The voice samples from the NES version were so hilarious that this was one of my favourite things ever as a kid. My friends & I used to imitate them all the time.
I bought this for the C64. That version's publisher, Data East, must have had a late change of mind to bill it as a sequel, because the box was printed as being just Victory Road and the 'Ikari Warriors Part II' bit was a sticker placed on afterwards.
The short summary with this game's development goes as follows from what I heard: Ikari Warriors had harsh backlash over depicting war in a video game, so in response, they ditched all those elements and put everything into space with aliens about for its sequel and ran with it. And, well... it shows
The Ikari Warriors enter the Bermuda Triangle and step into the Twilight Zone! One of my favorite SNK games. This and TIme Soldiers were my favorites in the arcade. Great botp.
You know something... when you mentioned the backstory to Victory Road taking place after the events of Ikari Warriors (a military jungle shooting game) it really kinda comes off as comparable to even some of the contemporary American comic books that sometimes changed stuff up to some fantastical setting or had an origin of a real world to a fantastical world setting (given that there are three headed dragons and flying rock heads that spit some type of fire ball) and the story seems quirky but actually makes sense as long as you can recall any such almost similarities and makes me wonder if the SNK devs had seen some of the American comic books that had military soldiers or a story that takes place in the real world and then a warp or portal opens and the main characters find themselves somewhere else... Now I can say that only having known of a few comics, not a comics expert but Japanese Manga is a bit way more diverse with stories because it's not always about superhero characters either like American comics were. That said Victory Road in the arcades was an awesome game... the voice really drew you in and depending on how you saw things, it was probably intentional like the attract mode to get players to play... I never played the NES version other than seeing it and feeling disappointed but ironically it never occurred to me that this was one of those games that Sega should have purchased a license for the Sega MegaDrive BUT there was a thing about the belief that a game that was a couple of years old was somehow not cool anymore... kinda like why Double Dragon and others were not being picked up but then we had some mini retro near arcade perfect games... anyway the Sega MegaDrive was the perfect hardware for this type of game to be perfect on with all sound effects and voices... that tate mode however... I got the SNK for PS4 release so I have the NES and arcade and just never touched the NES version yet. Those rotary joystick shooters were just awesome... but they were a huge challenge for the NES, SMS, TG16/PCE, SNES and SMD gamepads... maybe not so much the SNES pad as Super Smash TV played perfectly minus the gore unfortunately.
I loved this one growing up. There's something oddly appealing about the repulsive enemy designs and setting. I think this came in that SNK collection I bought a few years back. Might be time to revisit it.
It is strange to see ST ports on Amiga, because it is usually, the reverse. And even the music/SFX on Amiga are just recorded samples from the ST version.
A lot of the earlier games were just ports from the ST to Amiga, often called a lazy port. Basically the Amiga could mimic how the ST worked and ignored most of the extra hardware. So you have 16-colour graphics etc from the ST that can be transferred right over. Converting from Amiga would tend to mean a lesser ST version, like we saw with Shadow of the Beast and everything else from Psygnosis. But then there's the Bitmap Bros, games were great on both systems becausse they cared.
The color palette on the Apple II and IBM don't look like any palettes I have seen on those machines before. Is it some kind of deal where they are making color out of composite video artifacts?
Yeah, they use some nice coding tricks to give us better colours. I'm not sure how that works on the Apple II but PC's could have expanded CGA pallets.
Sorry for enjoying your suffering but I love seeing how badly some of these computer ports turn out for 80s era games. Thanks for dealing with them for us ;)
There was an attempt by UK Software house, Ocean Software, to produce a UK C64 version.. It seems that Video Images may have been in discussions to handle the UK version of the game at some stage. All that has been recovered is a loading screen, so far
This is without a doubt the jankiest and weirdest video game I have ever played in my entire life. Doesn't matter what the platform is the entire thing plays like a jalopy with the wheels all about to fall off but somehow they never do.
I wanted it so bad too, back when I had my C64 and I saw it in the adverts. I really thought I was missing out cause I loved the first game in the arcades. LOL
It must have been something important last week, because there was no Battle of the Ports video. But no problem, I appreciate all your port comparison video content. Regarding the subject of the video, the layout of the game is rather strange and that the opponents want to resemble aliens. It's sure to be fun, especially the NES version.
@@RetroCore Whoa. It's even prettier then if it's for basic Apple II! Might not play fine but hey... I always toss Apple II a grain of salt for being 70s hw.
