NES box art for Jackal, the cover of NEStalgia episode 116

116 · JACKAL

▶ Game info

VerdictPlay it

GenreAction

ReleasedSeptember 1988

SeasonSeason 4

DeveloperKonami

PublisherKonami

April 24, 2020 · 44 min · transcript available

Apple Podcasts Spotify

Your brothers-in-arms are hostages behind enemy lines, and you're their only hope for freedom. But the firepower you'll face to rescue them is awesome. Cannons, tanks, submarines and snipers will blast you with horrific cross-fire, while jet fighters zero in from above.

SHOW NOTES

Jackal Longplay

TOP GUNNER

Red Fortress (FDS Jackal)

Jackal Rebirth (Cancelled Wii game)

Our verdict: Play it

Konami made and published this overhead run-and-gun, where an armed Jeep rescues prisoners of war. In arcades it was Top Gunner, renamed to avoid confusion with Konami's Top Gun game. We enjoyed it, found it easy, and didn't find it essential.

What works

Variety. Desert, military base, naval base and swamp, with one-time set pieces like a train and a jet that had just landed.
A big, readable field. The Jeep is small but not too small, and the play field is large for an NES game, so enemies enter with time to react.
Co-op that works. You can see everything with two Jeeps, unlike Life Force, which got harder with two players. We said it might be one of the first cases of multiplayer done right.
Big, silly bosses. A battleship against a Jeep, and a flamethrower tank the size of four Jeeps.
The ending. Four characters watch the sunset as a helicopter arrives, one smoking a cigar. It looks like a film, very Apocalypse Now.

What doesn't

Only north. In the American release the machine gun fires toward the top of the screen whichever way the Jeep faces, while missiles go where you aim on the D-pad. The Japanese version turns the gun with you. It frustrated at first and became an interesting twist.
The scrolling. The screen only scrolls when you are near the far left, right or top, so it can suddenly reveal a tank that shoots you.
Prisoners barely matter. Rescue is the whole mission, but you can reach the end of a stage without saving anyone and the game says move on.
Too easy. The controls are tight, shots are slow, and you can turn around and shoot a bullet.

Worth knowing

The arcade game was one long stage with room for about eight prisoners. The NES splits it into six stages with no limit, so the Jeep becomes a clown car.
Jackal is the name of the four-man team, and we never worked out why. Our audio producer says jackals are medium-sized omnivorous mammals, so the game came first, then the mammals.

The bottom line

Play it. Nobody voted it onto the Essential Games List. Joe has a weak spot for NES run-and-gun games, especially two-player ones, and gave it an "absolute play it" while saying it doesn't reach Essential. Sean called it forgettable and said it doesn't make his blood boil like the opening promised, so it should be marked down for lying. Mike called it a perfectly fine game he'd tell people to try, with nothing that makes him want to play it again.

Written from our conversation in this episode.

Click a timestamp to play from there. Landing a little off?

Auto-generated transcript. Each paragraph starts with its timestamp. Speakers are not identified.

Jackal, take no prisoners except our own.

And welcome to NEStalgia, a chronological exploration of every NES game released in North America. I'm Mike. I'm Sean. And I'm Joe. And guys, today we're talking about Jackal. And I don't know if I'm supposed to know what a Jackal is, but do either of you?

I just know that it is a Jackal. What? I just know that it is a Jackal. Oh, it is a Jackal. Yeah. I was wondering, is it a Jackal? Is it a Jackal? And Joe, your question of like being an animal or not, like, sure, I guess that's fine too. But like, what does it have to do with like this setting of like, you know, freeing prisoners of war? Like, is that is this a military term that I don't know about? Uh, I don't know. I think it's just like, it sounds cool. Like, what does Cobra have to do with anything? But you know, it sounds like a code name for these for these Jeep, uh, renegades.

Exactly. I mean, like then again, I was, you know, I never served. So I don't, maybe it does mean something. Yeah. Who knows? Yeah. Well, if, if anybody does know, please let us know. Cause I tried looking it up and I seriously couldn't find anything. So I was just, I really thought I was going to get like an enlightening answer, but I guess apparently like Jackal is just the name of this four man team, uh, that the game is made up of.

But you wouldn't really know it's a four man team, but we'll get into that later. Anyway, um, just to give a brief overview of what Jackal is for those of you that are uninformed. Uh, it's an overhead run and gun style shoot them up game, uh, released by Konami for, uh, the arcades in 1986, but there it was known as Top Gunner. So no, no worries about Jackal back then. They just called it Top Gunner. And then it came to the NES in 1988. Uh, but Konami decided to release the NES version under the new name Jackal because they wanted to avoid confusion with their video game adaptation of Top Gun, which they released. So did you guys, uh, like know any of that about Top Gun being a Konami game and now Jackal?

