Overall most helpful review

Posted on: June 1, 2017

VinsanityV22

Games: 123 Reviews: 8

A great port of a great game :)

Lets get this out of the way now: here is another good GOG version of a Neo Geo classic. This has your full suite of options for a classic game, so no worries as to the quality of this port. This is NOT a King of Fighters 2002 situation, thankfully :) Shock Troopers is an awesome, bizarrely underappreciated topdown run-n-gun game. If Metal Slug is like SNK's Contra, Shock Troopers is their... Heavy Barrel? That's even more obscure, lol. Whatever; just know this is good. You can pick a character, or a team of 3, from a squad of 8 mercenaries (all of whom sport differing guns and secondary weapons like grenades). Then you go to town on scores of unfortunate enemies as they run at you, toss explosives at you, fall from the sky with parachutes, and just try to murder you by any way necessary. But you can shoot (and like Metal Slug, melee them at close range), throw out your secondaries, and dodge roll to avoid fire. When they die, they drop power-ups like more bombs and new guns - some people may go for the Flamethrower, but real gamers know the SpreadGun's where its at :) This action is simple, well-done arcade goodness that still entertains today. Still its not perfect, through to sheer age. We live in a post-Geometry Wars age. Any top-down run-n-gun without dual stick controls just feels not as great as contemporary ones. Like, you could buy Assault Heroes or Assault Android Cactus on a variety of platforms today. Conversely, Shock Troopers feels rigid and constrained, even though it was designed well around its mechanics. Oh well, what can you do besides play for awhile until you just recalibrate your brain around the older-school way of doing things? Its a good game, it deserves attention from shooter fans, its just a little weird nowadays. Its also not as colorful or good-looking as its sequel. Shock Troopers is a great version of a great game that's not quite the homerun it used to be due to age. But it is most definitely a good old game :)

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Posted on: May 31, 2017

NateJennings75

Verified owner

Games: 914 Reviews: 130

Windows version is solid

4/5, for lack of two controller support on Linux and Mac. For Windows users Shock Troopers is pure gold. If Metal Slug is SNK's version of Contra, then Shock Troopers is SNK's version of MERCS (arcade/Sega Genesis). The top down view serves the chaotic action nicely. The graphics serve their 1990s arcade purpose. The playable characters all contribute variety. The choice to go it solo or swap between three team members adds even more variety and a bit of strategy. The selectable routes add replay value to the stages. The music is fun and compliments the action. The hardware requirements are modest. The price ($6) is a steal. Shock Troopers is every bit worth owning. Being DRM-free, including Linux & Mac (single player) installers, and being $2 cheaper than Steam makes the GOG release of Shock Troopers the best deal on the net.

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Posted on: April 26, 2019

Sildring

Verified owner

Games: 596 Reviews: 16

Awesome Game / Bad Port

SHOCK TROOPERS is an all-time classic from the NEO GEO, a timeless masterpiece that you can play countless times and still have a blast. This is arcade run n' gun at it's finest and if you haven't played it yet you must give it a try. Unfortunately even though this game was released in the 90's and shouldn't be that hard to run on modern PC, this port suffers from occasional slowdowns which is really a shame...

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Posted on: March 19, 2021

bmaster007

Verified owner

Games: 261 Reviews: 1

Great game, unacceptable port

Straight away, there's a heavy INPUT LAG. Like playing with 100+ ping while being offline. The arcade version of the game doesn't suffer that problem. I advise against this version.

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Posted on: March 10, 2019

ItsSeaJay

Verified owner

Games: 151 Reviews: 1

A Dream Come True

Shock Troopers a perfectly-paced, bombastic, hyperactive top-down shoot-'em-up loaded up to the eyeballs with infinite ammo, explosions and a non-stop parade of faceless grunts practically leaping to their untimely deaths; all in the name of white-hot adrenaline-pumping action! If that sounds a little over the top to you, then you might want to sit this one out. This is a game where your default weapon is a fully-automatic assault rifle whose bullets occupy 1/12th of the screen, one where you strike a goofy anime pose each time you're hurt and throw grenades like grains of sand. It's sheer dedication to assaulting the senses meant that when I put the game down and blinked, I saw one of the game's bosses burned into my retinas. I can see the game getting tiring on repeat sessions, despite the number of alternate characters and paths to take, but the sheer amount of fun I felt playing Shock Troopers for the first time made it well worth the discount price. As for the port, it's pretty bog standard. The kindest thing I can say about it is that it works, but there are so many options missing. Options like key bindings. Left-handed people are a myth, after all. The game also works just fine on Linux despite not mentioning so on the store page. It's listed as an "extra" in the GOG library, but it's there. What ultimately sold me on this release however is its inclusion of a complete Neo Geo BIOS and ROM file for the game that you can use in any emulator you please. I've been dreaming of a way to legitimately purchase console ROMs for my RetroPie machine for years and GOG finally made it happen. Just extract the Linux version as a zip archive and rummage around. I look forward to more companies allowing me to do the same with their games...

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