Dropzone

[Obiwanshinobi]

I'd like to know which versions of Dropzone are any good, especially on handhelds.

[Herr Schatten]

I think the Atari 8-bit original is supposed to be the best version of the game.

[louisg]

I like the C64 one a bit. There's also Datastorm, which I haven't played but appears to be a totally manic Defender:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CCQIp8CRkjA

.. dunno if that one is good.

[Obiwanshinobi]

GBA and PSX Super Dropzone cover hints at co-op.



SNES cover, on the other hand, reminds me of some other artwork... Something Data East perchance?

[BIL]

^reminds me a bit of Irem's Gunforce.

[Obiwanshinobi]

Gunforce it is. Why don't modern action games have such awesome looking dudes? Just Killzone-style neo-Nazis or "ugly" aliens and zombies. I think the last outstanding faceless chaps in a XXIst Century shooter were the "special" Combine troops in H-L2 (white & red uniforms from what I remember).
You could probably put S&P soldiers in Killzone, Killzone dudes in Contra etc. and hardly anybody would notice.

Datastorm looks... "manic" is the word i guess.

[system11]

True and embarassing story.

Around 10 years ago I went to a UKVAC party at Ravs place. He had a large converted barn style garage full of arcade machines down both sides, one of them was a Defender which I went up and had a game on. I sucked as usual, turned to the guy watching over my shoulder and said 'I always preferred Dropzone on the Atari to be honest.' Got talking a little about RSI problems as at the time I was still recovering from wrist pain, then wandered off to play other games.

Turned out to be Archer Maclean who wrote it, I only found out later, felt like such a suckup.

[BIL]

Gunforce it is. Why don't modern action games have such awesome looking dudes? Just Killzone-style neo-Nazis or "ugly" aliens and zombies. I think the last outstanding faceless chaps in a XXIst Century shooter were the "special" Combine troops in H-L2 (white & red uniforms from what I remember).

Speaking of red and white... although I was never really interested in the game itself, I remember these guys from Bodycount catching my eye while flipping through a copy of Edge a few years back. The game is also full of angrybrown, unfortunately, but at least there's contrast. Something hilarious about a sleek metal techbase literally erupting from beneath a mass of angrybrown in this trailer.

Stylistically, this is why I find The Ninja Warriors Again so enjoyable. The more it looks like an action game's enemy ranks are made up of 1980s GI Joe action figures, the better!

[dcharlieJP]

Turned out to be Archer Maclean who wrote it, I only found out later, felt like such a suckup.

haha, brilliant.

For some reason i always leaned towards the C64 version of Dropzone simply because it sounded better. And yeah - as a kid i found the Defender controls a tad tricky where as Dropzone on a kempston felt so much more easy to do.

I grew to love Defender, but yeah - i'd have taken Dropzone over it. MacLean is an all-time great dev - hell, he made me play Snooker digitally and enjoy it. Love that most his games are loaded with easter eggs.