Guerrilla War

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Guerrilla War

Guerrilla War - ARC - USA.png

Arcade - Cabinet - USA.

Developer SNK
Publisher SNK
Published 1987-??-??
Platforms Amstrad CPC, Arcade, Commodore 64, PC Booter, ZX Spectrum
Genres Action, Scrolling shooter, Shooter
Themes War
Series Guerrilla War
Multiplayer Simultaneous co-op
Distribution Commercial

Guerrilla War is a run and gun developed and published by SNK for the arcade in 1987, and subsequently ported to the Amstrad CPC, Commodore 64, MS-DOS, and ZX Spectrum. A heavily altered version was also made for the NES. In the game, you play as either Ernesto "Che" Guevara or Fidel Castro in their attempt to invade Cuba to overthrow dictator, Fulgencio Batista. The appearance is similar to Commando, but with a unique control style.

Like most run and guns, the joystick moves the player's character, but unlike most others, the character continues to face the same direction no matter which way you press. To turn the player, you must rotate the joystick, otherwise the player will strafe across the screen. This control system adds a unique twist (pun intended) to the game play. Time Soldiers, also published by SNK in 1987, uses this scheme as well. When playing the game in MAME, I emulate a rotating joystick by using the shoulder buttons on my gamepad, and someone also created a hack that uses the more traditional movement, but neither version is as good as a rotating joystick.

Personal

Own?No.
Won?No.

I first saw this game in the arcade room of the Lakeland Arena in the late 1980s. My parents never gave me quarters, so I didn't play the game, but I enjoyed watching other people play it. Once, I watched my older brother play it, but he didn't get very far. Around 1990, I first played the NES port and loved it. I have since played the arcade game through MAME, but I have never made any attempt to get good at it.

Review

Video Game Review Icon - Enjoyment.png Video Game Review Icon - Control.png Video Game Review Icon - Appearance.png Video Game Review Icon - Sound.png Video Game Review Icon - Replayability.png
4 4 6 5 4

Best Version: Arcade

— This section contains spoilers! —

Good

  • As run and guns go, this one is fairly well-made. There are numerous guns, each is nice to use, you can ride in tanks, the environment changes in each level, harder enemies appear as you progress, and there is variety among the bosses.
  • The arcade strafing movement while using a rotating joystick to turn the player was pretty innovative, and they made good use of it in the design of the maps.
  • The arcade game has really nice graphics for the time.
  • The game has a good story.
  • Having the enemy use refugees as human shields makes the game more complex.

Bad

  • When you defeat the end boss's turrets, he just runs away. Lame!

Ugly

  • The game is unbelievably hard. If you want to beat it, you have to slowly sneak your way across every inch of the map in order to prevent from being overwhelmed by enemies. This makes the game boring to watch and very un-thematic.
  • All of the home computer ports are awful.

Media

Arcade Art

Box Art

Documentation

Maps

Videos

Design documentary - NES.
Longplay - Arcade.
Longplay - Commodore 64.
Longplay - ZX Spectrum.

Play Online

Amstrad CPC, Arcade (Japan), Arcade (USA), Commodore 64, MS-DOS, ZX Spectrum

Representation

Strong female character?FailThere are no women.
Bechdel test?FailThere are no women.
Strong person of color character?PassAll of the characters are Central American, including the heroes.
Queer character?FailThere are no queer characters.

Titles

Language Native Transliteration Translation
English Guerrilla War
Japanese ゲバラ Gebara Guevara
  • MAME code: gwar

Links

Link-MobyGames.png  Link-Wikipedia.png