Top 10 run 'n' gun games

Run 'n' gun games may contain elements of shoot 'em ups and platformers, they can be modern day or futuristic, but whatever elements they're made of, they're all about blowing s**t up and taking names, just like the OTT action movies of the 80s and 90s. Speaking of which...

Ikari Warriors

One of the original top-down run 'n' gun games, Ikari Warriors is an all time classic. After crash landing your plane behind enemy lines, you have to fight your way up the scrolling jungle of enemy soldiers, taking weapons and also vehicles to aid your escape. The game is very clearly inspired by the Rambo films, with player 1's character looking almost exactly like Stallone (player 2 was the same, but blue). It's also one of those games that is difficult to translate to home platforms due to its rotating joystick controls (a problem we'll encounter again later on).

Metal Slug series

If you don't know what a typical run 'n' gun game looks like, you have obviously haven't played any of SNK's Metal Slug games. And if you haven't played any of these beautiful, violent and brilliantly ridiculous examples of arcade gaming, what the hell are you doing on a site like this? Metal Slug is one of the crowning jewels of SNK's legendary Neo Geo system and features some of the most detailed pixel art ever, but it's the high energy, high explosive, tongue-in-cheek gameplay that makes it a classic.

Gunforce: Battle Fire Engulfed Terror Island

If I was giving out awards for Most Awesome Subtitle, Gunforce: Battle Fire Engulfed Terror Island would probably win. This Irem run 'n' gun game from 1991 is very clearly inspired by Contra, but has a contemporary setting and two player co-op. Gunforce gives players the ability to lock the direction of fire by simply tapping the joystick and staying still, something many other similar games didn't do (such as Contra which always put the gun in a neutral position when you let go of the joystick). And although plenty of run 'n' gun games give you control of vehicles, there was something more free form about Gunforce's selection. They tended to be the same as the enemy vehicles and included screen-filling examples, such as the helicopter in the screenshot above. 

Total Carnage

In the 90s, Midway were the kings of over-the-top, parent shocking video games, from the visceral digitised action of Mortal Kombat to the worship of the cathode ray tube and total disregard for human life that was Smash TV. Released in 1992, Total Carnage shares a lot in common with Smash TV. Many of the game play elements, weapons and even characters came from Smash TV. As the name suggests, this is probably the craziest, crassest game in this list - a delight for teenage boys who grew up watching Willis, Van Damme, Lundgren, Sly and Arnie in action. The game also features an interesting password system, that will let you warp to sections of the if you know the four letter code.

Cyber-Lip

Here's another one from the SNK Neo Geo. Released a few years before Metal Slug, Cyber-Lip takes the game play of Contra and the plot from Terminator. You and a friend take control of two human soldiers, sent to take out the robotic army that's terrorising Earth after a military super computer goes haywire. Some notable features of Cyber-Lip are the ability to shimmy along handrails and the fact when you die you come back on a flying jet ski thing, which, for a few seconds, not only gives you the ability to clear the screen, but also allows you to position yourself where ever you like.

And no, I don't know what a Cyber-Lip is.

Mercs

Capcom's 1985 Commando was one of the earliest examples of vertically scrolling run 'n' gun games, pre-dating Ikari Warriors by a year. However, sticking to my rule of only including one game from any series, I must confess to preferring the faster, more hectic sequel from 1990. This game not only plays great, it looks great too, with clean, yet detailed pixel art that for some reason reminds me of Bitmap Brothers games. Unlike some of the other top-down games in this list, Mercs doesn't require any specialised controls, which means it translated well to home platforms too.

Midnight Resistance

I have found memories of various Data East games, but none more so than Midnight Resistance from 1989.  Like many of the games in this list, the characters looked like Rambo, but then he was the biggest action hero around at the time. Fallen enemies would sometimes drop keys, of which players could collect up to six. At the end of each level you break into a weapons store and each weapon or ammunition pack would require a certain number of keys to unlock. This was effectively just a coin and shop system, but it was more in-keeping with the story than having a random shop in the middle of the war-torn environment. This is another game that requires a rotating stick and so it didn't translate well to home platforms.

Finest Hour

Despite taking its name from a Winston Churchill speech, Namco's Finest Hour from 1989 is actually set in the future and puts the player in control of an armoured robot, seeking out the enemy in a jungle-like terrain and blasting them to smithereens. Finest Hour has a few unusual features. Firstly, it has an auto-lock on for the main gun and second, although it's not a one-hit-death game, you don't have health either. Instead you have a heat gauge, which goes up when you are hit. If the meter reaches critical, you blow up. However, stay out of danger for long enough and you'll cool down again. So when people talk about the auto-recharging health and shields of modern games like Halo, Gears of War and Call of Duty, you have to wonder if it started here. Officially, the game was only available in Japan, but I do remember it making it over to a few UK arcades. 

Rolling Thunder series

A former Classic of the Month, Namco's Rolling Thunder oozes spy style. The original had super smooth and detailed animation to go along with its great gameplay and atmosphere; the sequels added more locations, improved graphics and two player. The sequels are also some of the few run and gun games that put player 1 in control of a female protagonist (although others, such as later Metal Slug games, had optional female characters).

Alien Syndrome

Firstly, I love, love, love Sega's 1987 classic Alien Syndrome! I mean, I have soft spots for all the games in this list, but I have particularly found memories of Alien Syndrome - not so much the arcade original as the Sega Master System conversion. It wasn't as fast, but I always thought the graphics were cleaner. Nonetheless, this game manages to evoke the sense of foreboding and dread that permeates the Sigourney Weaver movies and with the kind of squelchy, undulating monstrosities found in John Carpenter's The Thing. Unlike the other games in this list, the maze-like structure of the levels of this game force players to explore and the time bomb ticking down in the background only added to the sense of dread.

Contra (AKA Gryzor)

Characters that looked like Arnie and Sly? Loads of big, crazy guns? Soldiers, robots and aliens to blast? What was not to like about Contra - or Gryzor as I knew it in the 80s. I was truly terrible at this game, but it wasn't until I was much older that I discovered it is generally considered one of the hardest games of that period. I own the Xbox Live Arcade version and even when I lower the difficulty and use all my continues, I still can't get past level 3. This game also made it to my original Top 10 list of seminal arcade games from my youth and for good reason. As good as similar games are in this list, Contra is still my favourite. So you can imagine how excited I was a few years ago when the games company I worked for at the time were pitching for the contract to do a modern remake of this classic franchise. Sadly, the bid fell through and it wasn't to be.

Join me again next month when I'll be counting down my top 10 light gun games.

MTW