Ikari Warriors

Ikari Warriors, known as in Japan, is a vertically-scrolling, run-and-gun shooter arcade game developed and released by SNK in 1986, and released in North America by Tradewest. The game was released at the time when there were many "Commando" clones on the market. What distinguished "Ikari Warriors" were rotary joysticks and a two-player mode. The rotary joystick controls were in turn based on SNK's earlier "TNK III" (1985). "Ikari" was originally intended it to be an official licensed adaptation of the film "" (1985), but SNK were initially unable to acquire the rights to the film. "Ikari Warriors" went on to be a major global success, becoming one of the highest-grossing arcade games of 1986.
Gameplay.
The player takes the role of commandos named Colonel Ralf Jones (red) and Second Lieutenant Clark Still (blue), who must try to reach the village of Ikari. Enemy units attempting to kill the player include tanks, enemy soldiers and helicopters. A number of power-ups along the way help the player achieve victory.
Players must proceed from the bottom of the screen upwards, towards the village of Ikari. Trying to prevent them from reaching the village are enemy soldiers and other units. Along the way, players may commandeer enemy tanks and helicopters (NES version) to help fight their way through the enemy personnel. The tanks are immune to enemy bullets, but have a limited supply of fuel and will sustain damage when it runs out or the tank is caught in an explosion, taking the player with it unless he can exit the tank and get clear before it blows up. The helicopters have two different weapons, a spread gun and a cannon, and may fly over water.
Rotating the joystick changes the direction the character faced independent of the direction the character was moving, as controlled by pushing the joystick. This gives the player freedom to attack or walk in eight different directions. No shot is fired from directly in front of the player; the warrior uses the machine gun in his right hand, and throws grenades with his left. If a player character takes too long moving up screen, the computer starts using "call for fire". A red spot appears below him; this is tracking fire to speed up the game.
Hardware.
"Ikari Warriors" is the first popular video game to have used rotary joysticks, which can be rotated in addition to being pushed in eight directions. The less successful "TNK III", released in 1985 and also from SNK, is the first to have used such joysticks. The system also features two buttons: one for the standard gun and another for lobbing grenades. It is one of the few games at the time to allow two-player cooperative side-by-side gameplay, and to use vehicles. The game's arcade cabinet is a standard upright model.
"Ikari Warriors" printed circuit boards (PCBs) were manufactured in two different versions: SNK pinout and JAMMA pinout. Most SNK-pinout units were put into "Ikari Warriors" cabinets, while most JAMMA-pinout units were supplied as conversion kits. The SNK-pinout boards have a 22/44-pin edge connectors. The JAMMA-pinout PCBs have a 28/56-pin edge connectors. Both types consist of a stack of three boards, with interconnects.
"Ikari Warriors" uses SNK's model LS-30 joysticks, which contain a 12-way rotary switch box. The joysticks are connected to the PCB via auxiliary wiring harnesses.
Development.
The game was developed by SNK, where it was designed and directed by Koji Obada. He had previously designed SNK's "TNK III" (1985), known as "T.A.N.K." in Japan and Europe, a vertical tank shooter inspired by Taito's "Front Line" (1982) that used rotary joystick controls. The same year, Capcom's vertical run-and-gun shooter "Commando" (1985), known as "Senjō no Ōkami" ("Wolf of the Battlefield") in Japan, had become a major global arcade hit. "Ikari" combined the run-and-gun shooter gameplay of "Commando" with the rotary joysticks and tank vehicles of "T.A.N.K."
The game was also inspired by the action film "" (1985), released as "Rambo: Ikari no Dasshutsu" ("Rambo: The Furious Escape") in Japan. Obada had originally intended the game to be an official licensed adaptation of "Rambo", but SNK were initially unable to acquire the rights to the film. This resulted in the game's title being shortened to "Ikari", referencing part of the film's Japanese title. After the game made its North American debut at an arcade game expo, they got in touch with the film's star Sylvester Stallone, who was friends with SNK's president, about acquiring the rights to the film. However, it was too late by that point, as the game had already become popularly known by its Japanese title "Ikari" among arcade players in Japan and North America, leading to the game being officially released as "Ikari Warriors" in North America.
Regional differences.
In addition to changing the names of the main characters from Ralf and Clark to Paul and Vince, the military commander the player rescues at the end of the game is named General Kawasaki in the Japanese version (named after SNK's founder Eikichi Kawasaki) and Colonel Cook in the US/Euro version (named after Tradewest's founder Leland Cook). General Kawasaki's name was unchanged in the NES version. The enemies in the game were actually Neo-Nazis, as evidenced by the presence of a swastika at the middle of the final room.
Ports.
"Ikari Warriors" was initially ported to the Apple II, Commodore 64 and IBM PC by Quicksilver Software and published by Data East USA in the US in 1986. Elite Systems acquired the licence for Europe releasing the Amstrad CPC version in late 1986. A version for the ZX Spectrum by David Perry was scheduled for November 1986 but was never released.
In 1988 Elite published a second Commodore 64 port (by John Twiddy, programmer of "The Last Ninja"), a new ZX Spectrum port (by David Shea, author of the Amstrad version) along with versions for the Commodore 16, Amiga and Atari ST. 
SNK released their own port for the MSX in 1987. The NES version was developed by Micronics. Both the Atari 2600 and Atari 7800 ports were released in 1990 as one of the final published games for those systems. The game was also included on the "SNK 40th Anniversary Collection" for the various modern consoles and PC (through Steam).
Reception.
In Japan, "" listed "Ikari" on their March 15, 1986 issue as being the most-successful table arcade unit of the month. It remained at the top of the "Game Machine" table arcade cabinet charts through April and early May, before returning to the top in June 1986. In North America, "Ikari Warriors" was the second top-grossing arcade game on the monthly "Play Meter" charts in July 1986, and went on to become the eighth highest-grossing arcade video game of 1986 in the United States according to the annual 1986 "RePlay" chart. In the United Kingdom, it was one of the top three highest-grossing arcade games of 1986 in London, appearing at number-three on the annual 1986 Electrocoin chart.
In 1996, "Next Generation" listed the arcade version of "Ikari Warriors" as number 61 on their "Top 100 Games of All Time", lauding the innovative joysticks, play balance, and power-ups which offer an invigorating boost to the player character's capabilities without taking away the game's challenge.
"Computer and Video Games" enthusiastically reviewed the "classy" Amstrad personal computer conversion, calling the graphics "simply brilliant" and the gameplay "awesomely addictive". They said that players "won't see better ... probably for quite a while" because "the Amstrad graphics are as close as dammit to the arcade machine and the playability goes off the "C+VG" scale".
The PC version of the game received 4 out of 5 stars in "Dragon".
Legacy.
"Ikari Warriors" spawned the sequels "Victory Road" (1986) and "" (1989).
SNK released an "Ikari Warriors" clone in 1987 called "Guerrilla War" (known as "Guevara" in Japan). The game features communist fighters Che Guevara and Fidel Castro as its heroes.
Sylvester Stallone, whose role as John Rambo had an influence on the game, owned an "Ikari Warriors" arcade cabinet in the 1980s. The future mixed martial arts (MMA) champion Kazushi Sakuraba (later famous for defeating the Gracie family of Brazilian jiu-jitsu fighters) was also a fan of "Ikari" in his high school years.
The characters Ralf and Clark appeared again as playable characters in "Metal Slug 6" and "Metal Slug 7", as well as in the "King of Fighters" series. They were also featured as cameos in "Super Smash Bros. Ultimate" as background characters in the King Of Fighters Stadium stage.