Jackal (Arcade) - (1cc | Longplay)
2Arcade Jackal, really just makes you wish you were playing the homeports because this game cheats with a lot of the enemy placements.
Same plot, rescue POWs then defeat...the only boss in this game. Opposed to 6 stages, it's one long level that just leads to the final boss (minus the true last boss in the home ports.) Won't go into it the game too much so I'll just list the differences it has from the revised home ports.
You only carry a max of 8 hostages, upgrading your missile takes requires 4 of those glowing POWs instead of 3, one long level and just one boss, enemy placements are very cheap, doesn't help most of them can only be hit with the 4 way missile.
The 4 way missile isn't as fun to use, it takes about a second before it spreads and my main frustration is that it explodes diagonally instead of vertical and horizontal so you need to be very precise when firing your missile. Machine gun works the same...for this version.
There's version of this game where you have control of the machine gun, originally meant to be played with a rotary joystick (you spin the joystick to the direction you want to aim.) The Japanese version faces your machine gun to the direction you're moving too (bit of a mixed bag on this one.) Last is the US version aka Top Gunner, the only difference I can see is your jeep now has the American flag on it.
Last thing I want to talk about is the respawn exploit, when you die, your jeep can clip through anything while the i-frames are still around, you can use this to your advantage in the base at the end if you want to cheese your way through the boss. Just remember to take out the copters when you reach the boss and get into position for the safe spot.
Not as fun as the home ports honestly, it's quite cheap but with some memorization, it's an okay top down shooter.
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