M.I.A (Arcade)

 

It's 17th August 2020, that means 75th anniversary of my beloved country. So let's play some game with "militaristic lone wolf". Last year is Medal of Honor - Infiltrator (2003) on Gameboy Advance and now is Konami's M.I.A. (1989). 

 

Unlike SNK's P.O.W, M.I.A's title is cramped with its abbreviations but it has more interesting font. There's no general black background behind the title instead the background is the same with in-game. Maybe the game wants me to get into action ASAP so i do that.    

Before we go to the 1st mission, there's this prologue. We get some intel photos about prisoners of war from our group. They're transported by truck and put in the brig at gun point.

Snake? Snaaaaaake! Heavy_negativevocalization06.wav

They got snake somehow! Maybe he's the Clumsy Snake. Unlike his other defective relative in P.O.W, he can't free himself. Thus is up to me to rescue him.

They send me the green beret there. The control is : Joystick to move left/right, ascend/descend ladder, or crawl. first button to stab anyone in front of me with my commando knife, 2nd button to use your special weapon, and 3rd button to cycle the special weapon. Those enemy soldiers wear cloth like old European imperialists so i can assume them as Netherland colonialists

Thankfully the commando's stab is fast and enemies die in one hit. But do mind that he's also die with any one hit including enemy's skin contact. You see that enemy in red uniform? His type will drop special weapon that i mentioned before, upon demise and you can predict what he will carry. For example if he carries nothing he will drops hand grenade or if he carries machine gun he will drops machine gun.

Most of the enemies only armed with knife but some of them are stationed with mortar. Its projectile doesn't travel long and it requires fairly long time to reload but those mortar operators posses serious threat due to their projectile.    

 

Look at that fool sod! Carries bazooka like it was just pipe for sanitary system. Once he drops off from the hut, i stab him in the back and get the "pipe" weapon for myself. Believe it or not but, this special-weapon carrier doesn't use the weapon ever. Maybe he's just courier.   

If you play this game, i recommend you to always get to underground route whenever possible because you don't get surrounded by enemies on the roof thus you will be safer. Not all the enemies are just mindless knife holder, there's this special ops soldier that has gun! But you can crawl beneath his bullets safely.   

Ok. I didn't expect his comrade there can jump at me and stab because i never see this happens before from my previous playthrough. Soldier_mvm_class_is_dead04.wav

 

At the end of the level there's 2 guard tower with 2 soldier manning mounted machine gun each. Their aim follows you and there's time between their firing burst. Their aiming has 3 kind of degree (diagonal, steeper diagonal, and straight vertical). You can bait their firing so you can get pass them while they're reloading their gun. It's not easy but doable nonetheless.

 

Once you kill all the machine gun operators. The guard towers explode wildly for no reason. Demoman_specialcompleted12.wav

Blue beret! Where have you been, huh? The sleazy bum.

 

Next stage takes place in military base and i saw a couple of APC that's used for makeshift platform. Poor vehicles. The combat in this game is fast and not prolix unlike P.O.W where you have to punch/kick enemies several time before they're down. I can stab 2 enemies at once here, see?   

 

Here's some stun where i climb an airplane that about to take off and later grab that ladder. Scout_award12.wav    

Spy_specialcompleted06.wav. To be fair, he's ordered to keep his eyes forward on that grenade and don't ever look back anytime.

The "boss" stage this time is another guard tower. Tandem guard tower to be more precise. It's harder than the duo guard tower because there's less distance between the machine gunner pairs thus you need more precise timing to sneak on their level. I forget to tell you that once you're on their level, you're safe from their bullets but remember skin contact is still lethal!

Of course, the building is exploded once you kill all the guards. Again! Soldier_sf13_magic_reac01.wav

I forgot to tell you that there's constant explosion on background that means there's war unfolds back there while i infiltrate enemy's bases to rescue those M.I.As. I think i have all the special weapons here so i have to start using them. You can probably guess that i throw the grenade in angled trajectory but sadly it won't hit enemies above me like that mortarer unlike his mortar. My grenade can only explodes if touched enemies and the floor on the same level.

Usually, i won't recommend you to go through water part in this area because i remember it's difficult to progress because there's enemies that hide in this water (that has depth of ankle-height!) and jump at you suddenly. But this time i don't feel any difficulty traverse this water. These water soldier will jump at me within fair distance so i have enough time to shoot him and his friend with my bazooka. Soldier_taunts10.wav

Then i kill a dog. But in my defense, the dog don't wear collar means it's wild dog that probably has rabies on it. It's pure self defense.

On this stage, i have to fight against 3-stories dorm that respawn enemies. My tip: stand on the outer side of either door on the bottom and keep stabbing. They will most likely move to the center before running at me.

 

And the building explodes when the enemies die. I suspect that the building has auto self-destruct mechanism when all of its inhabitant dead.

This time, i raid their train yard. Although the special ops soldier drop his gun when dead as you can see here, you can't get his gun as it vanishes when his body drops to the ground. As you expect from bazooka, it fires a slow-moving rocket that explodes on contact. Fairly useful to defeat a lump of enemies. It's better explosive weapon than grenade.

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The flamethrower shoots a long fiery projectile that blazes in straight line, evaporating anyone in its way.

The special ops soldier has gun but the real hero is this soldier. He may wears the same cloth as his stupid peers but he's the smartest and most dangerous one. He crawls and suddenly take a potshot at my shin, killing me. Obviously you can't crawl to avoid his bullet instead you have to jump. When dies, the weapon that you currently equipped will be lost. It's courtesy from Contra. You can't prevent this weapon lost except by not dying. But you can minimize its potential by switching to least favorable weapon or the one that's nearly empty. You can see the ammo count of weapon that you currently equipped on top of highlighted weapon on bottom-left corner.

