Since my previous review talked about the game that gave birth to the mythical Metal Slug, today I will talk about a video game which many consider to be its rival, a game that like Metal Slug is of the Run N' Gun genre, but unlike before mentioned, it did not have great popularity, despite being a quite entertaining title.
Again we embark on a game where we have to save the world from a domination, but this time, the story of this game focuses on a terrorist group called Bloody Scorpions, who have kidnapped Dr. George and his granddaughter, this terrorist group plans, through the use of a very powerful drug, to create super soldiers and use them to dominate the world, the typical villain plan for world domination. However, as expected, a group of courageous soldiers, called the Shock Troopers, are going to be in charge of defeating this group of terrorists, along with their leader. A simple story, in games of this style does not make a very elaborated argument, only a reason for which it serves as an excuse to distribute shots towards our enemies.
Graphically, Shock Troopers is quite remarkable, with a good use of colors in such a way that during our mission to save the world we will see a great amount of colorful and showy scenarios. There are a lot of places to see, each with a decoration and atmosphere as needed, so we will see a variety, from forests, mountains, military bases, even locations with snow. Shock Troopers contributes enough to the variety of scenarios and that is quite important in a game of this style, as it improves the playable experience.
The sprites of the characters have a good size and although they don't have an excessively high level of detail, they are quite distinguishable in themselves. Shock Troopers has several main characters to our choice, each of them have very different designs. Shock Troopers has a certain level of comedy and this can be seen in some of the animations that the characters can make depending on the situation and despite being a fairly small detail, this kind of thing is what gives charisma to a video game. However, in terms of variety of enemy characters, the design of this type of characters will be repeated a lot, although this is a fairly common aspect in games of this style.
The music in Shock Troopers seems to me to be pretty good, with fast rhythmic melodies, with a lot of use of electric guitars and drums, having a very rock soundtrack, a musical genre that fits very well with a game in which we have to go through a certain amount of scenarios shooting and eliminating enemies in the most violent ways possible. Melodies that encourage us due to these types of rhythms that will make us move our heads. The sound effects play a very important role in the gameplay, because the sound effects of explosions or shots are necessary to create a better playable environment, really the implementation of good sound effects help quite the gameplay and immersion, Shock Troopers does a good job in this aspect.
As I mentioned before, Shock Troopers is a Run N' Gun so our main objective is to go through a series of scenarios full of enemies and eliminate them using all the firearms or destructive weapons at our disposal, it's like a Beat 'em up but with firearms. Unlike other games of the same genre, whose playability is horizontal, ie, we move in an environment of horizontal scrolling, in Shock Troopers we will do vertically, with an aerial view of our character, although there will also be sections of horizontal movement more classic. Shock Troopers is really a very good game, with a moderate difficulty curve, so it is not excessively difficult, besides having a simple and effective control and mechanics.
We can choose between two game modes, one in which we can choose a single character and another game mode which we can choose three characters and we can exchange them whenever necessary or when we want, this aspect is quite important, as it gives this game a level of re-playability quite high, being able to complete it in different ways, even different combinations of characters, as Shock Troopers surprisingly has 8 selectable characters, each with their own characteristics and weapons, so that we can choose the character that best suits our needs. As it is common in this type of games we have a great amount of weapons to use, having each one of them its advantages and disadvantages, so we will have to use them according to the situation.
Since I talked about the characters that Shock Troopers has, it's time to introduce them:
Jackal: He's the main character of the game, the protagonist and as expected, he's the most balanced character of all, having a quite normal speed of movement compared to his other companions, of all the characters he's the one that can equip himself with the most grenades.
Milky: It's the typical female character with a great speed of movement, but in terms of the amount of damage is much lower, is equipped with napalm type bombs, being one of the most destructive weapons of the game, being able to leave a large amount of fire on the stage that will serve to cover a greater range of attack.
Loki: This character is also one of the most balanced, is equipped with a powerful grenade launcher.
Southern Cross: This character is what I call "tanks" they are strong, but quite slow, has a double shot weapon, has quite a lot of resistance and is capable of throwing explosive boomerangs.
Marie Bee: Another female character and like the female character mentioned above, Marie is fast but weak in attack. She can use a self-directed mission, I think she is the worst character of all.
Rio: She's a character with a pretty decent resistance, not as high as Southern Cross, but higher than other characters and she's also slow, but not like this character either, she's capable of throwing an explosive arrow.
Maru: This character is quite varied as far as stats are concerned, with speed and resistance not so high, but they are quite varied compared to other characters, he can use a poison gas bomb that is highly dangerous, capable of causing a quite serious amount of damage.
Big Mama: Slow character with great resistance and with that name it's not surprising to sense it. He has one of the most powerful bombs of all the characters, since this bomb occupies the whole screen, being able to hurt all the enemies that are in the scenario.
Shock Troopers is an excellent game, with a large number of characters to choose from and a fairly high level of re-playability, giving us the opportunity to complete the game in different ways. Recommended.