Maybe it's best to say that the Famicom might be the best of the ports, with both the Atari ST and Amiga were the worst ones. I guess there were programmers who were awful at programming Atari ST Games and then converting them to the Amiga for laziness. Sometimes it can be like that.
Judging by the number of colors I'm guessing the Apple version uses DHGR mode, which requires a lot of bankswitching, so I'm not surprised it's slow on the poor little 1.02 MHz CPU.
It's too bad that this couldn't have a proper port. I thoroughly enjoyed the arcade experience. The NES version had floppy disk like loading times when going into and out of the paused menu screen and in those shops. Very bad.
“Sure, [the Atari ST version] looks visually fine […]” Unless there was a problem with your capture, it really doesn’t. Everything is yellow. It looks like you’re playing a Simpsons game. Why is everything so yellow? The ST could do more than 4 colors onscreen at once
It's colourful but sadly plays like the ZX version which let's it down a bit. If it had more responsive controls it would be up there with the NES version.
I don't think I would have liked this game when I was a kid. Only because those giant yellow robotic bee spider things would have triggered my severe arachnophobia.
Oh wow... another one i don't know! Is this using the same boards as street smart and POW? It seems snk/alpha etc had a bit of time travelling obsession at the time, what with time soldiers and the like....
ZX Spectrum version is not sluggish at all when compared to all the other versions of the game. As usual Amstrad CPC version is slow with blocky low resolution graphics and it may have more colour than almost monochromatic ZX Spectrum version, but it most certainly does not have better defined graphics.
Judging just by which one functions the best, I'd say Famicom (NES). The apple version looks to function the worst. Most games seem slow and clunky on the apple II platform though.
Only the arcade version is the best. The NES version, while still garbage, at least tried to make some changes by giving an all-new villain and final boss.
You were nicer on this game than I expected. In my opinion, it's awful on just about everything. Even in the arcades, it's essentially hastily thrown together DLC stages for the original Ikari Warriors, that while retaining the same graphics and controls, had nowhere near the amount of effort put into stage designs or enemy placements. Plus, it's story was just stupid and over the top. I kinda miss when you used to voice your opinion on the arcade game itself. Yeah, it's nice to get an objective description of the game, but some opinions would be nice on top of that. Anyway, here's some of my own opinions on the ports: Apple ][ and IBM PC: Okay, this is awkward. Both of these systems received ports of the original Ikari Warriors, both also by Quicksilva, so it makes no sense while the PC version looks to reuse the same engine as the original game, while the Apple ][ looks to have an entirely new port built from the ground up, but not just any port, a bad one. Graphically, it's subpar, the original looked nicer, and gameplay wise it's god damn slow. The original wasn't this slow, plus it also scrolled. This is just flip screen. Thankfully, the PC port turned out much better, but it still manages to be very bad because it's Ikari Warriors, so it's got crappy level design, but now with the bonus of stiff controls! Yeah, both these ports fucking blow. Commodore 64: This has a striking resemblance to the America C64 port of the original game, at least in terms of graphics, in terms of gameplay, it's far better, but still suffers from scrolling that waits till you're too far up on the screen to actually start scrolling, and the game is just boring without a lack of enemies on screen. Even the music is mediocre, but we at least get some fairly high quality speech to make up for it. Not the worst effort, but eh, even given the source material, it still could've been a little better. Famicom: Okay, you were way nice on this one. Yeah, it's better than the original on the system, but is that really an accomplishment? Apart from having one of the most painfully slow intros in all of gaming, the game itself is slow as hell. You can go so long without encountering any enemies, plus your character moves so slowly too. Graphically, it's not the worst, but the design of the warriors here is not my likings, and the music is a little too high pitched and forgettable for my tastes as well. Micronics did about as well on this game as they did with Athena, they made probably a better game than the arcade original, but still not anything worth playing. It wasn't until the third installment when SNK stepped in, that Ikari games on the NES would start getting good. As for the other home computers, not a whole lot to add from me, though it seems the Speccy and CPC reuse the same engines as the original games, despite having different developers. Also, you got the developers of the ST and Amiga wrong. it wasn't Paradise who did them, it was Micro Wish, and Jesus Christ, they're so bad! You went hard on them, but even that might not have been enough. I'd say that even graphically, both versions are poor, sloppy looking sprites and a lack of color, plus the Amiga in particular just sampling the ST's audio is another level of laziness... Ah, the good old Amiga, also a system you can count on to make good games bad, and bad games even worse...
