772nd played so far
Genre: Shoot ‘Em Up
Platform: Arcade
Year of Release: 1987
Developer: Taito
Publisher: Taito
Sometimes, you realise you just have to play these light gun games, and at that point you realise you’ve got to compromise. I’m about to tackle Operation Wolf, which is one of those, and so I’ll be playing with mouse control. I guess I’ll have an easier time of it, but with the normal difficulty of these games, I don’t mind that too much.
Our Thoughts
I’ll admit that, yeah, I probably had an easier game here than some other lightgun games. I doubt I would have gotten anywhere without it, so I don’t mind it – the game felt right in terms of difficulty this time. I managed to make my first run through the levels – with some deaths, but nothing too difficult – to get to the far harder second round, so that helped a lot.
For the most part this plays as a decent shooter, enemies pop up that you have to shoot while not shooting the occasional friendly. There’s ammo and such to pick up in the same way, there are tanks to avoid, limited ammo (and if you run out that’s a game over) and other things like it. There are some nice differences in how the stages are laid out, but mostly they play similarly.
That was different, though. Out of the six stages, the Japanese version had four available at the start (while the worldwide version forces you to play in order) and finishing each gave you a boost – one giving you access to further levels, others increase your ammo or take away enemies. This still happens in the international version, but you can’t really tell since there’s no choice involved. It’s a nice mechanic and would have helped the game.
Final Thoughts
Operation Wolf was a pleasant surprise. It was originally down as a game I was least looking forward to playing, but it turned out to be a fun shooter, with everything that I could adjust. Not as bad as I thought – I guess I should be playing more rails shooters like this, because they usually work for me!