2D-X Presents: The top five 2D video game politicans

February 13, 2010 by Jeffrey L. Wilson · 1 Comment
Filed under: Features

President’s Day Weekend is upon us, and every flag-waving, apple pie-eating American is either showing respect to our land’s greatest leaders, or laid up on the sofa downing Ben & Jerry’s while watching Jersey Shore.

Regardless of your weekend plans, we think it’s high time to reflect on some of the more interesting political figures that have played major roles in the video game universe. Ranging from ragtag fighters to bad ass street brawlers, this roundup – no, shrine - to the greatest leaders of men is one that can not be overlooked in this time of remembrance.

Fidel Castro (Guerrilla War, NES)
Originally released in arcades in 1987 as a coin-op, Guerrilla War followed the wacky adventures of two unnamed rebel commando bad asses as they raid an unnamed Caribbean Island in order to free it from the rule of an unnamed tyrannical dictator. During the adventure, legions of enemy soldiers taste your cold steel, while the act of rescuing hostages is the only indication that you indeed are the good guys.

But when the arcade hit was ported to the NES, the box art wasn’t the typical gung ho American propaganda piece. There weren’t shirtless, musclebound all-American heroes such as Contra’s Mad Dog and Scorpion. These guys had beards! And berets! One’s even wearing red! WTF is happening here?

Really, it was all about history. Unbeknown to gamers in the late ’80’s, Guerrilla War, SNK’s spiritual sequel to Ikari Warriors, was entitled Guevara in the land of the rising sun. Player 1 assumed the role of hipster fave Che Guevara. What’s interesting here is that Player 2 guides a young (and ruggedly handsome) Fidel Castro through stage after stage of jungle fighting as the pair stave off the Batista regime in Cuba in the late 1950s. So this President’s Day, fire up your NES and support the Communist movement, you capitalist swine.

Tags: 2d game, 2d graphics, fidel castro, final fight, guerrilla war, king hippo, mike haggar, prince of persia, punch-out!!

Heavy Metal Kings: The Six Most Bad-Ass Military Action Games

May 22, 2009 by Jeffrey L. Wilson · 6 Comments
Filed under: Features, Run and Gun

Image courtesy neogeoforlife

This Memorial Day, the 2D-X crew pays respect to the courageous men and women who’ve bravely entered the line of fire by looking back at some of the more awesome videogame examples of soldiers at work. We’re not talking realistic first-person shooters like Call of Duty; it’s all about hardcore, near-mindless twitch soldiering that dominated the 8-bit and 16-bit era just as the Cold War began to thaw. No need to carefully manage supplies or call for back up: Simply check your brain at the door, grab the AK, and prepare to leave a foreign body count higher than anything Stallone, Arnie, Dolph, or Norris ever tallied.

During my “research” (which consisted of me playing naked, at 3AM,with a box of Dominos at my side), it became obvious that these war games were more than simple recreations of humanity’s flawed (and recurring) activity; they were also snapshots of time. It’s no coincidence that these titles emerged in a period where the threat of global nuclear annihilation had combat on everyone’s brain, particularly SNK, a company that takes half of the slots if this countdown. Go, America!

Tags: 16-bit, 8-bit, bionic commando, capcom, contra, guerrilla war, ikari warriors, iron tank, konami, metal slug 3, shocktroopers, snk