It is a crap game, no doubt about that. These days I'm really busy with work so I tend not to give options on the original game as much as I once did but I will do so in the future.
Man, I always hated this game in general, but especially the NES version. Feels so janky. No idea why the game feels so much like it's gonna fall apart constant-- oh it's Micronics, never mind, that explains it...
I have to say, both Commodore versions are absolute s*itshows. The 64 version is slow, ugly and bares little resemblance to the Arcade machine. It was so bad that I'm pretty sure it never got an EU release and I can't find any mention of a UK version like we got with Out Run and Space Harrier. The Amiga version is, somehow, even worse. Given it was done by the same guy that wrote Zynaps and Slayer (Howard Ball), I can only surmise this was a "take the money before they go bust" job.
Opinion differ, The NES version is badly done this time worst than the first one. The worst part is the Rpg element, Ikari gameplay should be easy ti understand, just plain melee shooting. The protoganist character is badly designed, it was huge and not much faster than the first one. Such large sprites take up sprites spaces and severly reduce the enemy sprites on the screen. The enemy count is really low in the this version. Best version goes to Armstrad CPC
![BOWKYLION - วิงวอน (ex-change) [Official MV]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/cLdnZWDaO-w/mqdefault.jpg)
The voice samples from the NES version were so hilarious that this was one of my favourite things ever as a kid. My friends & I used to imitate them all the time.
I bought this for the C64. That version's publisher, Data East, must have had a late change of mind to bill it as a sequel, because the box was printed as being just Victory Road and the 'Ikari Warriors Part II' bit was a sticker placed on afterwards.
The short summary with this game's development goes as follows from what I heard:
Ikari Warriors had harsh backlash over depicting war in a video game, so in response, they ditched all those elements and put everything into space with aliens about for its sequel and ran with it.
And, well... it shows
The Ikari Warriors enter the Bermuda Triangle and step into the Twilight Zone! One of my favorite SNK games. This and TIme Soldiers were my favorites in the arcade. Great botp.
For me, time soldiers come out on top. It seems a little more responsive.
Captivating comparison. I did not realize victory road was in fact Ikari 2, now I understand why there is an Ikari 3 arcade game.
Yeah. I bet so many were confused by that as this one doesn't actually say it is Ikari Warriors 2.
Only played Famicom version, but Amstrad CPC, like it's prequel, looks amazing. A weird game in all ports, and a good BotP like always.
You know something... when you mentioned the backstory to Victory Road taking place after the events of Ikari Warriors (a military jungle shooting game) it really kinda comes off as comparable to even some of the contemporary American comic books that sometimes changed stuff up to some fantastical setting or had an origin of a real world to a fantastical world setting (given that there are three headed dragons and flying rock heads that spit some type of fire ball) and the story seems quirky but actually makes sense as long as you can recall any such almost similarities and makes me wonder if the SNK devs had seen some of the American comic books that had military soldiers or a story that takes place in the real world and then a warp or portal opens and the main characters find themselves somewhere else... Now I can say that only having known of a few comics, not a comics expert but Japanese Manga is a bit way more diverse with stories because it's not always about superhero characters either like American comics were.
That said Victory Road in the arcades was an awesome game... the voice really drew you in and depending on how you saw things, it was probably intentional like the attract mode to get players to play... I never played the NES version other than seeing it and feeling disappointed but ironically it never occurred to me that this was one of those games that Sega should have purchased a license for the Sega MegaDrive BUT there was a thing about the belief that a game that was a couple of years old was somehow not cool anymore... kinda like why Double Dragon and others were not being picked up but then we had some mini retro near arcade perfect games... anyway the Sega MegaDrive was the perfect hardware for this type of game to be perfect on with all sound effects and voices... that tate mode however... I got the SNK for PS4 release so I have the NES and arcade and just never touched the NES version yet.
Those rotary joystick shooters were just awesome... but they were a huge challenge for the NES, SMS, TG16/PCE, SNES and SMD gamepads... maybe not so much the SNES pad as Super Smash TV played perfectly minus the gore unfortunately.
I have to give that Apple II version props just for *existing* in a recognisable form.
If they had a rock n roll hall of fame for gaming systems I reckon the C64 should be in there 🤘🏽
It most definitely should be.
