Ikari Warriors [USA]

	GAME NAME	Ikari Warriors
	LANGUAGE	English
	RELEASE DATE	NA
	GENRE	Action, Shooter
	VIDEO GAME	Link Youtube
	DOWNLOAD GOOGLE DRIVE	- Download here -

Ikari Warriors is a “run and gun” arcade game from SNK, originally released in 1985, and now ported to the Minis platform by G1M2. The gameplay consists of controlling a soldier that slowly marches upwards through a battlefield landscape, complete with dozens of enemy soldiers, tanks, pill boxes, forts, traps, and so forth. You start off with only a gun and grenades, but as you move through the terrain, you come across tanks you can enter. This sort of game was popularized by Commando from Capcom (also from 1985), but as far as I know, the basic gameplay dates to Taito’s Front Line of a few years earlier (which received a Colecovision port that was a favorite of mine as a kid). I’ve always called games like this “Rambo” games, because that movie created something of a fad in popular culture, which also spawned the Chuck Norris Missing in Action movies, popularized Soldier of Fortune magazine, and inspired a myriad of other things, including games like this (and Guerrilla War, also from SNK, a couple years later).

Zero Pilot Dai Sanji Sekai Taisen 1946 [JPN]

	GAME NAME	Zero Pilot Dai Sanji Sekai Taisen 1946 [JPN]
	LANGUAGE	JPN
	RELEASE DATE	2008
	GENRE	JPN, Flight, Action, Shooter
	VIDEO GAME	Link Youtube
	DOWNLOAD GOOGLE DRIVE	- Download here -

Alpha Mission II [EUR]

	GAME NAME	Alpha Mission II [EUR]
	LANGUAGE	English
	RELEASE DATE	January 18, 2011
	GENRE	Shooter
	VIDEO GAME	Link Youtube
	DOWNLOAD GOOGLE DRIVE	- Download here -

Available as part of the NeoGeo Station on PlayStation Network, this is a downloadable version of the classic NeoGeo game. Alpha Mission II is a 2D vertical scrolling shooter with a great deal of depth for two players moving vertically up the screen boards shooting anything that moves. Equip up to three pieces of armor, which also serve as weapons, for a variety of attacks such as the laser and flamethrower. Use them to defeat the evil “Fulvar” and save mankind!

Vanguard II [USA]

	GAME NAME	Vanguard II
	LANGUAGE	English
	RELEASE DATE	NA
	GENRE	Mini, Shooter
	VIDEO GAME	Link Youtube
	DOWNLOAD GOOGLE DRIVE	- Download here -

Vanguard II is part of the second wave of old SNK arcade games turned into Minis. The original Vanguard was in the first wave and was a childhood favorite of mine. It was even better than I remembered, still one of the best scrolling shooters around. I actually didn’t realize there even was a Vanguard II until recently. There’s a reason why the game has such a low profile. Vanguard II bears only the vaguest resemblance to the original game: it’s a shooter, you fly a spaceship, and you’re attacking something. It’s really more of a combination of Time Pilot, Xevious, and Bosconian, and it doesn’t seem to contain even a single feature of the original Vanguard. Instead of winding your way through a vast enemy complex, Vanguard II has you flying over a large floating fortress, from a top-down perspective.

Vanguard [JPN]

	GAME NAME	Vanguard
	LANGUAGE	JPN
	RELEASE DATE	NA
	GENRE	Mini, JPN, Shooter
	VIDEO GAME	Link Youtube
	DOWNLOAD GOOGLE DRIVE	- Download here -

Vanguard is one of eight games recently released by SNK onto the Playstation 3 and Playstation Portable. Available on the Minis section of the Playstation Store, if you buy one copy of the game, it can be played on either system for no extra charge. The first trait you’ll notice about the game is that it is completely retro. It appears that this game is a direct port from the original game released in the 1980s. Therefore, you should expect frequent deaths, different controls and some gameplay elements that are based on getting the most quarters into a machine as possible.

Psycho Soldier [USA]

	GAME NAME	Psycho Soldier
	LANGUAGE	English
	RELEASE DATE	NA
	GENRE	Action, Shooter, Mini
	VIDEO GAME	Link Youtube
	DOWNLOAD GOOGLE DRIVE	- Download here -