I, I knew nothing about Top Gunner. I'd never heard of it and never seen a cabinet for it. So. Yeah. Same. Yeah. Yeah. And I think it's funny to, to also recognize like the Konami made the Top Gun game because that's like, that's a pretty good license for them to pick up. And so far they've made just very original, uh, style action games that we've been pretty like crazy about. And I know Sean liked Top Gun, but for me and Joe, it seemed more like a, yeah, you can play it if you want. But the license was more like just a branding thing than anything else.

Recently as in 1988. Yeah. You know, past recently. Right. Right. Yeah. I mean, that might've been the last time they made a video game. If you look at certain times.

Uh, all right. And then, um, in this game, Jackal, you're, uh, you're pretty much driving an armed Jeep, uh, around like different locations. That's clearly like in a war zone in order to rescue prisoners of wars that are trapped in enemy territory. And I want to know, like, why do you guys think we keep seeing this theme of rescue prisoner of wars so frequently in 1988? We had, um, metal gear, Rambo, iron tank, invasion of Normandy commando, like all these themes of like the, you know, not just defeating the enemy, but rescuing prisoners of war. I think it's just a really thing, easy thing to include. That's like another goal.

That's not just defeat the bad guys, especially in a game that's like, I mean, based around a war. So then it doesn't just become like, get to the end of the level, beat the bad guys. You have like a, I think it's just like the most obvious other goal that you can have.

That's what it seems like to me. I also think that like, you know, we're sort of getting into that, uh, that time period, like where it seems like the cultural moratorium on making things about the Vietnam war is sort of lifting.

So it's sort of like fair game now, like in the mid eighties. Um, cause it ended in 75 and now we're like from, like we started in the mid eighties. So it's been like, you know, 10, 15 years. So I, that's what I think it is. And since that was such like a big thing with the war itself, that's just like a wild guess for me. I can see. Yeah. I think that makes sense.

And on top of that too, uh, I'm also thinking of like all of the action blockbuster movies of the late eighties that probably also like, oh, well we need to make video games the same kind of like big blockbuster feeling too. So, I mean, Rambo got a game too, but I wouldn't be surprised to also find out that Terminator got a game somewhere or, uh, alien got a game somewhere. Like those were big movies at the time.

They were. All right. Uh, that's pretty much all I have for background. So I think we can move into the gameplay. Uh, I just want to start by talking about how it has a great opening. It says this battle will make your blood boil. Good luck. I thought that was nice. It's a lot of telling and not showing. Yeah. Especially cause it's a white text on black. So it's not necessarily, it's another one of those things where it's not intimidating at all. There's no like great music or anything like that. It's sort of like, it's just going to say like, this is going to be a really great game.

Ready player one. Um, and then as far as the driving of your Jeep, since that's your only thing to do in this whole game, how did you guys feel about the combat mechanics of the Jeep? Uh, I think the first thing that I'm sure anyone who plays this will notice is that you can only shoot forward. I mean, and I don't mean forward as far as the way the Jeep's facing. I mean, you can only shoot towards the top of the screen, no matter which way you're facing.

Um, which I can see being a troubling mechanic or at least like a frustrating mechanic for a lot of people. And it was for me at first too, although I did sort of get used to it and like, it was something I forgave after a while. It was, it's a, it's a strange decision. I think, uh, I think that's like the first thing that will jump out at you. In the Japanese version, the machine gun does turn with you and, uh, shoots in whichever direction the Jeep is facing, which to me makes the most sense. But in the American release, the machine gun stays permanently affixed to fire north.

And, uh, one thing that's strange about that is that your missiles don't fix straight to the north. They shoot in the direction that you like target on the D-pad. So you wind up using that firing power a lot less. Yeah. So, um, what I noticed is like, so basically you've got, yeah, you've got the, uh, missiles slash grenades on, uh, on one button and you've got the unidirectional machine gun on the other. Uh, but as the game progresses, you will get, uh, upgrades for your grenade slash missile launcher. And what I had noticed, um, is that, um, I started to use that as my primary weapon and kind of ignore the machine gun.

So I, I think that, uh, it ends up just being the, it ends up, the gameplay ends up just being like you shoot where you're facing over time. Yeah. I think I kind of had a similar experience, although then I had another step to that where at, by the end I realized, oh, maybe I should be using the machine gun more also. So, so then I ended up by the end, I was using them both kind of in tandem where I would like kind of stay towards the back of the screen, just simultaneously be firing at anyone in front of me and then aiming at like more specific targets with the direction of the Jeep.

