Operation Wolf (NES) Playthrough
298A playthrough of Taito's 1989 rail-shooter for the NES, Operation Wolf.
In this video I play through the entire first loop of the game, winning with the best ending.
Operation Wolf, the first in a series of light-gun based shooters from Taito, was originally released in arcades in 1987, and several adaptations were produced between 1988 and 1990 for popular computers and games consoles. The NES cart showed up at the height of the system's popularity in the United States, and I'm guessing that this is the game that most Americans (or, at the least, those who were into games in the late 80s/early 90s) would associate with the name.
Light gun games were popular in the 80s, but most of the successful ones were single-screen affairs that resembled old fashioned shooting galleries. Duck Hunt would be a perfect example. Toward the end of the decade, however, the genre began to evolve as hardware grew more powerful. The games were becoming more cinematic and violent, and in the years leading up to Konami's [in]famous blockbuster Lethal Enforcers, there is perhaps no better example of this trend than Operation Wolf.
Though it never outright says so, Operation Wolf seems to take inspiration from Vietnam and the 1986 movie Platoon. Trudging through the jungle, villages, and military bases, there are six stages to gun your way through as you collect ammo and save hostages. Each has a specific number of enemies that you have to waste before you can move on, and supplies are *very* limited, so you have to be precise in your shooting. It's very easy to run out of ammo in the middle of a stage if you aren't being careful.
The arcade game was fairly impressive in its time, and while nobody is going to mistake this for the original, it deserves props for its clear in-game graphics. The simple sprites and bright colors make the action easy to read at a glance, and the cutscenes look fantastic for an NES game of its time. The music is a bit harsh and off-key, but I've always found it super memorable - not that you get to hear it very often.
You can play using the standard controller or the Nintendo Zapper, and as a kid, I always went with the Zapper. No wonder I never got very far.
See, though the game supports the Zapper, the peripheral lacked any sort of rapid-fire functionality, and many of your targets in Operation Wolf are bullet sponges. Even if you can manage to pull the trigger fast enough to survive the first stage, you'll end up all-but-crippling your hand in the effort, as well your eyes. I'd be shocked if the Zapper's constrant strobing of the screen didn't send at least a few photo-sensitive kids to the emergency room. Good luck surviving all six stages that way unless you're pausing and taking long breaks between each stage.
The control pad is the ideal way to play the game. The on-screen cursor is far more accurate than the Zapper and it moves around quickly enough to keep up with the demands of the action. You can also rapid-fire by merely holding down a button. That feature is a true godsend when the enemies are pouring in from all sides. If there's any downside to playing with the controller, it's that it makes the game a bit too easy. If you aren't using a Zapper, you probably won't need much more than an afternoon to finish it.
As a kid, I absolutely hated Operation Wolf. It made my hand hurt and I could never get anywhere with it. Playing it again a few years later, though, with a controller, I found myself having a lot of fun with it. It's not as good as Sunsoft's Freedom Force, but it's an entertaining game for the scant handful of minutes it lasts.
To think of the hours I spent on this as a kid, never knowing that it could be cleared in less than fifteen minutes! I'm willing to bet I'm not the only one, either.
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No cheats were used during the recording of this video.
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