285. Shock Troopers (Saurus, Arcade (PS2), 1997)

Shock Troopers is a multi-directional military shooter from Neo Geo developer Saurus. Despite being from a different developer, and being a top down shooter instead of a platformer, Shock Troopers feels a lot like Neo Geo contemporary Metal Slug, in that you have a selection of different commandos to choose from and have find weapons to shoot a lot of army dudes in green. 

Unlike in Metal Slug, though, you can either choose a single character or a team of 3 from Shock Troopers' roster of 8 characters. In addition to having different appearances and movement speeds, each character has a slightly different default weapon, as well as unique limited stock bombs. There are also three six-stage routes tot he final level that you can mix and match, so each playthrough has a good amount of variety. 

That said, multiple playthorughs would be a slog without a solid gameplay base, but thankfully Shock Troopers delivers on this front. In addition to being able to fine in 8 directions, you can also execute a dodge roll in any direction that really helps to make the game feel fair. This is a slow game, as both enemy fire and your movement are much slower than in similar titles, but it works in a way that feels fair most of the time. In addition to the basic moving and shooting, you can also get in close to knife enemies, which is riskier but means they drop valuable items.

While the scenery is all pretty naturalistically designed, there is enough variety in how it is presented to keep each stage interesting. Through 2 of Shock Troopers' 3 paths, I found myself riding on the back of a truck, on my own motorcycle, or hanging from a rope as I battled the onslaught of soldiers and tanks. The soundtrack is not amazing, but it's full of dumb but tonally appropriate heavy rock, that gets you in the mood to kill.

4/5, a slow but balanced top down shooter that's Metal Slug-esque, but not quite as hot