as it is insane. There is also just a staggering amount of variety, as if being just plain fun to play wasn't enough of an incentive to come back to it again and again. There's so much here to dive into, but really it might be best if you just skip the review and play it.
Right off the bat you're given eight different characters to choose from, each with their own stats and weapons. While they largely play similar to each other, there's enough meat to each of the characters that it's well worth rotating through them to find your favorite. The game is then divided into three routes: mountain, jungle, and valley. Each run through the game takes you through six stages with one stage shared between each route, making for a total of sixteen levels. If you're crunching the numbers with me, then this must feel like quite a bit of variety for a run-and-gun arcade game from 1997.
Being a mid-90s Neo Geo game, it looks incredible. Animations are incredibly fluid, the action is very punchy, the music is fun yet intense, and the sound effects have just the right amount of crunch. You can tell the folks over at Saurus had a blast making this thing. It's just a shame I missed this in the arcade (in fact, I only heard of it a few years ago), but thankfully it's easily accessible today through Steam or GOG. You can also find it off the back of a truck if you want to avoid supporting current SNK, or more accurately stated: current SNK's owners.
Right off the bat you're given eight different characters to choose from, each with their own stats and weapons. While they largely play similar to each other, there's enough meat to each of the characters that it's well worth rotating through them to find your favorite. The game is then divided into three routes: mountain, jungle, and valley. Each run through the game takes you through six stages with one stage shared between each route, making for a total of sixteen levels. If you're crunching the numbers with me, then this must feel like quite a bit of variety for a run-and-gun arcade game from 1997.
Being a mid-90s Neo Geo game, it looks incredible. Animations are incredibly fluid, the action is very punchy, the music is fun yet intense, and the sound effects have just the right amount of crunch. You can tell the folks over at Saurus had a blast making this thing. It's just a shame I missed this in the arcade (in fact, I only heard of it a few years ago), but thankfully it's easily accessible today through Steam or GOG. You can also find it off the back of a truck if you want to avoid supporting current SNK, or more accurately stated: current SNK's owners.