Ikari Warriors III on the NES, Not Great

Ikari Warriors III: The Rescue takes the series in another direction. We’re no longer fighting aliens, which is a little disappointing. I would’ve liked to see what alien race these two random soldiers would fight.

It was released in 1989, which is the only date I have for this game. I can only assume that each version of the game was released at some point during that year. This is going to make finding reviews a little challenging, but at least I have a year to go on.

This wraps up the Ikari Warriors series. I’m a little surprised that SNK abandoned this series, because they could’ve done something else with it. They pivoted to fighting games during the 1990s and incorporated many of their characters into those. I’m not good at fighting games, so I might not get into those games.

TLDR: A disjointed mess of ideas that don’t work.

Narrative

There are two stories in this game. The arcade and NES games have different stories, which is something that I kind of like. Neither is all that elaborate, which isn’t a problem given the type of game that this is.

The NES game has you fighting a terrorist group called Crime Ghost. They’ve somehow spread across the globe and managed to infiltrate an unnamed country. The president of that country wants you to get his daughter back, so he can destroy the terrorists. Aside from the names, the stories aren’t all that different.

In the arcade version, it is the president’s son who was kidnapped. The names of the two heroes are different, and things end more ambiguously. The main characters escape, and the rest is unknown, especially since this was the last game in the series.

Both stories are fine. It is nice that SNK simplified things for this game, but it makes me wonder what happened with the time travel and fighting aliens from the second game. I’m not sure why I’m thinking about that; it would just be nice if there was some kind of follow up.

Gameplay

The gameplay in this game is strange. I want to like it, but the changes made to it are so strange. It feels like SNK made a hybrid of a shoot’em up and a beat’em up, but neither section is done well enough to stand out.

I’m really not a fan of the changes to the gameplay. Calling it a run-and-gun is very misleading. You only get your gun during the boss fight. Your normal attacks are punching and kicking.

You have a health bar, and you seem to have infinite continues. While this sounds great, it only helps out in a few cases, as you can easily get beaten down by random enemies. You can get ganged up on by enemies that are way stronger than your character. It makes the game rather cheap.

There are quite a few health and weapon power ups. Some of these are helpful, and others are stupid. You can pick up grenades, but they really suck! As I kept going through this game, I was hoping for something more than what was here, or at the very least, something that I could enjoy.

I have little to no idea when I’m hitting a boss. The hit detection in this game is bizarre to say the least. Your enemies will always hit you, and your hits have a fifty-fifty chance of connecting. You can punch, kick, or do a jump kick. None of these attacks is all that effective.

Enemies can stun-lock you. Every time you get hit, your character is temporarily stunned. So, if you get attacked by three enemies at once, there is a good chance that you’re going to die. They drain your health very fast!

This game would’ve been better if it ditched the run-and-gun part of the game and became a beat’em up. That is what the game feels like it is trying to be. I would rather play the first or second game because I think those games have better gameplay.

Visuals

Ikari Warriors III looks more like the first game than the second. Character sprites are less detailed, the screens look good, and enemies are smaller. It doesn’t look bad, but it is different from the second game.

The cutscenes are a step up from anything in the previous entries in the series. I’m not entirely sure what they’re supposed to be telling me, but they look very good.It was one of the bright spots in the game.

While the sprites are smaller than in the second game, they look better. I know what I’m fighting, and there is less sprite flickering. There are also more enemies on the screen, which makes it more interesting compared to the second game.

The level design is better than that of the other two games in the series. You’re not simply traveling in a straight line, and there are fewer chances for you to get trapped when you respawn. I wouldn’t say the levels are amazing, but they are more elaborate than the other two games in the series.

The graphics were the best part of the game. I like the return to how the first game looked, and I like that it was more grounded. Ikari Warriors III has the best graphics of the three games in this series. They also don’t cause problems for the gameplay, which is always nice.

Reviews at the Time

Reviews for this game were few and far between. I did find a few of them, but, like the other two games, there aren’t many archived. The previous two games in the series were released before Nintendo Power started circulation. I checked the Nintendo Power Archive, and it doesn’t look like they reviewed the game.

EGM had four people review the game. Two gave it a 4/10, and two gave it a 5/10. One reviewer said “Ikari 3 is not what it should be,” and that it didn’t “live up to expectations.” Another reviewer called the game “lazy and misguided.” Needless to say, they were all disappointed by it.

They brought up some of the same issues that I had. This is a weird game. SNK tried something different, and I don’t think it worked out.

5.5/10. This game doesn’t know what it wants to be. SNK turned a run-and-gun shooter into a bad beat’em up. This was a strange decision, and it makes me want to look at the arcade game. It is a playable game, but I really don’t like the gameplay at all.

Pros

• Good Graphics
• Decent Controls
• Infinite Continues

Cons

• Awful hit detection
• Slow movement speed

Conclusion

Ikari Warriors III feels disconnected from the other two games. I know that is a little strange to say about a game that went to space in the second game. It almost feels like SNK made three games and then tried to make a series retroactively.

I don’t know how the arcade game plays, but it has to be better than the NES version. The graphics are good, but the gameplay is lacking. It is a downgrade from the other game in the series.

The graphics and the controls are okay, but the enemies are cheap, and I don’t like the attempt at making a beat’em up. I’m not even sure they were trying to make a beat’em up. This just doesn’t feel like a run-and-gun shooter like the other two games. Ikari Warriors III feels like a collection of disjointed ideas that were smashed together into one game.

If you liked this post, please check out my other posts about the other games in the series. Ikari Warriors and Ikari Warriors II.