Um, and, and not for nothing, I don't think that, I don't think that it was, that it was intentional and whether it was or not, like, I sort of like found it kind of interesting. Cause it was just a different, an interesting change of like the way you think about a game like this. We played plenty of games that are similar to this. So it was an interesting way of like, oh, it's like, it's a different way to think about the gameplay. And even though it might be taking a flaw of the game and turning it into like a weird twisted positive, like after a while, I was kind of like, yeah, this kind of makes it an interesting game.

And it does let you fire the machine gun and the missiles at the same time. So theoretically, uh, I mean, I don't know how you guys play with it. You could just be spamming it. Right. I would just hold down the A button so that, or was it the B button? I can't remember now, but whichever button it was, I would hold down that one at all times. I'm just spamming it and then think more carefully about where I wanted to fire my missiles or grenades, given whatever power up you had. I just happened to have missiles a lot more. Uh, that was a pretty easy power up to attain. I think it's like whenever you get your first new prisoner of war after, um, after dying or something, you'll just immediately get the missiles. So that seemed to be the easiest thing.

Uh, but I really enjoyed, uh, the idea of being able to fire at least something in a specific direction, because I think this game would have really suffered if you couldn't, uh, move at all. Like if you always had to be thinking about moving forward. Yeah. The, the level layouts in this game are very much catered to directional, uh, combat, I guess is how I would describe it. Um, it's not just you're going in one direction and your enemies are coming from that direction too. Uh, this, this game really expects you to at least aim.

Yeah. And the scrolling, uh, aspect of the, of the game as well was a little strange because I expected the scrolling to start when your vehicle is a little more centered. You, your vehicle tank only ever moves when you're to the far left or far right or close to the top of the screen as you continue to scroll along. And that causes for some really weird times where like all of a sudden it'll just scroll to reveal another tank that shoots you right there.

And you couldn't possibly have known about it. So I would have appreciated it if they would have made it so that you were always kind of fixated, not in the direct center of the screen, but somewhere around there before it starts scrolling. Just to give you a look at your other, at the enemies that might be elsewhere on the map, because enemies will also rush you at any particular moment. If you're just staying still, you'll have the foot soldiers kind of, uh, show up from any particular side. So you always have to keep moving anyway. So I don't see the incentive to not start the scrolling a little sooner. Yeah. I mean, I, I agree. Um, it definitely gets you a little too close to, uh, the unknown for comfort.

Um, but I kind of see what, where they were going with it. Um, uh, it does, there is a very different feel, uh, of you and your character moving across the field instead of the field moving, uh, just by your direct input. So I don't know if that was just like a feel they were going for, or if they, maybe they thought of the design in a completely different way than we're thinking about it. Well, I should say that, you know, it's, it's a lot more open. I think if you guys remember Iron Tank Invasion of Normandy, that was a game that kind of forced you into very specific areas. As you were going through the level, you kind of had to follow this, this pathway.

And it wasn't like, it wasn't a closed cave or anything, but for the most part, you couldn't freely explore. And I appreciated that here in Jackal because your car sprite is small enough, but not too small. Like you can definitely register where you're moving and what you're shooting at and stuff like that. But the, the scope of the play field is pretty large for an NES game. And I actually thought that that helped it because enemies that would enter the screen, you had enough time to react to. It wasn't like they entered the screen and you were like, you know, right next to them.

Yeah, I noticed that, like with the standard troopers that were just on the ground, it seems like most of this game is kind of like to scale, which I found not impressive. It's not like it was like, oh, I can't believe they did this. But we see a lot of like mixed scale in these games. So I appreciated it. Yeah, it's a nice detail for them to pay attention to, especially at this point when we haven't seen that so much. And there was a weird scrolling thing going on. After you get to a certain point in a stage, you can't go backwards.

It won't let you scroll beyond that. And it kind of was like a Super Mario Brothers effect where you can't go back. But I noticed also that it was, I think that has largely to do with how it was trying to display all these sprites. Because if you notice the very last line at the bottom of your NES would always also have the top line of the NES. So it was like constantly being able to scroll through them. So this way it would always show. So if you just had trees like just out of frame, the trees would pop up at the bottom, like the very tops of them.

Interesting. Maybe they were like hiding out with overscan back in the day. Right, right. Which is a problem that even Super Mario Brothers 3 has. Super Mario Brothers 3 is a famous game for that where no matter what you do on any NES, you're going to have the far right side is going to have the last line is going to have whatever's on the far left.

Super Mario Brothers 3 is a And more than that, the Princess of War serve no other purpose than just points. And I thought that was really strange that you can go, the whole mission is about saving them and there's really no point. You don't have to save any of them. You can make it to the very end of the level and they could all just be stuck in those things and the game is like, great job, move on to the next stage.