I loved this one growing up. There's something oddly appealing about the repulsive enemy designs and setting. I think this came in that SNK collection I bought a few years back. Might be time to revisit it.
I love the Ikari franchise. Another clever offering from a pre-Neo Geo SNK.
It is strange to see ST ports on Amiga, because it is usually, the reverse. And even the music/SFX on Amiga are just recorded samples from the ST version.
A lot of the earlier games were just ports from the ST to Amiga, often called a lazy port. Basically the Amiga could mimic how the ST worked and ignored most of the extra hardware. So you have 16-colour graphics etc from the ST that can be transferred right over. Converting from Amiga would tend to mean a lesser ST version, like we saw with Shadow of the Beast and everything else from Psygnosis. But then there's the Bitmap Bros, games were great on both systems becausse they cared.
Yeah, it's just a basic copy and paste over to the Amiga from the ST. Trully a lazy ports.
The color palette on the Apple II and IBM don't look like any palettes I have seen on those machines before. Is it some kind of deal where they are making color out of composite video artifacts?
I think so. It looks like enhanced cga (ikari warriors used a similar trick afaik)
Yeah, they use some nice coding tricks to give us better colours. I'm not sure how that works on the Apple II but PC's could have expanded CGA pallets.
MS-DOS version has surprisingly smooth scrolling for 1987!
So true. PC games at the time tended to be quite choppy.
I used to play this in the Arcade. Thank you !!
You're welcome.
Not to be confused with the final cave in the Pokemon games. (about the localized name)
I thought there were NEC PC88, PC98, and Sharp X68000 versions, too.
Maybe of a different Ikari Warriors game.
Love some Ikari Warrior themed action 👏 Very nice 😎👍
Glad you like it👍
Very good episode of BoP. Thanks!
You're welcome 👍
Got to channel that 'Rambo Commando' vibe while playing this & its previous title, Ikari Warriors.
The Atari ST version appears to be suffering a chronic case of Jaundice, it's so yellow
Sorry for enjoying your suffering but I love seeing how badly some of these computer ports turn out for 80s era games. Thanks for dealing with them for us ;)
You're welcome. Yeah, sometimes making Battle of the Ports isn't much fun, 😅
Ikari Warriors and this one were released the same year (February & October 1986). Those were the days...
Yea its almost like an 80s DLC 😆
I know the third one is very different and updated heavily. Can kick and punch etc
@@orderofmagnitude-TPATP Also Guerrilla War which came out in 1987
Never heard about this game and I played a lot on the C64.
The NES version does look really nice
The Spectrum version is an excellent tool for the development of ESP and psychic powers.
The arcade shooters are you talking about in the 2000s ish?
The arcade version has pretty impressive voice sampling for the time. I alway felt this game was kinda middle of the road (so to speak). 😄
Yeah I agree
The title music on the Amstrad version sounds identical to the Spectrum version of Guerilla War. Hmm…🤔
That wouldn't surprise me. It was common on western developed home micros to have games with unrelated music.
Lol - The music for the C64 version of Bombjack comes to mind!!
There was an attempt by UK Software house, Ocean Software, to produce a UK C64 version..
It seems that Video Images may have been in discussions to handle the UK version of the game at some stage.
All that has been recovered is a loading screen, so far
I wonder if a specific Ocean developed version would have been better?
This is without a doubt the jankiest and weirdest video game I have ever played in my entire life. Doesn't matter what the platform is the entire thing plays like a jalopy with the wheels all about to fall off but somehow they never do.
I wanted it so bad too, back when I had my C64 and I saw it in the adverts. I really thought I was missing out cause I loved the first game in the arcades. LOL
@@PlasticCogLiquid as a kid it would be freaking awesome. You can learn to work around the jank
Why does this game have so much slowdown?
@@NotaPizzaGRL Because they're cool and they put way more sprites on screen than it could handle. I loved it when they did that
I'd say the OG ikari warriors was better.
I loved Ikari Warriors on the Amiga
Better than this sequal, that's for sure.
It must have been something important last week, because there was no Battle of the Ports video. But no problem, I appreciate all your port comparison video content.
Regarding the subject of the video, the layout of the game is rather strange and that the opponents want to resemble aliens. It's sure to be fun, especially the NES version.
Didn't notice! - but I do absolutely look forward and adore this show. Nothing else like it on youtube. Mark got this niche market cornered 😆
Not important, just shitty work 😭. A lot of overtime too taking away my personal free time.
i love ikari warriors but i never heard of this. wow.
