I asked my wife if she wanted to play this game . . . she thought I meant something else entirely . . .
From the main menu of Shock Troopers you have five options, the first of which is called "Normal Mode". This is the single player mode of the game, where you will put your combative skills to the test in an attempt to take out The Bloody Scorpions. Upon selecting this mode you are first asked to select your difficulty level (Easy, Normal, Hard, or Mvs), then you'll be asked to select which character you want to use out of the eight available. It is important to note that at this point you'll also be asked to choose which play mode you prefer to use. In "Lonly Wolf" mode you select one character and play with him or her the entire time, once you lose your three allotted lives your round is over and you can choose to continue or not (you get three total continues in this game, fyi). But in "Team Battle" you select three different characters and can switch between them at any point during gameplay. Once all three characters are drained of their health your round is over and you can choose to continue or not. Anyways, once you've selected your character(s) and play mode, you'll then have to choose which route you want to take through the game. There are three distinct paths you can travel on your way to facing the leader of The Bloody Scorpions, including the Mountain Route, Jungle Route and Valley Route. Depending on the route you choose the scenery, as well as the types of soldiers and weaponry you face, will be somewhat specific to each of these terrains. Each of these routes consists of six stages you have to battle through to win the game, and halfway through you are given the option to switch routes for the rest of the way. To read a detailed account of my experiences on the three various routes through this game, visit my previous blog posts about this game, dated August 29, September 12 & October 02. Anyways, once you've decided on your route you are then taken to the applicable opening stage of the game . . . it's go time!!
The second option from the main menu is called "Network Mode" and is the online multiplayer mode of the game. After selecting this option you will be asked which room you want to play in (rooms 1-8) as well as which region to want to play in (Eng or Jpn). Then just select Play to get to the action! Unfortunately there isn't anybody out there to play this game with whenever I've attempted to partake in this mode, so this is about all I can give you.
Third we come to the "Replay" option, where you can view saved replays of your explosive efforts throughout Shock Troopers. When you choose this option you then have three commands at your disposal including play, delete, and exit.
"Settings" is the fourth choice you'll find on the main menu, and it is broken down in to six sub-options. These sub-options include Controls (view the current control scheme and change it to the configuration of your choice), Screen (adjust display mode, size, wallpapers, etc.), Sound (adjust master volume, switch between stereo/mono, etc.), Save Data (toggle autosave on/off, save/load system settings, etc.), Etc. (toggle Quick Start on/off, toggle Region Eng/Jpn, etc.) & Reset All Settings (pretty obvious).
The fifth and final option from the main menu of Shock Troopers is "Information", which is broken down in to four sub-options. These sub-options include Software Manual (view all of the instructions and other information needed to play this game), Command List (I don't know what this is, it's always been faded out and inaccessible for me), Sound Player (enter a music player that spits out all of the various pieces of Shock Troopers game music, you can also create your own track lists and what not) & Staff Credits (view the names of the people who dreamed up this amazing piece of software!).
Now for the fun stuff! Once you are out amongst the various environments Shock Troopers throws your way, there are a number of items to look out for. Foremost are the various weapon pickups you'll find by blowing up environmental objects, such as wooden crates and what not. Your default gun is a standard machine gun that has infinite ammo, but you can pick up these special weapons and get a temporary boost in your destructive power, at least until your ammo runs out. These weapon pickups include the Heavy Machine Gun, Vulcan, Flamethrower, 3-Way & Tank Buster. There is also the weapon pickup simply titled Bomb. Each of the eight characters in this game has a unique secondary weapon of the explosive variety (grenades, napalm, rocket launcher, etc.), by grabbing a Bomb pickup you'll add one additional weapon to this inventory. A more rare but equally as important pickup are the various health pickups available in this game. They come in various forms, such as a first aid kit, a can of some sort of drink, a bunch of bananas, a side of meat, etc. These health items have different efficacies though, some only give you back a small portion of your health, whereas others give you back quite a big chunk. Another rare pickup is the S pickup, which stands for speed. When you grab it your character will be temporarily granted with a massive boost in foot speed. The final item you'll come across in Shock Troopers are various coloured diamonds, which sometimes appear on their own but usually appear after you kill an enemy in close range combat (hand to hand, without your weapon). The blue diamond gives you bonus points, the yellow diamond grants you temporary invincibility, and the red diamond destroys every enemy currently on the game screen.