Although it doesn't give you a great job, it doesn't give you, I mean, I know it's like a very primitive version of like a good ending to a level and a bad ending to a level. But if you don't, I don't know if it actually has to do with saving the prisoners or just the points that you accumulate. But if you do poorly, you get the like, I don't know, there's like an image of them all looking like confused and like not sure where to, they're like looking at a map. And then if you do, yeah, they're looking at the back and it goes here, like they don't know where to go next. Oh, like the little cut scene sort of thing? Yeah, yeah. And then if you do well, you get like an image of them like going off a jump in their Jeep and going, yeah.

Yeah. I mean, the prison of war mechanic, I know that there is a separate power up that you can just find by bombing a specific pixel or something. Yeah. And you get like a star.

Yeah. To give you the super powered missile launcher. But that's how you upgrade your weapon. And you're just probably not going to have too much fun if you're not rescuing prisoners. But the other thing that I appreciated about the prisoners of war just as like a story mechanic too, is it finally gives a reason why you're the only ones there. Like it says that they don't want to risk the diplomatic consequences of an all out assault and prompting retaliation. Like it actually gives you a reason why this is happening.

Yeah. Although you end up being like as devastating as an all out assault. Yeah. Your lone Jeep. Like this Jeep blows up huge tanks and can take it because like surface to air missiles and it's crazy. I'm glad that they explain that because that is a nice attention to detail in the story. But do they explain why the statues are able to open their mouths and shoot missiles at you? I mean, have you seen? I think they're laser beams. Yeah. So that makes more sense if you think. Have you not seen any like media about the Vietnam War?

Right. That was that's actually that was the biggest problem. It wasn't the jungle. It was these statues. It was the laser beams. Right. Another thing I wanted to mention about the prisoners of war, though, is where I was going with this is that I think it would have been a lot cooler of a mechanic because I get it, Sean. Like you definitely want those power ups. So you're going to rescue a few of them. I guess what I'm getting upset about is that there's no incentive to rescue everyone. And maybe that's just like wishful thinking and it's like the purity of this game would be to rescue everybody.

But it would be cool if the game was more focused because it's so open the screen and there's no like I don't know, there's no imminent danger as long as you're playing smart. It would be cool if the whole thing was exploring the map to find the prisoners of war, making sure you locate all of them and only them with the helicopter go to the helipad to let you like let them in. So all of them, you want to make sure that you get all of them or else you can't progress.

Well, I would say that. Yeah, that would be that would be the goal, though, too, is like they would hide like, you know, maybe eight in a stage and you'd have to find them all. And then finally, that would be like the clear code to go to the next stage. I think if the game ended up, I'm not trying to say that you have bad ideas and all of your ideas are terrible. I'm not saying that. I would never say something like that.

But I would say that if the game were designed that way and you could not progress until you found all of them and the maps were bigger and more explorative to accommodate that, I could see this game being very frustrating if you just can't find that last one somewhere.

So I don't know. That's just my opinion on it. I think I kind of land on it like being I wish that there was just something that was more rewarding, but not necessarily quite so punishing for not picking them up. But you just get like really more like maybe a couple more power ups for picking up something that really incentivizes you to pick them up, but doesn't like necessarily require it to finish the game. So that's actually what I was going to bring up, because it feels like there's not nearly enough power ups in this game compared to your usual Konami game.

But what would you guys have wanted to see? Like I thought I would want more power ups, but I can't really think of anything that wouldn't just be like overkill. Yeah, I mean, that's a good point. I mean, that was really just like wanting a reason for there to be more weight to picking up the prisoners. But I can't think of like power ups I specifically would have wanted. And I honestly think that the missiles and the grenades were like were pretty good and need to overcomplicate it. Yeah, I mean, to be honest, I already found this game relatively easy compared to the games that came before it in this like subgenre.

And it was actually kind of like chill up until like the last couple levels where there are a few circumstances that you can find yourself in. Or if you just die and end up with just your grenades. But I would say that any extra power ups is just going to make this like complete. Yeah. Overkill, like you said, like you don't need more power ups to play this game. I think that this game would need a little bit more challenge or more complexity to require something like that. Yeah, I think even as I was mulling it over, I could see something maybe like a spread where your machine gun now fires three instead of one.

Again, it would be overkill. But I could see a power up like that existing or maybe even something like a shield where you can take a hit because otherwise your tank can only ever take one hit. So I think something like that would have been... It's a jeep. What's that? Oh, yeah, jeep, jeep. I know, I'm sorry. I'm thinking of iron tank now.