It's not as good as Ikari Warriors, that's for sure.
I didn't know they had Victory Road on Apple II (probably IIe only), it's pretty.
It's for the basic apple II👍
@@RetroCore Whoa. It's even prettier then if it's for basic Apple II! Might not play fine but hey... I always toss Apple II a grain of salt for being 70s hw.
They could've... used another color for the body in the FamiCom version. It looks like he goes around in gauntlets, boots and a THONG........... 😆
Maybe it's best to say that the Famicom might be the best of the ports, with both the Atari ST and Amiga were the worst ones. I guess there were programmers who were awful at programming Atari ST Games and then converting them to the Amiga for laziness. Sometimes it can be like that.
For sure.
Does ABBA work on the nes version when you run out of lives like in the previous one?
Yes.
@@3jane821 the more you know ==🌟
Judging by the number of colors I'm guessing the Apple version uses DHGR mode, which requires a lot of bankswitching, so I'm not surprised it's slow on the poor little 1.02 MHz CPU.
You're probably right. It is a colourful experience for an Apple II game.
"Warriors, show some guts! Come at me....Hahahaha!"
Only part of the game I liked.
I would have to agree with yoh right there 👍
I just thought everyone was on drugs who made this.
It's too bad that this couldn't have a proper port. I thoroughly enjoyed the arcade experience. The NES version had floppy disk like loading times when going into and out of the paused menu screen and in those shops. Very bad.
That's Micronics for you. The Japanese equivalent of Tiertex.
I don't know why but when I hear the voice first time in arcade, I thought that ball speaking in Spanish LOL.
It is a little tricky to understand at first.
for a moment i thought you were talking about the PC-Engine game Victory Run
😅 I have that as well.
Weird. I’m generally a fan of pre-Neo Geo SNK games. But I’ve never heard of this one, either the arcade or any of the ports.
It's not one of their best efforts and often overshadowed by Ikari Warriors 1 and 3.
“Sure, [the Atari ST version] looks visually fine […]”
Unless there was a problem with your capture, it really doesn’t. Everything is yellow. It looks like you’re playing a Simpsons game. Why is everything so yellow? The ST could do more than 4 colors onscreen at once
The 128k speccy version have title music ... and the same jingle than Guerilla War
Amstrad CPC version is the best of all in my opinion
It's colourful but sadly plays like the ZX version which let's it down a bit. If it had more responsive controls it would be up there with the NES version.
On what hardware do you run the Apple II port? Maybe on Apple IIGS this will run "fine"?
Just a stick apple II as the game was designed for that. As far as I'm aware GS software doesn't run on the base apple II.
Yep the ST and Amiga versions are totally s**t
I don't think I would have liked this game when I was a kid. Only because those giant yellow robotic bee spider things would have triggered my severe arachnophobia.
Ooh, I hate spiders too. Horrid things are spiders.
A Micronics port that isn't complete garbage??? It seems to be the best playing version too 🤯
I know. Amazing isn't it. It shows how bad many western development games were back then when crap by Micronics is better.
Oh wow... another one i don't know! Is this using the same boards as street smart and POW?
It seems snk/alpha etc had a bit of time travelling obsession at the time, what with time soldiers and the like....
Victory Road is on a different board. Street Smart, POW, and Time Soldiers use a 68000. VR runs on three Z80s (2 as main CPU, 1 as sound CPU).
@@JudgmentStorm many thanks
Thanks for the information.
Requested battle of the ports vapor trail
I think I did that years ago. If not, it will be coming in the future.
ZX Spectrum version is not sluggish at all when compared to all the other versions of the game. As usual Amstrad CPC version is slow with blocky low resolution graphics and it may have more colour than almost monochromatic ZX Spectrum version, but it most certainly does not have better defined graphics.
I always felt this game was a far superior game return to form for the series following Ikari II
what are you talking about Willis ? you make no sense whatsoever.
Must be a late night 😊
@@RetroCore Hahaha yeah I had been up for awhile when I wrote that 🤣🤣🤣
In retrospect, it feels like a ROM hack gone wrong. As an eight-year-old, I was very, very confused about this 🤔
I imagine that's essentially what this is. Well, not a rom hack as such but SNK just redesigning the original game.
Judging just by which one functions the best, I'd say Famicom (NES). The apple version looks to function the worst. Most games seem slow and clunky on the apple II platform though.