Shock Troopers' game screen is pretty involved, but in a nice and easy to read way. In the top left corner of the screen you'll see a head icon representing the character you are currently controlling in the game. Just to the right of this icon your current game score is displayed. In the top middle of the screen is a timer counting down the time you have left to finish the current phase of the stage you happen to be playing in. Running down the left side of the screen is your health meter. When you start out it is solid yellow, but as you take damage it will deplete and turn to red . . . once it is drained completely you perish and move on to use your next life. In the bottom left corner of the screen you'll find a count of how many secondary weapons remain in your inventory. Just to the right of this is an icon displaying which primary weapon you are currently equipped with, as well as how much ammo you have left for said weapon. On the right side of the screen you'll find a mirror image of what appears on the left side. This is applicable only if you have a second player involved in the game, when you are playing Shock Troopers' multiplayer mode. Otherwise that information is still displayed, but faded out quite a bit.
Another game screen you'll need to be aware of is the pause screen. When you hit the Select button to bring up this menu during gameplay you are faced with nine options. These options include Settings (the same Controls, Screen, Sound, Save Data and Etc. options I mentioned under the Settings option from the main menu), Software Manual, Command List (again it's faded out for me), Save Replay, Save (save current progress of your game), Load (load a previous game save file), Reset (as in restart the current stage), Return to Main Menu, and Resume.
The controls behind Shock Troopers are surprisingly simple and easy to use. The analog button is responsible for moving your character around his or her environment, while the X button is used to dodge enemies and their attacks by performing a combat roll (hold the analog stick in the direction you want to roll). The O button lets you switch between characters when playing in Team Battle mode, while the Triangle button is used to fire your character's secondary weapon (aim your weapon's throw using the analog button). As for the Square button, it is used to fire your primary weapon (again you can aim it using the analog button). When you hold the Square button down your character will proceed to strafe in the direction you are currently facing. Finally, as mentioned in the previous paragraph, the Select button is used to pause the game action.
The presentation behind Shock Troopers is just fantastic! It reminds me very much of the Metal Slug franchise that I played last winter, another Neo Geo staple. These are my only two Neo Geo experiences so far and they've been very similar, I'm starting to think I've got to check out some other titles that system has to offer! The graphics in this game are basic in essence, they kind of remind me on an old school NES game. However, for being so basic they are at the same time very detailed. Just like in Metal Slug the characters take on the most detail. The accentuated life like gestures they make throughout the game as well as the blood spatter that erupts when they are killed is just a joy to behold, so cool! The environments are diverse, colourful, and there are a lot of different enemies thrown your way. The soundtrack is also great. It's just that old school analog video game music, but man is there a lot of it and it can get intense at times. The music and sound effects definitely help to set the tone for this game as you work your way through it. Finally, the controls behind this game are basic like I mentioned in the paragraph above, and they respond just perfectly. This game is almost too easy to play!
For pros and cons I honestly can't think of any bad things about this game, it's that much fun! As for the pros . . . well, there certainly are many. First and foremost, this game is just a blast to play! It's so fun, and funny, and also so easy to play that you can just waste hours of your life without realizing what you're doing. Another pro is the look and sound of this game, as I have already discussed. Everything about this title is appealing to both the eyes and the ears, I especially love the diversity of environments and enemies you'll find as you blaze your path of destruction. Another great feature is the fact that they give you an option of three distinct paths to follow through the game. This helps to lend Shock Troopers a lot of diversity and also boost it's replayability factor.
For all intents and purposes Shock Troopers is a pretty straightforward game to play, easy enough to figure out. But I do have one trick to offer users who will by playing this PSP version of the game. By bringing up the pause menu at any time during gameplay, you can save your progress at any point you wish to. The bosses especially can take a lot of health and lives from you, so what I did was make frequent saves as I made my way through each level. I'd make it through a sequence of enemies without getting hit, save the game, then move on, rinse, repeat, and eventually I'd make it to the final stage of the game and have well more than enough lives/continues left to bring down the leader of The Bloody Scorpions.
To summarize, there has probably been dozens and dozens of games like Shock Troopers created over the years, but this title stands out above the others. I find it's the developer's attention to detail, and them going that extra mile that does it. The fun, the gore . . . the humour . . . Shock Troopers is an absolute treat through and through. Together with my experiences on Metal Slug, these titles have really brought my respect level up for the Neo Geo system which I had previously always heard of of course, but never really had any first-hand experience with. Shock Troopers is a smash hit in my opinion!