Operation Wolf Longplay (Amiga) [50 FPS]
80Developed and published by Ocean in 1988
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Released way back in 1988, Operation Wolf was one of the mainstays of the arcade scene. Memorable due to it's fancy graphics, action-packed gameplay and arcade cabinet that sported an UZI-shaped light-gun, Op Wolf was one of my favourite coin-ops back in the day.
The game was was ported to a huge number of computers and consoles available at the time. Although 8-bit versions of the game tried desperately to recreate the arcade experience, the under-powered hardware simply couldn't do the game justice. With the introduction of the Commodore Amiga and subsequent 16-bit revolution, however, we finally had machines that might finally be able to deliver a true arcade experience in the home.
The game is a simple, on-rails shooting gallery where the objective is to eliminate all of the troops in each of the game's six levels in order to progress to the next stage. Stages 5 and 6 are more complicated thanks to the presence of the hostages that you have been sent to rescue. Not only must you take care not to gun them down, but you must also deal with the knife-wielding trooper that stalks up from behind, trying to prevent his escape.
You have at your disposal a sub-machine gun, ammo and a handful of grenades in which to get the job done. You'll chew through your supply very quickly, so you should always be on the lookout for extra supplies that might be lying on the ground, as well as dropping from pigs, vultures and other wildlife when shot.
The game boasts practically arcade-perfect graphics and and sound and it's easy to see just why so many people might consider this to be one of the best arcade conversions for the Amiga. Whilst I can appreciate that view-point, it's not one that I can fully share.
The game goes way overboard in terms of difficulty by filling the screen with hordes of enemies, literally overwhelming the player with sheer numbers. In the arcade version, bad guys would run on screen and pause for a couple of seconds before firing, the enemies in the Amiga version constantly move across the screen, shooting as they go.
The second major issue with the game is the cursor hit detection is remarkably inconsistent. There were many times where I was clearly shooting a bad guy (even getting the red hit marker), but the hit wasn't registered - watch the video closely and you see it happens a lot in the later stages of the game. It's possible to compensate to a certain degree once you know where the sprite bounding boxes are, but it's pretty poor that the game's chief mechanic is so fiddly.
To make matters worse, the enemy sprites move across the screen in staggered, movements that make it extremely tough to keep your reticule on target - whilst the team were able to recreate the graphics, it seems they were much less successful in replicating the silky-smooth scrolling of the arcade version.
I suppose that it's some small consolation that you do at least have 2 additional continues to fall back on, should you fall in battle. I managed to push through to the final stage on a single credit, but dwindling health and ammo meant I had no choice to die and restart the level.
The final insult is the fact that the original game disks contained a bug that prevented the hostages appearing on stage 6, making it impossible to beat the game and get the good ending. I had to try about 4 different versions before I found one that worked (The Band).
There's been much debate as to whether piracy contributed towards the downfall of the Amiga, but it seems somewhat ironic that you needed a cracked version to experience the full game. Not only that, it's actually a lot more fun playing with cheats enabled, courtesy of the trainers that cracking teams would invariably include on their releases!
In conclusion, the Amiga version of Operation Wolf certainly looks the part, but it's a real shame that the same can't be said for the gameplay.
#retrogaming