Shock Troopers - Classic Arcade Run & Gun Shooter (Saurus/SNK 1997)
6Shock Troopers is a classic run & gun war shooter developed by Saurus and published to arcades by SNK in 1997, and ran on SNK's Neo Geo MVS hardware.
The game is very fast-paced, its an 8-Way directional shooter, featuring 8 playable characters, each with their own unique special attacks. All characters also have an evade maneuver, which becomes incredibly useful in dodging incoming enemy fire.
Players can choose between 3 stages to play from the start of the game, including the Jungle, Mountain, and Valley stages. You can also choose to select a different stage to play upon mid-way through the game.
Besides battling soldiers on the ground, players also battle an assortment of mechs throughout the course of the game. Likewise, players can also man certain mechs, all of which have special power-ups that can be enabled by holding the fire key.
The game offers 2 modes of play, including a solo "Loney Wolf", and "Team Battle modes (gives the ability for players to switch between 3 playable characters at any given time). The team battle mode can be used with just a single player, though the game does support 2 player co-op as well.
The game's story follows a team of 8 special forces soldiers who've been sent into battle the evil terrorist group known as "The Bloody Scorpions." The Scorpions have kidnapped a renowned scientist with the hopes of getting a hold of the scientist's groundbreaking formula called "Alpha-301", which the terrorist group plans to use to alter everyday humans, turning them into superhuman human soldiers.
The play style of Shock Troopers feels very reminiscent of other classic war shooters like Metal Slug, Capcom's MERCS, and SNK's earlier arcade title Guerrilla War from 1987.
Mike The Zorch actually made a review of Guerrilla War a while back: https://youtu.be/cTfpUeFodew
There was also a sequel called Shock Troopers: 2nd Squad. While the sequel had a very similar play style, its story line had no relation to the original game.
The game was later ported to a number of classic home consoles, including the Sony PS2/PS3, Wii, PC/Mac/Linux,and Playstation portable.
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