Wow, not often a port is so bad it just makes you straight up swear so much
Yep, it's not even worth being nice to such an abomination.
They spent most of the budget on script and story😏😅😁
Only the arcade version is the best. The NES version, while still garbage, at least tried to make some changes by giving an all-new villain and final boss.
And a shop to spend your Zenny, the most common currency in video games it seems.
@@RetroCore Mega Man Legends had it too.
You were nicer on this game than I expected. In my opinion, it's awful on just about everything. Even in the arcades, it's essentially hastily thrown together DLC stages for the original Ikari Warriors, that while retaining the same graphics and controls, had nowhere near the amount of effort put into stage designs or enemy placements. Plus, it's story was just stupid and over the top. I kinda miss when you used to voice your opinion on the arcade game itself. Yeah, it's nice to get an objective description of the game, but some opinions would be nice on top of that. Anyway, here's some of my own opinions on the ports:
Apple ][ and IBM PC: Okay, this is awkward. Both of these systems received ports of the original Ikari Warriors, both also by Quicksilva, so it makes no sense while the PC version looks to reuse the same engine as the original game, while the Apple ][ looks to have an entirely new port built from the ground up, but not just any port, a bad one. Graphically, it's subpar, the original looked nicer, and gameplay wise it's god damn slow. The original wasn't this slow, plus it also scrolled. This is just flip screen. Thankfully, the PC port turned out much better, but it still manages to be very bad because it's Ikari Warriors, so it's got crappy level design, but now with the bonus of stiff controls! Yeah, both these ports fucking blow.
Commodore 64: This has a striking resemblance to the America C64 port of the original game, at least in terms of graphics, in terms of gameplay, it's far better, but still suffers from scrolling that waits till you're too far up on the screen to actually start scrolling, and the game is just boring without a lack of enemies on screen. Even the music is mediocre, but we at least get some fairly high quality speech to make up for it. Not the worst effort, but eh, even given the source material, it still could've been a little better.
Famicom: Okay, you were way nice on this one. Yeah, it's better than the original on the system, but is that really an accomplishment? Apart from having one of the most painfully slow intros in all of gaming, the game itself is slow as hell. You can go so long without encountering any enemies, plus your character moves so slowly too. Graphically, it's not the worst, but the design of the warriors here is not my likings, and the music is a little too high pitched and forgettable for my tastes as well. Micronics did about as well on this game as they did with Athena, they made probably a better game than the arcade original, but still not anything worth playing. It wasn't until the third installment when SNK stepped in, that Ikari games on the NES would start getting good.
As for the other home computers, not a whole lot to add from me, though it seems the Speccy and CPC reuse the same engines as the original games, despite having different developers. Also, you got the developers of the ST and Amiga wrong. it wasn't Paradise who did them, it was Micro Wish, and Jesus Christ, they're so bad! You went hard on them, but even that might not have been enough. I'd say that even graphically, both versions are poor, sloppy looking sprites and a lack of color, plus the Amiga in particular just sampling the ST's audio is another level of laziness... Ah, the good old Amiga, also a system you can count on to make good games bad, and bad games even worse...
It is a crap game, no doubt about that.
These days I'm really busy with work so I tend not to give options on the original game as much as I once did but I will do so in the future.
Man, I always hated this game in general, but especially the NES version. Feels so janky. No idea why the game feels so much like it's gonna fall apart constant-- oh it's Micronics, never mind, that explains it...
It is pretty bad but probably high up on the Micronics list of quality.
Ikari Warriors was much better! This follow up is just too weird and ugly looking tbh. Cheers for the video
You're welcome.
I have to say, both Commodore versions are absolute s*itshows. The 64 version is slow, ugly and bares little resemblance to the Arcade machine. It was so bad that I'm pretty sure it never got an EU release and I can't find any mention of a UK version like we got with Out Run and Space Harrier.
The Amiga version is, somehow, even worse. Given it was done by the same guy that wrote Zynaps and Slayer (Howard Ball), I can only surmise this was a "take the money before they go bust" job.
Opinion differ, The NES version is badly done this time worst than the first one. The worst part is the Rpg element, Ikari gameplay should be easy ti understand, just plain melee shooting. The protoganist character is badly designed, it was huge and not much faster than the first one. Such large sprites take up sprites spaces and severly reduce the enemy sprites on the screen. The enemy count is really low in the this version. Best version goes to Armstrad CPC