Developer: SNK Publisher: SNK Release: 06/90 Genre: Rail Shooter
Light gun games were few and far between on the NES. Even though the NES Zapper came packaged with the system support was minimal. This is surprising as there were no shortage of light gun games in the arcade waiting for a home port in the late 80s and early 90s. I will admit after Gotcha! The Sport! and Operation Wolf I tuned it out and lost interest in the peripheral as well. But that does not mean the games were not there. Mechanized Attack is one of the better options available and one of the best unofficial Terminator games for the NES.
In an unnamed country in the South Pacific rebel forces seek to overthrow the local government. These rebels have high tech weaponry and mechanized soldiers backing their army and if they succeed the ramifications for the world could be dire. It is your job to infiltrate the island and take them. From its robotic soldiers to its cabinet art (seriously take a look) it is flagrantly obvious Mechanized Attack is “inspired” by Terminator. Even though this is not a licensed title Mechanized Attack fares far better as a Terminator game than the actual titles from Acclaim and Mindscape.
In the arcade Mechanized Attack had an Uzi attached to the cabinet. At home you will have to settle for the NES Zapper. However in a twist it is not the optimal way to play the game. While using the Zapper you still need the NES controller in order to throw a grenade which is cumbersome. But even beyond that the Zapper is not capable of rapid fire. By the second level armored enemies appear that require multiple shots to kill. In order to manage the chaos being able to slam the fire button rapidly is a must. The cursor is pretty fast but obviously not up to the immediacy of pointing and shooting at the screen. But the tradeoff is worth it.
The manic pace of the arcade game has been slowed down considerably. Let’s be honest if SNK tried to replicate the coin op the NES would explode. There are less enemies and they are slower to attack. Despite that they still manage to capture most of the intensity as best they can on the little grey box. This is not a straight conversion as there are nips and tucks here and there and most of it is brand new. The tank battle before stage two is missing and as well as the POW camp from the same level. They also took out the annoying spotlight effect; trust me you won’t miss it. The later levels that are from the arcade are so different they may as well be brand new. While those that want an accurate port will be disappointed Mechanized Attack has its own bonuses, mainly branching paths.
Exclusive to the NES home port is branching paths. In the arcade Mechanized Attack is a linear experience and short. After stage two you get to choose between two stages after every level. A single run is six stages which gives this replay value which is a weakness with this genre. The new levels slot in cleanly and it is as if they were always there. With the amount of unique content in the game it is almost an 8-bit remake. This is probably the best possible outcome considering how much games like Operation Wolf suffered in the conversion.
Regardless of the changes in the port Mechanized Attack is still very hard. SNK have done a good job balancing ammo and grenade drops as you will almost never run out of either option unless you truly suck at the game. The slower pace allows you to memorize enemy spawns and patterns. You will need to do both as the game is relentless with its resilient enemies. You have a generous number of continues and will probably blow through all of them a few times before cracking this tough nut. Despite the difficulty I still found the process of learning the game immensely fun.
In Closing
Mechanized Attack is one of the best reasons to break out the NES zapper despite the controller being better and is a solid game. SNK wisely use the framework of the arcade game to create a unique experience for the home market and the game is better for it. This is one of the best light gun games for the NES after Gumshoe in my opinion and is well worth your time.