It takes an awful lot of time for me to review SNK Minis, compared to your usual Mini. I always try to finish the game with just one coin. When you try to finish arcade games by going all-out since you have limitless credits, it takes the fun out of Gaming (yes, the proper noun/gerund). I prefer to finish these classics based on my skills, not relying on infinite tries. Also, Minis releases are sparse at this time, so I might as well take my time and dissect the game more deeply than usual. Psycho Soldier is one of SNK’s arcade classics re-released. This was supposed to be the sequel to Athena, which was also re-released as a Mini. Athena is an awful game, regardless of whether you played it today or back in the 80s. And I don’t quite get what a bored Greek goddess has to do with a high schooler and her boyfriend. Without consulting the Internet, I wouldn’t have known the backstory of Psycho Soldier, but it doesn’t matter anyway. Psycho Soldier is an improvement over Athena across the board. Psycho Soldier is a side-scrolling action-platformer, but this game is more a shooter than anything else. It’s so very basic when it comes to gameplay that I fear that kids these days won’t enjoy this game. It’s all about evasion and shooting down enemy forces before they shoot or tackle you, or before you manage to run yourself into a concrete wall. At the start of gameplay, you arrive on screen as a flying saucer, and for a limited amount of time, you can shoot bad guys in this form without taking damage. This also happens when you are respawning; it’s sort of a creative way of granting invincibility, protecting you from getting killed again right away before you can position yourself out of harm’s way. The game may be basic, but it is rather entertaining, even if you are just bashing the X button to fire your apparently psychic powers. Pushing O will let you use your special powers. Like all SNK Minis, you can remap the controls. The level design is good, though I find the clearing of concrete and dirt blocks, to open paths, rather overemphasized. It’s like playing Dig Dug all over again, or a side-scrolling Minecraft, if you will. The graphics of this game are not the prettiest. It’s basically the same as every SNK Mini, a direct emulation, with everything being exactly the same as it was in its original, arcade form. Well, except for the ability to play with a friend. Such a shame, as I know this game would be pretty much amazing with cooperative play. Anyway, this particular SNK Mini is at its best when played with the game screen enlarged to fit the PSP screen. The graphics may be pixelated, but it’s better to play it that way.

P.O.W. [USA]

	GAME NAME	P.O.W.
	LANGUAGE	English
	RELEASE DATE	NA
	GENRE	Action, Shooter, Mini
	VIDEO GAME	Link Youtube
	DOWNLOAD GOOGLE DRIVE	- Download here -

No matter how much I want not to sound like a broken record, I just can’t help it. The SNK Minis do not have the best value for the price. Well, they are not expensive and are often offered with a discount or as a freebie in the PlayStation Plus program anyway. Still, direct emulations with not much in the way of bells and whistles, exclusive features (like software manual, art gallery, or sound test) or modern enhancements are worth a dollar, no more. With the exception of a few gems (only three, actually, Alpha Mission, Vanguard and Prehistoric Isle in 1930), most of these arcade classics would be better off offered in a bundle like they were originally meant to be, the canceled (outside Asia) SNK Arcade Classics Vol. 0. Since these games are emulations, they do not replicate the arcade experience 100%. Hemorrhaging quarters to continue playing these arcade games will never be missed, that’s for sure. However, some players might crave some joysticks. I’ve never played P.O.W. – Prisoners of War in its arcade form, so I can never surely tell if G1M2 did a horrible, horrible job in porting the control system, or if P.O.W. was made with a P.O.S. control scheme in the very first place. The control responsiveness of this beat ‘em up is too painful to tolerate. The sprite does not react to your inputs right away, as there are nanoseconds of delay. All right, it’s just a little bit of delay, but it’s noticeable and greatly affects the gameplay.

Ozma Wars [USA]

	GAME NAME	Ozma Wars
	LANGUAGE	English
	RELEASE DATE	NA
	GENRE	Shooter, Mini
	VIDEO GAME	Link Youtube
	DOWNLOAD GOOGLE DRIVE	- Download here -

Ozma Wars is one of the first wave of old SNK arcade classics released as Minis, developed by G1M2 and published by SNK Playmore. It is the oldest of the bunch, going back to 1979. It both looks and plays like an early arcade game, when genre tropes had not yet been firmly established. In this case, the vertical space shooter, where it apparently was only the second ever made (after Space Invaders). The very basics are the same as in most other games; you move a ship left and right and fire a cannon by hitting a button. But, instead of having a set number of lives, you have a certain amount of energy, counted in the thousands. When you die, you lose about five to ten thousand from it (seems to depend on what you hit, or what hits you). What’s more, rather than the level restarting, or the action resetting, with the enemies pausing, the game simply freezes while the energy loss counts down. There is no brief period of invulnerability afterward, either. This means that when the game resumes, the action starts again right as it was. So, if you were in the midst of a barrage of enemy bullets and the first one hit you, well, the second is going to hit you, and the third, and well, all of them. So you have very little margin for error in the game.