So, you know, I would have appreciated like some kind of defense power up as well just because the one hit is kind of weird. But, yeah, I would echo what Sean's saying about the game being approachable is my philosophy on that. Yeah, I guess that's a more generous word. It's inviting. You know, look at this big open world. We've got deserts. We've got military bases.

But you do have... There is a journey there, Sean. I mean, you're going from the desert to a military base to a naval base to even a swamp. I mean, they're giving you a lot of different variety. Yeah, can I talk about that for a second? Yeah, please. I was pretty... I was charmed by the amount of like variety and things they included in here. Even to the point where at one point there's a train, which is not... That sprite is not used anywhere else. It's just like a one-time thing. Yeah. It's a nice set piece. Yeah, I think there were a couple of times where there were just like one-time things.

There were a couple of times there was like a jet that had just like landed. There were like a few of those, but it was just used like once. And it just made it... It just felt like, oh, they put a lot of thought into just making this feel like a real like...

experience. Like, oh, you're actually going through different environments and this is like... I mean, as silly as it sounds at an NES game, it's like, oh, this is like actually like a lived-in world. What that would have meant back in 1988. Yeah, I guess it does sound a little silly, but I will echo that. I say that like to an extent, this game reflects like a place that can't exist. Right. Like the prisoner of war camps are set up in a way that you could say that might be how they're set up.

I would say even more important than like, oh, this all checks out is just that it's really cool that each stage is actually very different from the stage that comes before it. Yeah, the idea of just like moving forward and, you know, rescuing prisoners of war remains the same. But the fact that like almost all of the elements that exist in each stage are standalone to that stage. And like Joe was saying, some stages have trains. Some stages have like mounted turrets on top of them. I think in like the, what is it, the military base, there's like those things that shoot like laser cannons that you have to kind of like be careful about avoiding. I like things like that.

Yeah. It's not too often that we don't see like the same enemies just continuously show up throughout a game. No, I think that there was a really good enemy variety here.

There wasn't just one kind of tank. There wasn't just one kind of ground troop. Even the airborne enemies like had some variety to them and you could see them in various states of like, I guess like at some point you're in like a parking lot where you see like a bunch of non-operational tanks. So that also gives it some lived in feel as well.

And so Sean, I know you were talking about the game being, you know, relatively easy. I would say that the only time that that stopped for me was for the most part when the bosses at any particular stage, I found the bosses to be pretty hard and also very odd choices. We talked about those statue heads that spit out the homing laser beams or whatever. But then there's also like the that really large battleship and the idea of like your tank.

Sorry, your Jeep going up against that is really funny. And so I think there's something about these larger than life boss fights. At the end, I think the very last fight is against like a gigantic tank that shoots a flamethrower. That's, you know, like for the size of four Jeeps. So there's something funny about that. And it reminds me of other Konami like style bosses we've seen in Life Force, Contra. The boss battles are always big set pieces. But I did find this to be definitely the most difficult part of any particular stage.

Yeah, I agree for the most part, except for I think it was like the second or third boss, which is just like a helicopter that like comes in and out. It drops off like three guys and then flies away. And like he just keeps dropping off these three guys to like as they're watching the other three guys before them just get murdered by this Jeep over and over again. Three more go in there. And the helicopter just comes in and fires a few a few bullets and then like flies out and you just got to shoot it. That was the one where I felt like that's oddly easier than the first two bosses.

You even see them parachute down. Yeah, yeah. And you can just run over. We haven't talked about that. You can just run over enemies, which is something that I think is kind of rare. Usually you touch an enemy and you die. You can just run over foot soldiers in this. The other tank game that we played, you could also run them over. But that wasn't really communicated clearly enough to me. So I was always like trying to stay clear of them.

But regarding the bosses. That was the iron tank, Sean. And the thing there was that you lost health, though. Like regardless of what you ran over, you lost a little bit of health, but it did kill them. Oh, wait, no. I thought that like you sort of harvested their blood and that became your health if you ran them over. Oh, right. That's right. It's the larger enemies. It's like when you run into a tank, like the tank still gets blown up, but you take the damage. Exactly. But yeah, regarding the bosses in this game, I think that they're very well designed visually. And that there is enough like variety there to make them interesting to fight.

But again, like they're mostly kind of easy. And even the final boss, even though it ended up just chewing through all my lives for the most part, I ended up figuring out a way to cheese it. And then even that boss was easy. But I think the difficulty or lack thereof in this game is down to the fact that the controls are tight. And there isn't that much jank, which is positive. But also, I think all of the aside from a couple instances or a couple enemies, most of the projectiles are really easy to dodge. They're too slow, even boss battles. So that's where I think this lack of difficulty is coming from. That also comes from Joe's famous line. Watch out for that bullet.

