Iron Tank: The Invasion of Normandy
PUBLISHER/DEVELOPER: SNK
RELEASE DATE: July 29th, 1988 (JP), July 1988 (US), 1988 (EU)
When we were kids in the 1980s and 90s, there was no such phrase as “Nintendo Hard.” NES games were just hard, that was that. We expected hard. I won’t say we embraced it; it just was what it was. Every once in awhile, we’d find a game we could beat if we put enough time and energy into it. Maybe one of the Disney/Capcom joints, like The Little Mermaid. Most of the popular action games, though, pummeled us mercilessly. Your Ninja Gaidens, your Contras, your Castlevanias, they were a blast, but damn, were they humbling. Playing tough-as-nails NES games as a kid meant playing the same stage over and over again until you finally conquered that one pesky area you could never get past. Or, just as likely, you ran out of lives and continues, then you’d go play outside, like nothing ever happened.
Iron Tank: The Invasion of Normandy is proper Nintendo hard, the kind that makes you feel like you earn every checkpoint you get past, every boss you destroy. A typical NES game, in other words.
You control Paul, an erstwhile Ikari Warrior-turned-tank operator, and Paul controls the Iron Tank, a formidable piece of machinery equipped to infiltrate Nazi Germany during World War II. Your tank has a machine gun, which turns with you as you move the tank, and a more powerful turret, which must be turned manually.
The turret control is where many will struggle. In order to shift the turret in your desired direction, you must hold down ‘B’ and turn it with the D-pad. Fine enough, but ‘B’ also fires the machine gun. It’s a clunky button assignment, held back by the NES’ limited controls, and the configuration won’t come naturally to most people. Nevertheless, I promise you, if you keep playing Iron Tank repeatedly, the way it was meant to be played, you will get the hang of it.
In this 8-bit rendition of the Normandy invasion, the Nazis have ground soldiers, opposing tanks of various strengths, and mean armored tank and turret bosses, all of whom spew grenades and other projectiles at you without fail. Thankfully, your tank has a solid life bar, and E (energy) icons are in relative abundance. Other lettered icons – V, B, F, etc. – provide rapid firing abilities, stronger shots, pierce armor, and increase your shot range. Interestingly, you must equip these abilities on the menu screen, your tank won’t just automatically use them when you collect them. Iron Tank provides you with these goodies for a reason: you’ll need them all. How else is one man/machine supposed to topple the entire Nazi platoon?
Occasionally, you’re presented with a fork in the road. Go left or right, either way, Nazis are there, ready to hurt you. Different routes have differing amounts of enemies, though, and some routes are shorter than others. Whichever route you choose, though, you’re in this war for the long haul. Iron Tank is a long, brutal game, my word. Just look at that map on the menu screen below. Imagine getting to that red square in one play session! Thank goodness for passwords.
Iron Tank has you going over bridges and railroads. Mines litter your path. Planes descend and drop bombs near your position. Soldiers and tanks get in your way constantly. The game is a relentless, chaotic mess that doesn’t ever let up. What’s worse, the odds are always against you. The Iron Tank of renown is too slow. The turret controls are too clunky. And the game might just be too tough. But like other difficult NES games of old, I find I can’t stop playing. The challenge invigorates me. The difficulty is the point.
B
Legendary Wings
PUBLISHER/DEVELOPER: Capcom
RELEASE DATE: July 1988 (US)
Before Capcom found their niche on the NES with action platformers like the Mega Man series and DuckTales, they brought over some of their arcade shoot-em-ups, like Commando, Gun.Smoke, and perhaps the strangest of all, Legendary Wings.
Legendary Wings is not the tale of Icarus trying to stop Robot Zeus from destroying the earth, despite what the cover art implies. Rather, you play an unknown soldier, gifted with wings by Ares, the God of War. Your mission: to stop the supercomputer Dark from completely destroying mankind. Why does Dark want to obliterate humanity? Why does Ares, of all gods, give you the assignment to take out Dark? Wings are cool and all, but why are they necessary to complete your mission? All these questions will not be answered. This is the late 1980s. Insane, nonsensical stories are there to facilitate the developers’ desired gameplay, nothing more.
You’ve played a vertical shoot-em-up before, you know the drill. Clusters of wiry enemies descend from on high and either spray projectiles at you or kamikaze in your general direction. Shoot as many as you can, avoid their attacks, rack up the points, and hopefully feel awesome doing it. Winged Man is initially equipped with a single shot and missiles, but said shot can grow stronger up to four additional times with powerups. If you get maximum powerups, you turn into a flaming bird/dragon, and you’ll never want to be normal Winged Man again.
After you beat the dragon mid-boss in every stage, Legendary Wings does a curious thing and transitions into a horizontal shoot-em-up. Winged Man descends into a temple and must avoid/destroy carefully placed enemies while navigating tight, claustrophobic areas. Eventually, you’re spit out into a dark void, where a disgusting phallic abomination awaits its inevitable destruction.
Legendary Wings thrives in its pacing and setting. Splitting the game into vertical and horizontal sections, with slightly different gameplay found in each, provides variety that most shoot-em-ups lack. Capcom also knows when to bombard and when to pull back. Even after enemies fly in from every direction and overwhelm your senses, a lull in the action appears, just enough time for you to collect your bearings before the next assault (the latter generosity is unfortunately discarded in later levels, but hey, it’s nice while it lasts). The seemingly Greek-inspired backdrop, from desert to coast to forest, with bizarre statues, pyramids, and enormous heads, is a refreshing change from basic aliens and the blandness of space. When the relatively tranquil environment shifts into a spooky robotic hellscape out of nowhere in stage 4, it’s jarring to behold, in the best possible way.
Legendary Wings will frustrate you, no question. If it was released today, gamers would call it a Souls-like shooter and we’d all be forced to vomit at the tired reference. The game doesn’t just make you mad for no reason, though. It gives you a taste of the good stuff, that feeling of power and even invincibility amidst the onslaught, before you catch a stray enemy shot and you’re humbled again. This dance, this give-and-take, provides just enough confidence, just enough pleasure, for you to want to keep trying. If you beat the game, wonderful, fantastic, you’ve acquired bragging rights. But even if you never take down Dark and save all of humanity, the journey itself – whatever amount you’re able to experience - is rewarding enough.
B+
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Ares might've given the player wings because he dreams of a world where men fight men, not a world where men fight machines. It ruins his fun if Skynet passes man as Earth's most efficient killing machine.
You just reminded me I have Legendary Wings sitting at my Arcade Collection and I'm yet to try it. I should set that straight asap. :)