Metara [USA]

	GAME NAME	Metara
	LANGUAGE	English
	RELEASE DATE	NA
	GENRE	Shooter, Mini
	VIDEO GAME	Link Youtube
	DOWNLOAD GOOGLE DRIVE	- Download here -

Metara is one of those Minis that seemingly spring out of nowhere. Or in this case, Sweden. From the name I surmised that it might involve a meter maid-themed superhero. But, instead, it’s a combination of two genres we’ve seen a lot of—scrolling shooter and tower defense. Although Who’s That Flying?! claimed that combination, it’s far more applicable here. Gameplay takes place on a top-down view of a small area of a planet rendered in 3D polygons. You control a flying ship and start at your futuristic-looking base. At first, your ship is your base’s only defense, but as you destroy enemies with your ship’s cannon (fired by hitting or holding down X), you earn money which you can use to buy defenses for your base or to repair your ship, which takes damage once your regenerating shields are exhausted.

Guerrilla War [USA]

	GAME NAME	Guerrilla War
	LANGUAGE	English
	RELEASE DATE	NA
	GENRE	Mini, Action, Shooter
	VIDEO GAME	Link Youtube
	DOWNLOAD GOOGLE DRIVE	- Download here -

With the release of ten classic NEO GEO titles on the PlayStation Network last January, SNK Playmore seemed hell-bent on capturing the hearts of retro enthusiasts. Regretfully, the publisher seemed equally intent on emptying gamer’s wallets. Using a pricing model which separated the PS3 and PSP iterations of each game, SNK obliged two steeply-priced purchases from loyal owners of both Sony platforms. When compared to the cost of a PS2, WIi, or PSP disk-based compilation of the same NEO GEO titles, downloading seemed woefully impractical. With the recent release of eight eighties-era titles on the PSN, SNK seems to have listened to criticism from the gaming community. Conveniently, the constrained size of each of these arcade titles has allowed the publisher to utilize the PlayStation Mini format, permitting each game to be played on a PS3 and PSP alike. Likewise, the price of each of these amusements has been dropped to $2.99 (With PS+ subscribers able to grab the games for $2.39,with Guerrilla War being a free, temporary download), making each of these former quarter-munchers a bit more affordable that their swanky NEO GEO counterparts. Yet, the age and simplicity of each game in this anthology will render the collection as a mere curio to all but die-hard collectors.

Kidou Senshi Gundam Gundam Vs. Gundam NEXT PLUS [English Patched]

	GAME NAME	Kidou Senshi Gundam Gundam Vs. Gundam NEXT PLUS [English Patched]
	LANGUAGE	English Patched, JPN
	RELEASE DATE	2009-11-30
	GENRE	JPN, Action, Hot Game, Third-Person, Shooter
	VIDEO GAME	Link Youtube
	DOWNLOAD GOOGLE DRIVE	- Download here -

Kidou Senshi Gundam: Gundam vs. Gundam NEXT PLUS is an Action game, developed by Capcom and published by Bandai Namco Games, which was released in Japan in 2009.

TNK III [EUR]

	GAME NAME	TNK III [EUR]
	LANGUAGE	English
	RELEASE DATE	NA
	GENRE	Mini, Puzzle, Shooter
	VIDEO GAME	Link Youtube
	DOWNLOAD GOOGLE DRIVE	- Download here -

It looks like it’s time for SNK to reach into their vault of arcade classics and pluck another long forgotten relic for us to play again. This time, it is T.N.K. III that has been dusted down to hit the PlayStation Store’s virtual shelves. T.N.K. III is a top-down shoot ‘em-up that was first released as an arcade game back in 1985. The player takes command of a tank that has to make its way from point A all the way to point B whilst avoiding obstacles, enemy gunfire, missiles and even submarines. T.N.K. III lacks any sort of story, which in all fairness was fairly typical for most top-down shooters back in the ’80s. To manoeuvre your tank from point A to B, you can use either the analog stick or D-pad, both of which work just as well as the other, although I personally felt it was a little more comfortable using the D-pad. Of course, merely avoiding your enemies would be no fun at all, and that’s why your tank comes equipped with machine guns and a cannon that can fire in 8 directions. The shoulder buttons are used to rotate the cannon, and Square is to fire it. Like all the other SNK games that have been re-released as Minis, you can change the controls in the pause menu and have the option to save and load your game state whenever you please. As with the other releases from SNK, I did find it a little annoying that the Select button was used to pause the gameplay, and, unfortunately, this is one thing you cannot change in the option screen. As an added option, you are also able to choose whether you want to control the cannon yourself or have it “auto aim,” although it isn’t actually auto aim like it says; instead, the cannon fires in whatever direction you have the tank facing.

Time Soldiers [EUR]

	GAME NAME	Time Soldiers [EUR]
	LANGUAGE	English
	RELEASE DATE	NA
	GENRE	Action, Shooter, Mini
	VIDEO GAME	Link Youtube
	DOWNLOAD GOOGLE DRIVE	- Download here -

Travel through time to rescue your comrades in this top-down action shooter released by SNK in 1987.