Ikari Warriors Review

Anannya Sen’s Review

Ikari Warriors is a perfect conversion of the old arcade classic. The memories will come flooding back if you??ve played the game before and if not, it??s a great game to try out new. The controls take a little getting used to but the gameplay is so addictive that you may well play it through to the end like I did. The only drawback is that there are only 5 levels.

Way back in the days of the old Spectrum and Commodore 64, an arcade classic was converted that turned out to be one of the most popular games ever. Everyone who ever played it remembers it well, as it was a very simple and addictive game. That was 17 years ago, the game was Ikari Warriors and it??s now available to download for all Java enabled phones. Nostalgia value aside the game is tremendously addictive and fun to play. (remember the names of the guys in the original Japanese version ?? Ralf and Clark ?? who were on their way to rescue Col. Heidern ?? ring any bells for any gamers out there?) the game is tremendously addictive and fun to play.

The conversion is perfect and all the sounds and weapons are as they were in the original. The graphics score 9 just for being arcade perfect.

The sound is nothing like the standards of today??s games but as it is faithful to the original, really adds an air of nostalgia and the explosions and shooting sounds are very adequate.

The playability is as it always was. The game is very very addictive and once you start playing you won??t want to stop. The levels start off fairly simple and then get more difficult. It??s a credit to the game that the latter levels are actually difficult to complete and may require patience as well as skill. The game is full of power ups and the revised mode has the ability to get an extra life if you pick up power ups which spell IKARI. Also, there??s a detailed hints section which gives you useful tips about the game.

The controls are a little tricky at first as there??s one button for shooting and another for throwing grenades/getting in tanks. You can use the directional pad to move, but the rotation of the characters is a bit tricky on the pad and I ended up using the keys whenever I wanted to rotate. A very nice touch by the developers is that there are two control methods, one for left handed and one for right handed people. Once you get used to the controls, the carnage and killing will flow with ease!

The main drawback is the longevity of the game. However although there are only 5 levels, Level 5 is pretty long and pretty hard.. Once you have finished the game, you can replay any level you like to improve your score or to finish the level with more power ups so making the next level easier, but I would have liked to have seen more levels.

The loading time is pretty good for a game which is 91K. It??s really amazing when you realise that most old Commodore games were the size of a reasonable e-mail!