I was thinking about that a lot because there was a lot of times where like a bullet was coming at me and I could just like quickly turn around and like shoot the bullet, shoot the guy. Outrun the bullet. Yeah.

So yeah, that was noticeable. So we've been talking a lot about Iron Tank in relation to this game. Comparing the two, is Iron Tank now like not even something you would consider? Or are they still different enough because Iron Tank had the, you know, the choose your own level path, whereas this game is more straightforward and arcade-like? Are they still different enough that you don't consider them the same kind of game? I kind of do see them as, you know, even though in this one you're driving a Jeep and the other one you're driving a tank. I see them as partners because maybe because they came out so close together. Yeah. I think that I don't consider them the same kind of game and one does not make the other obsolete.

I think that this is closer to an Ikari Warriors sort of thing, obviously, because of its lineage goes through that. But yeah, there's enough of a difference between the gameplay elements and even just the control scheme that I don't consider them. I can consider them companions, but they're different enough that you can play one and then play the other and it would be a different experience.

And then in regards to just the pacing of the game in general, did you guys feel like the levels were just the right length, a little too long? You would have appreciated additional stages? What were you guys thinking? I think, I mean, just coming at it from a person in 2020, I'm like, I'm thinking, look, it's short. But looking at it based on all the other games I've played, I thought it was a pretty fun experience and it didn't feel, I wouldn't have felt cheated or robbed, I think, if I got this in the 80s.

And even now, now also coming at it from someone from 2020, I think games like this might overstay their welcome if you're playing them for too much longer. So I feel like it was a nice, neatly packaged experience. On one hand, yeah, it was, this is great. Like, this is bite-sized and it's great for me, considering how bloated a lot of games nowadays are.

But if I were to buy this in the 80s and even just me picking this up for the first time and doing pretty well, I think I would have felt a little ripped off because I could have beat this in a day or two. Like, if I tried really hard because it was just easy enough.

But since the game is also that simple, maybe it doesn't need to be any longer. I just hope the game wasn't charged at full price, I guess. Yeah, I can see where you're coming from. I think the one other thing that tips it for me in the favor of, like, not being too much of a problem is something we haven't talked about yet, which is the multiplayer, which I think this is just a perfect candidate for that multiplayer. And that's something I think you could play over and over again with someone, try and rack up your score or try and do whatever. And, like, I think these co-op multiplayer games that actually are cooperative and are not just you alternate playing.

Yeah. I think those kind of helped the lifespan a little bit. I had completely forgotten to take the value of that mode into account because I did not play it. Yeah, and to talk about the cooperative two there for a second, I think it's worth noting that not only does the size of the battlefield, or whatever you want to call it, welcome two players because the jeeps are relatively sized appropriately so that you don't have to, like, focus too much on, well, where are the bullets and where's the... Like, you can see everything.

I think this is one of the first two-player games we've gotten that, like, while we were hyped that other ones would let us play together, we ran into this problem with Life Force where it was like, oh, this game's actually kind of harder when you play with two people. It's a lot more to pay attention to, and you don't really run into that problem here in Jackal. So I think this might be one of the first instances of multiplayer done right, and that actually feels better because I think when you're playing with someone else, you don't want to deal with frustration.

You guys just want to run through the whole thing and be badasses. So if the game's going to let you do that, all the more power to it. So it doesn't allow for somebody like Mike to just take all of the cool stuff and leave you in the dust?

Theoretically, it would still allow me to do that. Oh, okay. Then I don't know if I'd play it. But yeah, I agree. And one thing while we were talking about pacing there is I think it's worth noting that the arcade game of this Top Gunner is different because it didn't break up the six stages. It was one complete stage that just kept going and going and going. There was no break. So the NES version finally says like, okay, well, let's take this whole map, break it down into six stages,

add some different bosses, and they made it so there's no limit to the prisoners of war available to you. So in the arcade, you could only ever have like eight at a time. In the NES version, they're like, well, no one's – you know, like you're playing for a high score, so try and get as many as you can. There's a lot of leg room in the Jeep, so you can pack them in there. It's like a clown car.

Yeah. But what do you think about that? Like one long level, would you have wanted that? Or do you appreciate them breaking it up into six stages? I think it was nice for them to break it up because then it makes you feel like you're – you really notice your progress, I guess, more. I imagine that they broke it up into levels simply because like maybe the framework they were working in didn't allow for one long level. with all the different assets that end up being in each. But that's just a guess.

