15 Comments
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M. Campassi's avatar

One down to my list of "games I played back when I was a kid, completely forgot about it, and only now I lean its name." Thank you so much for retrieving this one from back of my mental palace!

Dylan Cornelius's avatar

Haha, no problem! Always weird to see a piece of media that you haven’t considered in years and years.

John Murphy's avatar

I've not heard of this one. But it looks like it was trying to push the boundaries of what was allowed on Nintendo at the time. Every time I read the title Freedom Force, I think of this game: https://www.mobygames.com/game/6047/freedom-force/

Dylan Cornelius's avatar

Maaan, I remember the cover to that 2002 game. Never got a chance to play it, though.

John Murphy's avatar

It was a novel game, especially if you were a fan of comic books and super heroes. I do recall getting a bit frustrated with it though. I'm not against trying it again however.

Dylan Cornelius's avatar

I wonder where you could find it? GOG perhaps? 🤔

John Murphy's avatar

I still have the physical disk. But yeah I presume it would be on GOG or even Steam possibly.

Felix Roth's avatar

Man, I had forgotten all about light guns. They were kind of cool. Too bad that they don't work work with modern display technologies. Combining some kind of light gun with virtual reality would be fantastic. Maybe we'll see that at some point in time.

Dylan Cornelius's avatar

Given gun controversy in America, I actually wonder if we’ll ever see light guns again 🤔

They were cool for their time, though, I agree

Spouting Thomas's avatar

I actually have never played this one. I'm sure I would have if it were available to rent since I was so hungry for Zapper titles, but I must have never seen it. I'm wondering to what degree it was influenced by Operation Wolf, for example, which released earlier in the arcades than Freedom Force though came out later for NES.

I'll say that I DO rather like this "error" mechanic as a concept, as opposed to the "shoot civilians and lose a life" mechanic that's far more typical of light gun games. Let's keep separate track of how often I'm too slow to dispatch enemies, and the degree to which I'm a trigger-happy maniac with no regard for human life. Those are actually two distinct problems!

But of course, putting them on a single track leads to quicker deaths and more quarters, so it's unsurprising that this is the path this arcade-dominated genre has chosen, while the "error bar" to my knowledge only shows up in this NES exclusive.

Dylan Cornelius's avatar

I too like the Error mechanic vs the one civilian/hostage lost kills you as well. Feels more fair. Make no mistake, though, Freedom Force is still ridiculously tough.

Operation Wolf is definitely the superior title, both in the arcades and on the NES, from what I recall. But I appreciate Freedom Force even existing at all, particularly since, even by ‘88, the Zapper seemed to be a bit of an afterthought.

JT's avatar

Sounds like slim pickings for NES Zapper fans back then. But if you were a kid in 1985 practicing with cartoon targets in Hogan’s Alley, by 1988 you would be more than ready to join the Freedom Force and blow away virtual terrorists!

Dylan Cornelius's avatar

Oh yeah, Freedom Force was a sizable step forward from Hogan’s Alley, for sure.

Scanlines's avatar

It looks pretty good for Zapper game standards, though that's a low bar to clear

Dylan Cornelius's avatar

Probably one of the better Zapper titles! Better than Barker Bill’s Trick Shooting.