Victory Road (video game)

Victory Road
Victory Road
	English arcade poster
Developer(s)	SNK (Arcade); Paradise Software (Spectrum); Micronics (NES)
Publisher(s)	Arcade ; SNK ; ZX Spectrum ; Imagine Software, Erbe Software S.A., IBSA
Composer(s)	Toshikazu Tanaka
Series	Ikari Warriors
Platform(s)	Arcade, Amiga, Atari ST, Commodore 64, Apple II, NES, Amstrad CPC, ZX Spectrum, IBM PC
Release	Arcade ; October 1986 ; ZX Spectrum; 1989; Atari ST; 1988; Amiga; 1989; NES JP: 16 April 1988; NA: 1988;
Genre(s)	Run and gun
Mode(s)	Up to two players simultaneously

Victory Road, known as Dogō Sōken (怒号層圏, lit. "Bellowing Atmosphere") in Japan, is a run and gun video game released by SNK for arcades in 1986. It is the sequel to Ikari Warriors.

The objective is to defeat the enemy aliens using grenades and other weapons. The story directly picks up at the ending of Ikari Warriors. Congratulated by General Kawasaki for rescuing him, Paul and Vince return home to their native country in a plane arranged by the general. A mysterious storm appears and they are hurtled thousands of years into the future. They are met by an alien creature who says that the villain Zang Zip has taken over the land.

Gameplay

The original arcade game featured an 8-way rotary joystick that could be twisted in place to rotate the onscreen character allowing the player to face in one of eight directions while moving in another.

It features sampled voiceovers from the main characters and the game's bosses.

The NES version includes the added feature of collecting "zeny" as currency, which is used to buy improved weaponry and armor. The NES version emulates the controls of the arcade version by locking the facing of the character in one direction for as long as the "fire" button is depressed. Weapons no longer have limited ammunition. The player character begins with a flamethrower but, when the player loses a life, it is changed to a machine gun.

Weapon powerups are scattered throughout the levels, often hidden under rocks destroyable by the bazooka weapon or grenades.

There are no vehicles in this game, but it was replaced by armour, which allows player to take a limited number of hits without time expiration.

The game reuses the single-stage design from its predecessor, but added mini-stages where players fight a boss when entered through the green door.

Reception

In Japan, Game Machine listed Victory Road on their December 1, 1986 issue as being the third most-successful table arcade unit of the month.^[2]

The Spanish magazine Microhobby reviewed the ZX Spectrum version of the game with the following scores: Originality: 20%; Graphics: 70%; Motion: 70%; Sound: 70%; Difficulty: 90%; Addiction: 80%.^[3]

Sequel

This was followed up with the sequel Ikari III: The Rescue, released in 1989.

References

^ Akagi, Masumi (October 13, 2006). アーケードTVゲームリスト国内•海外編(1971–2005) [Arcade TV Game List: Domestic • Overseas Edition (1971–2005)] (in Japanese). Japan: Amusement News Agency. pp. 18–9. ISBN 978-4990251215.
^ "Game Machine's Best Hit Games 25 - テーブル型TVゲーム機 (Table Videos)". Game Machine (in Japanese). No. 297. Amusement Press, Inc. 1 December 1986. p. 23.
^ (Spanish) Victory Road - ZX Spectrum de Imagine Software - article on Soloretro

External links

Arcade history page
Ikari II Dogosoken walkthrough
Victory Road at SpectrumComputing.co.uk

[1] Akagi, Masumi (October 13, 2006). アーケードTVゲームリスト国内•海外編(1971–2005) [Arcade TV Game List: Domestic • Overseas Edition (1971–2005)] (in Japanese). Japan: Amusement News Agency. pp. 18–9. ISBN 978-4990251215.

[2] "Game Machine's Best Hit Games 25 - テーブル型TVゲーム機 (Table Videos)". Game Machine (in Japanese). No. 297. Amusement Press, Inc. 1 December 1986. p. 23.

[3] (Spanish) Victory Road - ZX Spectrum de Imagine Software - article on Soloretro

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