S.C.A.T.: Special Cybernetic Attack Team - NES Complete Playthrough #113
22S.C.A.T.: Special Cybernetic Attack Team, also known as Final Mission (ファイナルミッション, Fainaru Misshon) in Japan and Action in New York in Europe and Australia,[1] is a science fiction side-view shoot-'em-up produced by Natsume for the Nintendo Entertainment System. Within PAL-A regions, the game was only released in the UK.[2] It was released in Japan in 1990, in North America in 1991, and in the PAL region in 1992. It was also later released on the Virtual Console in the PAL region on February 4, 2011, in North America on February 7, 2011 for the Wii and in the PAL region on December 4, 2014 for the Nintendo 3DS and Wii U and was released on the Nintendo Switch via the Nintendo Switch Online service on September 23, 2020.
S.C.A.T. can be played by up to two players simultaneously. During the 1-Player Mode, the player can choose between a male soldier named Arnold, or a female one named Sigourney, while in 2 Players mode, Player 1 controls Arnold while Player 2 controls Sigourney. There are no skill differences between the two characters.
As Arnold or Sigourney, the player flies through the air shooting at enemies with their gun while the screen scrolls automatically horizontally or vertically until the end of each stage (similarly to the Capcom arcade game Forgotten Worlds). While the player character can fly in eight directions, they can only shoot their gun left or right. However, the player is surrounded by two satellite modules that will shoot at enemies at the same time the player fires their weapon. The satellites will orbit around the player by default, with one orbiting above and the other below the player. If the satellites are aligned in a position the player wants to maintain, they can keep the position by pressing the A button. The player can toggle back and forth between the two satellite modes.
There are five power-up items that can be obtained by destroying certain containers, each represented by a letter-based icon. Three of these items are new weapons that will replace the player's default gun (a Laser, a Wide Beam, and a Bomb launcher), while the other two are a speed power-up and a life recovery.[6] There are a total of five stages in the game, along with the usual boss encounters.. The player begins the game with a total of six hit points and the game will end if they are all lost. However unlike Shadow of the Ninja, the player is given unlimited chances to continue.