 

This elite soldier is smarter than others. If only he knows how to duck inside the truck or at least know how to run it. This sub-machine gun fires in semi-auto way: a burst of 3 bullets. It's fairly good to mow down enemies but it can be ammo inefficient.

Yes. It's another section with pair of machine gunners. But what makes it harder is running enemies that keep spawning from leftside especially on 1st floor.

There's also another machinegun nest but you can crawl under its bullets and you can stand "inside" its barrel safely. That jeep duo are step-up from that soldier on truck but you can get pass them if you walk in this fort.

You know that scene in horror movie where there's cornered man wildly fire his gun at impending horror creature? I imagine this is quite the same. You may insert sound effect/music of your favorite horror film here. >:)

Turns out that wide fort and this small ones here are the "boss" in this stage and it goes without saying that they explode for no reason, again.  

Next stage, i do air assassination on another jeep duo but believe or not you only need to stab one of them and the other just disappears.

On other occasion, i vaporize another jeep duo in the back. Pyro_battlecry02.wav   

 

You can utilize ladder to stealth kill enemies easier like this. Spy_taunts03.wav

Yes. It's another guard towers but surprise! Surprise! They're not the "boss" stage for now.  

On the other hand, you can't attack while on the ladder but enemies can kill you with touch so you have get to the ground ASAP. By the way, insert Yaket Sax music here.

Finally, we meet the MIAs. They will rise if you pass their cell and you become their hope of freedom. Demoman_battlecry01.wav.  

 

The final "boss" is very busy. 4 gunners that can change their aim, a howitzer operator and mounted gunner on tank plus respawning knife grunts. You can make the fight easier by firing projectile on top floor on prison section. That will kill 2 enemies on top. About the respawn checkpoint. As long as you still have lives, you will respawn on the spot but once you get game over, you will be sent to checkpoint that's placed rather generous. You can get special weapon yet you can get to "boss" fight in short time and distance. The checkpoint is just right.

If you manage to kill them all, the control tower explodes (again)...

...and the cell door open automatically. It seems a good ending.

But don't let your guard down just yet. You have to escort them to safety first. So, yeah. It's escort mission. Luckily, you only need to escort 3 of the POWs. One of them is Clumsy Snake, so he can escape by himself although he got captured before. I trust him, really. As for these three, one is fast enough to catch up with you, then there's the slowest and always falls behind, and there's between two: not fast but also not slow. If you crawl, they also crawl but there's bit pause before they do that. So keep in mind that!  

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If all of the prisoners are murdered, it's instant game over and the game punts you to title screen. As i kneel in tears knowing all of the MIAs dead and my mission is total failure. Thanks, bastard. >:C 

Fortunately, there's no friendly hit so you can swipe knife through the prisoners without killing them. You have to be careful about respawning enemies that runs fast from behind, the commanders, and 1 mortar nest.  

 

At the end of this escort mission stage is evacuation chopper that probably piloted by the blue beret. I will be nice if you provide me some cover fire back then, you lazy sod!

 

Then we arrives at allied military base unscathed. Happy End! I expect some bonus money and a medal for this accomplishment.

 

But no! There's cliff-hanging ending here. I like the colonel's expression as if he delivers the news in sad  and timid tone. "So, uhmm. There's our men still missing out there. Can you free more of them? Pretty please!" While the green beret says "*sigh* Here we go, again!" After that, the game loops from beginning but it's not in Ghost 'n Goblin's style where you have to finish the game twice to get true ending. The game just never ends.     

 

Konami's M.I.A. (1989) is fun run 'n stab game with fast pace. The knife attack is fast and reaches reasonable distance. In addition with enemies who only have 1 hit durability, the game becomes intense, and far from being boring. The hit detection is accurate. The player jumps high in functional way and you can control his jump in mid-air in also good way. The running speed is medium-fast but most enemies can outrun you. The extra weapons makes the game fun and jam-packed action. They're all powerful (even the hand grenade because it creates splashing explosion which good to clear enemies out) but you can lose them if you die so you don't feel overpowered. Thus you need to think about your arsenal management but it's not complex and easy to understand. There's bit of rogue element. Except for the final stage, the stages has 2 alternatives that's chosen  randomly by the game. Some alternative is mirrored version of other stages. It also worth to mention that not all stages start from left. Sometime they start from right. Although it's kind of unusual to have boss fights that only consist of killing human enemies within some premise, but at least they work pretty well. Plus you need rather simple strategy to defeat them especially when you have to bait enemy's firing aim. The difficulty curve is rather well built and friendly. The final and the second final stage's difficulty can be considered sting but you can mitigate it by having 2 players. The music is pretty good even though it's late 80's arcade game. The explosion graphic quality could be at the same level with the one in Metal Slug, at the time. As for graphic quality of other stuff, it's fairly great.

    

It's pretty obvious that M.I.A. (1989) is solid good arcade game at least for me. It's 2D platformer run 'n stab that you can enjoy in rather short time. It's fun but also challenging (especially in later levels). It's definitely way better than P.O.W. That's for sure. As for the arsenal, you probably feels strange about 1 (or 2 if you play this game with friend) special force soldier only armed with knife initially. But at least, it's relatable to my ancestor's warfare where their weaponry significantly worse than the colonialist's and have to rely on looting enemies. It's like bringing "knife to gunfights" but they keep fighting nonetheless and i admire that spirit! You should learn from their spirit. Just saying.