Format reviewed: Switch (compatible with Switch 2)
Other formats available: PC (Steam)
Developer: Clear River Games/Taito
Price: £18.89 (Nintendo eShop), £20.99 (Steam)
Website: Official Website
Players: 1-2
Age Rating: PEGI 12
Ever since I was a kid in the early 80s, I’ve always loved a good light gun game. My earliest memory of one was playing Duck Hunt at my cousins’ house, but it was when I visited the arcades a few years later that I truly fell in love with the genre. I’m a relatively quiet and peaceful guy, but give me a plastic gun and some sprites to shoot, and I turn into a violent killing machine!
One of the grandaddies of the light gun game, one that moved the genre from simple static ‘pop-up and shoot’ target practice to an intense combat situation, was Taito’s Operation Wolf. This was a huge hit when it was released in 1987. Its impressive graphics and awesome Uzi controller were too hard to resist back then. I remember blasting my way through many nameless terrorists/guerrillas (or whatever those enemies were supposed to be) on the game, back in the day, though admittedly a little later on. I was only 5 in 1987, but it’s a game that stood the test of time, so it hung around the arcades for a long while.
Over time, the game got superseded by more advanced takes on the genre it helped shape, including its sequels, beginning with Operation Thunderbolt. Without Operation Wolf though, there’s a chance you’d never have got the Time Crisis or House of the Dead series.
Well, if that intro has got you all misty-eyed with nostalgia, fear not, because Clear River Games have put together a collection of four classic Taito arcade classics (three of which are light gun games) for Nintendo Switch and Steam, including Operation Wolf, Operation Thunderbolt, Night Striker and Space Gun. These come with a wealth of extra features to provide the full experience, as well as bringing them into the modern age without losing their original charm.
The collection is called Operation Night Strikers and, being a fan of several of the original titles, I grabbed hold of a Switch copy to share my thoughts.
The games have all been ported over perfectly to the Switch. These aren’t remastered versions with new ‘improved’ visuals. Clear River Games have stayed faithful to the look and feel of the original games.
The benefit of playing the Switch version over the Steam one, is that you can use the motion controls to play the light gun games. Using a Switch controller is not as intuitive as a true light gun, but it still makes you feel like John Rambo whilst playing the game, particularly if you have a gun attachment.
You can play with standard stick/pad controls too though. I gave this a try, and it’s still pretty fun, but nothing beats using a gun controller, which is why I’d definitely recommend the Switch version over the Steam one.
Looking at the games themselves, Operation Wolf is still an immensely enjoyable play. It’s pretty intense, with a relentless onslaught of enemies popping out of the side-scrolling levels, shooting at you or throwing grenades or knives. It feels like playing the Schwarzenegger film, Commando, with seemingly endless ammunition and carnage.
Its sequel, Operation Thunderbolt, is another shoot-the-nameless-soldier/terrorist game, like its predecessor, but this differentiates itself by having some pseudo-3D missions where you’re constantly moving forward instead of sideways. It’s pretty cool and helps prevent the game from feeling too samey.
I also found Operation Thunderbolt a little more challenging than Operation Wolf. It’s a case of a sequel improving on the original without losing what made it fun.
Space Gun is very much ‘inspired’ by Aliens. Some of the creatures are very similar. There are even some facehugger types. It does branch out in later levels though, throwing in a range of aliens and even some spacecraft.
I liked this one a great deal. It has more blood and gore than the Operation games, and the big aliens take a lot of bullets to kill (at least on standard mode), so it’ll have you on edge, throughout. It definitely has the vibe of the Aliens film, even if it doesn’t have the licence and the look is a bit brighter and more colourful.
You occasionally get to choose which route you take too, which provides a good excuse to play through again and go a different way.
Also, in Space Gun, you get four different special weapons you can switch between – flame, bombs, impact and freezing. Again, this helps mix things up a bit, because games like this can get repetitive.
Night Striker isn’t a light gun game like the others, though it has some similarities. You’re still blasting bad guys, but you’re doing so whilst driving a futuristic spacecraft. It’s more of an intense, on-rails proto-Star Fox type of game.
Though it has the option, I found Night Striker to be practically unplayable with motion controls, at least using the gun attachment I tried it with. With a standard controller, this is a fun, fast-paced game though.
Like Space Gun, you get different route choices in Night Striker, so there are numerous ways to finish the game.
The graphics on all the games are good and not just for the era. They have a clean, bold, colourful look, and they perfectly capture their genre-movie influences.
All of these are very short games but, with such simple mow-em-down gameplay, they feel like they’re the perfect length. There are also plenty of different difficulty options, achievements and high scores to beat, to give the games replayability.
So, it’s probably not a game collection you’re going to get addicted to and play for several hours straight, every day for a couple of months. It is, however, the type of game you’ll be happy to pick up every now and then for a quick blast, whenever you’re in the mood to just wipe out a load of bad guys.
There are a variety of Japanese, US, EU and World versions available to play with each game – plus sometimes options for standard or easy versions. Operation Thunderbolt has Japanese and US Mini versions too. There’s also a DLC package available with multiple home console versions of the games, should you be interested in even more play options. I haven’t analysed the games closely enough to tell you all the differences between the versions included in the standard game (other than text language), but it’s great to have the various options.
There’s also an incredible amount of customisation available when you hit ‘+’ on your controller. You can change everything from the bullet colour to whether or not you are able to continue, to the speed of rapid fire.
There are also various screen options to alter the look of the game. I quite like the scanline option, as it gives more of an authentic CRT TV look.
You can quick save and load within the games in the collection too. This might seem a little unnecessary for these short titles, but both Operation Thunderbolt and Space Gun have a brutal last level, where if you do it wrong, you fail. You can’t just put in more cash for an extra continue. If you mess up, you’re done. It can be frustrating after you’ve just worked through the whole rest of the game, so it’s handy to be able to save just before you start the final level.
Overall then, Operation Night Strikers is a great collection of old favourites, which has been carefully ported over to allow you to relive the old magic whilst still being able to customise the experience to suit your taste. The games may only provide simple pleasures, but I think it’s a collection you’ll go back to again and again for a quick light gun nostalgia fix.
Operation Night Strikers is out now on Steam and Nintendo Switch. There’s also a physical release available for the Switch, which contains loads of extra goodies:
– Included on cartridge: Operation Nightstrikers CS DLC pack
– Fanbook
– Taito Sound Bullets Soundtrack CD
– Poster (A3 Size)
– Reversible Titlesheet
– Assault Edition Special Box
– Limited qty