P.O.W. (NES)

Genre: Action

Perspective: Side view

Visual: 2D scrolling

Gameplay: Beat 'em up / Brawler, Shooter

Published by: SNK Corporation of America

Developed by: SNK Corporation

Released: 1989

Platforms: Nintendo (NES), Arcade Machine

The plot of the game is as follows: the captain of the special unit "M" of the US armed forces, codenamed Bart, is deliberately sent as a prisoner inside a powerful terrorist organization calling itself GOON, which wants to undermine the entire world economy. The purpose of soldier is to clean up the group's base and destroy its leaders. Today it sounds pretentious, especially against the backdrop of ongoing world political events, but nevertheless it is so. The terrorist camp is located in one of the tropical countries, it is well defended, and in service there are tanks and helicopters, not to mention a whole army of thugs armed to the teeth.

I do not know how our hero carried the explosives into the prison cell, but the game begins with the fact that he blows up the wall in order to get free and begin to carry out his mission with his bare hands.

Control is carried out with the help of a cross, you can move in different directions, the whole game is made pseudo-three-dimensional. No running, only walking.

[A] Button - Kick / Shot;

Button [B] - blow with a hand / butt of a weapon / throw a knife / grenade;

[A + B] - jump kick;

[start] - pause;

[select] - not used.

Bart can still hit back with his hand, for this you need to hold the cross in the direction opposite to the direction of the character's movement and hold [B].

In the game, you can enter buildings, trucks, caves, etc., where, as a rule, after destroying a certain number of opponents, you can take improvements. There are only three of them:

Body armor (A) - protects against bullets, daggers; vital energy filler (L); brass knuckles - allows you to quickly deal with enemies.

There are also three types of weapons, a dagger, an M-16 rifle, and grenades. The dagger can be thrown. The rifle can be fired ten bursts, after which it disappears. Grenades and knives drop from their respective enemies.

Enemies in the game are mainly special forces and soldiers, differing in the color of their suits. Depending on which, the number of blows required to destroy them increases. Enemies in green suits are the lightest, then, in order of increasing difficulty, are the colors brown, light brown, red, light blue. Also among the enemies are scuba divers, dagger throwers and grenade throwers. There are also special enemies that cannot be killed, they are usually found on the heights. For example, fighters with flamethrowers or fighters throwing a series of grenades (different from ordinary grenade throwers). Enemies on motorcycles will also attack us from time to time.

Well, where without bosses. Among them there are a couple of pieces of military equipment - a helicopter (clearly of Soviet production) and an armored vehicle. The rest are the leaders of the terrorists. And they are in ascending order of ranks: the captain of the mechanized unit Don James is the boss of the second level, Angel is the commander of the special forces and part-time boss of the third level, General of Staff Snivel, who is also the boss of the fourth level. Well, the mystical Leader is the final boss. In total, the game, as I said, has four levels: a prisoner camp, an industrial zone, a jungle, a communication center. The game starts with three lives, every 30,000 points one more is added. Lives are spent quite quickly, in order to somewhat facilitate the passage, take weapons more often and try to keep the enemies in one line before shooting or throwing a dagger - then you can kill several enemies at once. The game has several sequels.

Well, if you are ready, then go ahead. I am sure the game will bring you real pleasure. The graphics are very well drawn, the sound is also perfectly balanced, the melodies are selected according to the combat situation. It is recommended to play for everyone, especially fans of American action movies like "Rambo" or "Commando". That's all, good luck with the game!