P.O.W (Arcade)

Today is 17th August 2017, that means today is the 72th anniversary of my beloved country, Indonesia. While other celebrate Indonesia's independence day with various "sport", such as sack race or eating krupuk contest. I celebrate it with an article with militaristic-theme game. Though there will be certainty that my article about it on other occasion besides every 17th August. Anyway, today's review is about SNK's "P.O.W" (1988).  

 

Solid Snake once said that the true war hero are either dead or prisoners of war. So we're in tale of ultimate heroism, guys! Surely, you can't wait for the protagonist's action, right?! Let's get to it!   

 

The game open with the protagonist light a fuse that connected to his cell's door. It's really start with a BOOM! But i wonder how did he hides the explosive for this opportunity? Maybe he hides the plastic explosive within chocolate-box wrapping. So i imagine dialogue between this guy and the warden goes like this: "What's with that box you carrying?" "Oh, this?! It's box of chocolate that i keep from my beloved family." "Hmm." "I give you several of them later. I promise" "Ok. Carry on!"

 

But that's the end of our hero's brilliance. He didn't plan further beyond successfully blow up that door besides fight his way through to his freedom by beating the guard even though with nothing but his fist and kick. Good job, Einstein. -_-

 

The control are joystick for moving, and three buttons to kick, jump, and punch. It's like first Double Dragon! Except the gameplay is more arduous and uglier. There is no combo when you consecutively hit the same enemy. Only light attacks, such as quick jab or side kick when hitting enemy that's still healthy/not dying. Otherwise, he performs heavy attack, such as uppercut (like in screenshot) or high kick that launch enemy with satisfying sound effect.

 

But there's weapon to keep this game interesting. It's throwing knife, that always handy in any fisticuffs. Especially when you're surely outnumbered like our hero here.

 

Then Mr. Ex-POW get assault rifle. This is something that you don't get when playing Double Dragon! I know that bullet counters aren't for nothing. But the number doesn't indicate how many bullets that i have instead it shows how many 3-burst shoots left that i have. Bit confusing but generous.

 

A chopper drop down these knife commandos. The fools. They don't know the thing about bringing knife into a gunfight. Oh, wait. My ammo is zero. Joke on myself, then. So i have been forced to use this rifle as clobbering instrument which i should do that earlier to conserve ammo. Kick button to shoot my rifle and punch button to execute stock's rifle smash. Simple.

 

Our hero goes to a heli which is reasonable to escape enemy's base. But he didn't account that the heli is still piloted and flies away. That's another proof of how half-wit he is. Then he climb the ladder hoping to catch the chopper. Seriously?!

 

Scout_beingshotinvincible02.wav. These soldiers can dodge my bullets by ducking even though i'm sure the hot leads are supposed to plant on their forehead. They get "air-headed" term on different meaning, i see.

 

Miraculously, i catch  the chopper. Well, to be precise: it's 3 meters above and the pilot throw some grenade on me.

 

Afterward, the chopper dispatch lots of enemy soldier despite its small-size, meaning it must have low passenger-capacity. On the bright side, the heli is within the hero's reach. You can do it!

 

But, no. The heli flies away, again. So our hero drop down from that platform into ground. The he gets ambushed by several grenade thrower. Oh, great.

 

I try to kick the barrel hoping that it will rolls toward that person, thus extending my combat method. Tough luck. The barrels are just decoration.    

 

But a bastard appears and shoots the barrel, resulting in: an explosion and our hero's sudden aerial acrobat. Nice expression you got there, Mr. John Doe.

 

Then the chopper drop down knife commando to further mocks our hero.

An unmanned APV! Forget about the chopper! Let's get the hell out of here! 

 

Demoman_battlecry01.wav. Wait! Did the enemy forget to turn off the oven?  

Why stop here. Is this your base, tough guy?

 

Certainly not. Lots of enemies here, some of them are on motorcycle and eager to ram you. Most of you can guess that you have to jump-kick this guys. But Ex-POW's jumping kick aren't suitable to deal with these biker because of how high his jumping and how small his kick's hitting spot. This is worse fight against biker than Burning Fight. 

 

After quite long walk i encounter Sgt. Baldy and his twins that control these cranes. By control, i mean they keep on rising and dropping hook block on the same spot hoping our hero get crushed to death. No, it didn't work. Instead their comrade that fall for that. And no, you can't meet them personally and congratulate them with your fist.

 

At the end of this stage, there is another APV. But this time it's manned. The APC's commander shoot forward a bit and unload these green berets before he leaves. So it's another combat against knife-wielding foes for many many time. To be straight-forward, this game is boring with lots of repetitive monotone combat. Luckily, 3 of these commando roll out of screen. Thanks, i guess?!