It does make sense as to why the game is so short if they were just using that – like the long level as their baseline, though. Yeah, I think you're spot on with the technical limitations there of that being the reason why. But also, there's nothing like – there's nothing inherently – like it almost worked in their favor doing it that way. I think to Joe's point, like breaking it up into six stages feels at least like you're progressing, whereas I feel like one very long stage would actually – there would be like a moment where you'd question like, am I getting anywhere?

Well, I think if it still does change like the biome you're in, like each level is different, like I think you would still feel that sense of progress. But I think just the framework of levels is something we'd be familiar with and I guess would – it at least confirms that you're making progress. I don't think that you wouldn't feel it, but yeah. Yeah, I don't think that you literally wouldn't – like would be wondering if you're making progress. But it just gives you that like little moment of like, ah, yes, like another step in – you know, I got another step towards victory here. Like I've completed another level instead of like just going and going and going. Yes, aha, exactly.

Plus, it gives you the opportunity to check out like you and your crew hanging out with your Jeep doing wheelies. Yeah. Right. Absolutely. I mean, that's the whole reason you play the game. That's exactly why. Are there any other straight thoughts about this game from you guys? Yes. One thing I just want to mention is that I think this is one of the most, if not the most aesthetically pleasing ending credits.

You have like this really nice picture of all four of your characters looking at the sunset as like a helicopter like comes to pick them up. Like one of them is like smoking a cigar. They're like relaxing after like a hard day's work. And then like it freeze frames as the helicopter comes. And then the credits like kind of roll over that. It looks like a film. It's very apocalypse now.

It's also nice that you kind of just like with the sunset and everything like that, which looks just like the sunrise from The Lion King. But just seeing that, it's nice that like the idea of if it was one long level, that at the end you just there's nothing else to go to. You know, like you've made it to the very end of whatever this map is. Like there's nothing but water at this point. Yeah. I wanted to just really touch upon the sequels and spinoffs section here because I think it's surprising to find out that there are none. Really? Hmm. This is the end of the line. Some of our episodes, this can go on for longer than we talk about the actual game. I think maybe that sequels and spinoffs are in development.

That could be. I will tell you that Jackal was first released on the Famicom disk system as Red Fortress. Would you have wanted that name? No. Good. Okay. It's a mostly inferior game too. Something about like the Famicom disk system. It just, I guess it couldn't hold as much information as the NES version was able to. So there's a lot missing. But it did do something really cool in the cooperative mode.

Instead of two different Jeeps, it lets player one drive and player two be the gun. Oh, so you could like aim the gun in any direction there too? Yeah, I think I mentioned that at the beginning of the combat mechanics section. But in the Japanese version, you're able to shoot wherever. Without a second player, yeah. With or without a second player in the Japanese version. Right. But then if it's without a second player, you have to be facing the direction you're shooting, right? Correct. And then with a second player, you can like shoot backwards. Yes. You can shoot wherever the second player decides.

And I think that's really cool. And probably also though, brings back the frustration. Because now you have to like share a brain on what the other ones are trying to do.

And not that hard, granted. It's not like, you know, it's not anything too complex. But that's the essence of cooperative gameplay, I suppose. Isn't that everything, Sean? It's everything.

But there was going to be a sequel. I'm sure you guys have heard of Konami's Rebirth line, which was a line of video games that basically got sequels only on the Wii. It was like on the Wii's digital storefront. And they had like Castlevania Rebirth, Gradius Rebirth. We've talked about these on the other sequels and spinoffs. I had no idea these existed. Oh, that's cool. Okay. So you guys got to pay more attention when I do these sequels and spinoffs section. But check them out. Check out all of the Rebirth line. Because as far as I know, you can only play them on that Wii still. Which now the eShop's down, so you can't play that Wii eShop anymore. But there's going to be some kind of way to play these games eventually.

However, Jackal Rebirth was definitely planned and in the works. And there are plenty of screenshots if you want to like, and we'll link them in the show notes if you want to check them out. It definitely looks like a 3D remake of Jackal, the way that it presents itself here on the NES. It just never actually came out with the other ones. I'm not sure why. There's no details on why it never got released, but maybe the Rebirth line wasn't doing too hot. And they assume, well, Jackal's not really a franchise, so it doesn't need it.

Yeah, I mean, just judging by the length of the Wikipedia articles for each of these Rebirth games, they're pretty short. So maybe they weren't too great of a sell, you know? Or maybe there just wasn't a whole lot there either. For sure. All right, and we'll find out if this game has a whole lot to offer when we do the Essential Games List.

Okay, Joe, tell me why or why not this game should be on the Essential Games List. So I'm realizing more and more that I think I have like a little bit of a weak spot for this kind of game. Because I really liked even back when we played Commando and games like that, I just liked these run-and-gun games on the NES, especially when it introduces a two-player.

