That's another big one I missed!

TNK III indeed far predates Assault for the Granada-esque action. Lately I've been mentally associating it with the first two Ikaris, all three being LS-30 rotary games starring RARUFU, though its eight-way scrolling sets it well apart from them (among many other details, like Ikari I/II's on-foot action being a lot slower and more methodical than TNK's relatively zippy tank).
Seems excellent from my few credits with it. Been casually enjoying its Famicom sequel Great Tank for years now, but the slight language barrier always made me put it off for another day. Although Ikari, Dogosoken and Jackal (arcade version) are all vertical-scrolling only, I love how these games all use one contiguous map, rather than discrete stages. Makes them feel like coin-operated mini-epics, especially with the need to manually trek upscreen (with the looming threat of an air-strike for tarrying, in the Ikaris' cases).
Licorice wrote:
Especially because they're not so common, and by 1985 you can always find some precedent somewhere for one of the observed ingredients, even if you can't find the same combination.
On that subject, I've been wondering lately if Taito's Front Line (1982) is the genesis of what I'd previously credited to Senjou no Okami: vertical push-scrolling, with an eight-way shot on Button 1, and vertical-locked (but terrain-bypassing) grenades on Button 2. I'd gotten used to thinking of Kiki Kaikai (1986) as a Senjou riff, with its own shot/alt push-scrolling, but it seems Capcom may have been the imitators all along, haha.
Front Line also seems to have prefigured the similarly iconic Ikari with its eight-way rotary controls and, most of all, hijackable tanks (Senjou only getting around to vehicles in its sequel). Taito already have seismic oldschool cred via Space Invaders, so I guess I shouldn't be too surprised if they were similarly instrumental to the topdown run/gun subgenre.
Drum, a sadly long-absent poster, used to be really into this stuff. I bet he'd know some cool late-70s/very early-80s picks.