The view was from above, kinda like Cannon-Spike, but it had that Metal Slug or Contra feel, the "Blast Away and GO GO GO!" spirit. It featured the black guy from the first Assault game as the token strong but slow character, a small but agile young redhead anime girl, and a balanced brunnette who looked a bit like that character Fox from Bloody Roar, but this one was an actual female. That's the one I chose.
In addition to all the blasting of vehicles in the huge ass arena, you also had to go blow up three randomly-placed charges in the level so as to either clear it or get some sort of bonus. Funny thing is, you actually lit up some matches to detonate the classic cartoon-looking dynamite charges.
Now, those who have played Caliber 50 in the arcade will remember there were certain characters who'd run to you and blow up. (VietCong or innocent victims strapped with explosives, I don't know). In my dream, if you found a japanese business man (Probably hostage) you got close to him before the timer expired, and pressed a button to activate a special event in which you had to enter a sequence of buttons as if playing either Simon or Rock-Paper-Scissors, with a cool Matrix-like slow motion effect showing you maneuvering around him cutting wires, straps, and if successful, removing the explosive device from him and tossing it away to explode without harming anyone. Fail, and you have one second to stay away from the poor doomed soul.
What do you think? Too many cookies before going to bed, or the next Jeff Minter? (The inspiration for Tempest came to him in a dream, remember?)