I think it was a strange decision to only let you shoot forward, one that I ended up kind of making into a positive. But, you know, I think it's fun to play this, especially if you can pick it up with a second player. But overall, I mean, it's a pretty simple game. It's very similar to other games we've played. I don't know if it gets for me. It definitely doesn't get for me to that Essential level. But I would give it an absolute play it. Okay. At the very least, we have Joe's recommendation. We don't have his full... He doesn't love it, but he likes it. You don't need to play it. Joe has not disavowed this game. And what about you, Sean? Are you about to disavow this game?

No, I'm not going to disavow it. The game is enjoyable. It's a very pleasant experience. There isn't too much, like... It doesn't make my blood boil like they said it would. So I guess that they should be marked down just for lying to me. But I enjoyed the game well enough. But it's kind of forgettable. Forgettable. I imagine by the time we record our next episode, I will have forgotten most of the things about this game. So it's not going on the Essential Games list.

All right. And just to add my thoughts to this, I think that this game is perfectly fine. And I can see why it's... It's still relatively early in the NES library. And to get a game like this that's completely playable, has a few flaws, but for the most part is an enjoyable experience. I can understand why back in 1988 there was a lot going on for this game in terms of like, oh, it's another Konami classic. You should definitely play it. Don't miss Jackal. A lot of our audience was telling us that we were going to like this game.

I don't hate this game. I would say that I like it. I just don't think that at the end of the day, there's anything here that's going to put it on the Essential Games list for me personally. There's nothing... There's no satisfaction going on while I'm playing this game in my brain that makes me think I'm going to play it again later. And I think that's a huge criteria of the Essential Games list. It's something you're going to want to talk about, something you're going to want to tell people about.

And I think like if somebody else wanted to talk to me about Jackal, I'd tell them it's a perfectly fine game and they can give it a try if they want. But I'm not going to be singing any songs about it. But there's so many lyrics you could use that rhyme with Jackal. I would have preferred that we had planned a whole song about Jackal to sing after this, but we don't. And there won't be a post-show. So don't stick around. Or do, because we're about to do the outro where we talk about... And now it's time for the outro. Right, where we plug a bunch of things.

So we have a Twitter. It's called Nostalgia Cast. Don't you love that Jackal? When you go and run and crackle and spackle that wet paint on the wall. Do you spackle wet paint? I don't know how spackling works. I don't know. I don't either. Our audio producer also wanted us to know that Jackals are medium-sized omnivorous mammals. Oh, that's right. So Jackal was adapted into an animal eventually. The game came first and then the mammals. Right. That's good to know. They got a mammal adaptation. It's a very cross-platform attitude. Right. So I guess I was wrong when I said there was no spinoffs.

But, you know, other than the Twitter, we're always around. We're always watching. We're like Santa Claus. We know when you listen to the episodes or not. I get an audit from the NSA on who listens to the full episodes. I shouldn't be telling them that. Well, I figured they need to know by now. If you're on episode 100 and whatever this is, then you would know exactly what's going on. Next week we have Jeopardy. So I know everybody's excited for Jeopardy. And here's why you should be, okay, if you don't think that you're excited yet. Rare made this game. I am interested to see how we're going to talk about this game because it's unlike anything we've done before.

But I'm excited just to play Jeopardy. Well, I will. That could be cool. I will tell the listeners right now that it's a very special episode that we have planned for Jeopardy, and I think it'll be a lot of fun. I knew that. Yeah, I think it'll be a lot of fun. So definitely come back, even though it's a game that you might not like. I mean, come on. Did you really like... That game was pretty good. Did you really like Super Pitfall? Nobody liked Super Pitfall. But you listened. Don't you feel stupid? No, stop it, Chuck.

That's not what I meant. But in a way, it kind of is. I think next episode... No, sorry. Lee Trevino's Fighting Golf is after Jeopardy. And somehow I have a feeling that that episode is going to be a little short. So we'll probably cover issue two of Nintendo Power on that one. So guys, stick around for that one too. Anyway, point of the story is we've got a lot of exciting stuff for you. April Fool's is out of the way by a long shot now. It's probably May now, right? Nope, it's still April. My bad. It's April 24th. So I hope you enjoyed that. And I hope you enjoyed your April 24th, wherever you are. Happy birthday, Jeeves. Really calling your shot there. Happy birthday, Jeeves.

← GOLGO 13: TOP SECRET EPISODE JEOPARDY →

116 · JACKAL

What works

What doesn't

Worth knowing

The bottom line

More like this

More from Konami

More Action games

Also released in 1988