After those commando perish, it is revealed that what Mr Ex-POW did was eliminating tank crews soldier. Why did you do that? I thought your sole objective is: to go home ASAP, and take a break for one or two weeks to keep your mind away from trauma being POW. That's sounds nice and reasonable, right?! According to some review that i read, in NES version there's backstory: the hero intentionally get captured so he can infiltrate the enemy's base and wreak havoc because it's impossible to attack them with conventional way. But the Ex-POW manage to sneak C-4 easily and the enemy clearly poorly armed as they are 8% carry assault rifle, 5% on motorcycle, 38% bring knife or hand-grenade, and the rest are totally bare-handed. So why with convoluted way: sending this half-wit alone instead of all-out assault? That's remain top secret.

Next stage takes place in jungle. It's kind of remind me of Super Contra (NES).  

 

Yeah, kind of. Put some big pond there and you can barely tell the difference.

 

Well, SNK did put giant pond but beyond that point. I still appreciate it, though it's river not pond. By the way, the hero dived into this river with head first from 10 meters or so. After his refreshing swimming toward riverside, he backs to fight throng of soldier. Nice. -_-

 

Then Mr. John Doe fights group of soldier (that are unloaded from helicopter, again) in this elevator. This fight is bit more enjoyable because he can kick the enemies out of elevator to their death. And luckily our hero can't fall from this lift area because SNK has installed invisible safety-for-our-hero-only wall, apparently.

 

It seems the helicopter pilots had enough of dealing with Mr. Ex-POW and failing to do so. "Screw this! I'm out (of this suck living realm)" they said.

 

Then our hero's journey continues through a rooftop (which he climbs for no real reason) and end up in this HQ made up by woods from Kalimantan's deforestation. Beside punching (that has short range but fast speed) and kicking (that has slow speed but longer range), he can do backhand to attack behind him and stomping by pressing jump+punch buttons and kick+punch buttons respectively. That's extra moves are nice if they are more responsive. Because most of the time, Mr EX-POW refuse to do so even though you manage to press the buttons at perfect timing. Also they are difficult to apply as backhand has short reach and stomping will connect to the enemies when they are about to get up instead in still-downed state. Yet i still eager to stomp them when they're down. The only reliable combat method: jumping kick wildly like Kangaroo on hot asphalt road in summer.

 

I meet the father of Sgt Baldy and his twins: Maj Baldy. He got his own handgun and blue berets to defeat Mr. John Doe. I wish he has assault rifle to speed this fight also easier. But Maj Baldy can incidentally shoot his own men (actually every enemy can do that too via either bullets or throwing knife). You should install friendly fire switch on-off in your pistol, sir!

With Maj Baldy dismissed (from his life), our hero can contact his HQ for pick-up. Would you look at that! Mr. EX-POW is also Snake. Must be Gas Snake. Not because his presence are excel for stealth mission (you should know that he is clearly rubbish on it), rather his reputation are unseen yet real like gas. Other snakes better not speak of him and he won't be mist, sorry i mean missed.

 

Anyway, Gas Snake crawls slowly through this vents tunnel. I can smell freedom at the end of this tunnel.

After fighting against same old-fashion horde, i mean.

 

And these 2 green berets. Why don't you give up already? Even better. Why won't you go home with me on this chopper? The pilot is my good friend. No?! How about we hang out on fancy cafeteria on our way home? Still, no?! Oh, well.

Once those green beret's status K.I.A by fists and kicks. Gas Snake can return to homebase and receive decent heroic medal (at long last). Eng_quest_complete_hard_06.wav

P.O.W is Double Dragon-clone with military theme and guns that's for sure. But with wonky hit-detection, more than DD just a bit though. Also the gameplay is really monotonous to the point making me bored. No Health-Up items, no grenade to pick (even though the enemies have), or not even Score-Up items to make this game way better. But, i heard that the NES version has better gameplay albeit with limited continue. On the bright side, the graphics are decent to good, music are okay, and SFXs are great especially the "THWACK" sound. "Why do you choose this game as review's material, then?" Yes, POW isn't quality game especially in gameplay element. But it got the essence of "Fighting for freedom" (aside of his other objective to obliterate evil army from inside) which is perfect to live the essence of Independence Day. How hard it is to achieve freedom and how many lives (credits/continues, in game context) has to be sacrificed in order to do so. Think about it!

Anyway, the bottom line is POW is very difficult game. Even though it has assault rifles that you can use against foes or it features flung military men (including the Gas Snake) as much as flung Romans within a dozen of Asterix comics. So, you may try to finish 1 stage or perhaps 3 other overly-long stages if you're very tough guy. More than that is really inadvisable.

If you don't believe me or you're eager for second opinion, you should read this article about the same game. It's probably more entertaining than this article. Or this game for sure.

Credit to: bbcpersian7.com for very cool Indonesian flags that attached to bamboo spears.