SHOCK TROOPERS
“SHOCK TROOPERS ”, the fan favorite 2D top-down view action shooting game released exclusively on NEOGEO MVS in 1997, returns to the battlefield on Steam!
Progress through the battlefield, choosing the best routes and strategy! MAIN FEATURES・ARCADE:
Choose a character and go on your mission solo in “Lonely Wolf” mode, or form a team of three soldiers from the eight mercenary characters available, and try to rescue Dr. George and his granddaughter who have been kidnapped.
The route you choose at the beginning will affect the progress of the game, allowing you to enjoy an original gameplay experience time after time.
・MULTIPLAYER:
Connect to Steam and clear missions with a brother-in-arms far away via the Online Co-Op Play feature.
Engage with a fellow countryman or foreign ally, and try to put an end to the evil plans of the terrorist group called the “Bloody Scorpions”!
・LEADERBOARDS:
Check your current rank & score in “SHOCK TROOPERS” at any time, as well as those of your friends and other top troopers!
・SETTINGS:
Configure your language, video and language display, and adjust sound volume settings to your preference for the most pleasant “SHOCK TROOPERS” experience ever.
** WILL NOT RUN ON Windows XP **
Steam User 21
Originally released in 1997 for Neo Geo and later for the living room, although you will notice differences between the current version and the original, 'Shock Troopers' firmly retains the charms of the top down shooters from the 80's,
Watch a short gameplay of shock troopers here:
In the game you will have to rescue 'Dr George' and his granddaughter from the hands of the 'Bloody Scorpion' through a series of challenging levels with boss fights.
Also quite unique to this game that seems to be a small combination of top down and sideways gameplay at times.
Steam User 36
There are some people who wish videogames dealt with complex themes like war and terrorism with just an ounce of seriousness. I’m not one of them. Games like Shock Troopers epitomize what it means to be a digital soldier to me. You can expect violence at its most glorious, getting points for making others suffer, and then flexing, laughing, and maybe even doing a sexy pose when it’s all over. This Neo Geo game makes war seem pretty dang fantastic.
Videogame plots exist to give the most paper-thin reasoning behind why you should kill everyone. Some guy points you in the general direction of the bad guys, hands you the biggest gun and sends you on your merry way. To be more specific: The Bloody Scorpions are a terrorist organization, and they have captured a neurologist and his grand-daughter, in the hopes that they’ll create a drug that mutates regular people into invincible super-soldiers. In Operation “Delta Storm”, the eight members of Vulcan Team must make their way to the enemy base, and destroy everything. You didn’t really need to know all that did you? Just pick a route, go through seven stages, and... destroy everything.
The game gives you the option to go it alone like a wolf or as a three member team… like a pack of wolves. Either way you have one life* to work with, and each life is backed by a health bar that can take between 8 and 12 hits. Each of the eight playable characters has their own speed, defense, weapon and bomb ratings. To be honest, I’m an incredibly shallow person, so my team consists of the three ladies of Shock Troopers:
Milky – The token buxom blonde has this codename for a good reason. She loves Milky Way candy bars. What? Were you thinking of something else? How naughty…
Marie Bee – Every game requires a German badass/sweetheart. Her fiancé was killed by the Bloody Scorpions so you can imagine that she’s not too fond of them. Her weapon of choice is a Steyr AUG. This bit of trivia is meaningless in the actual game due to most assault rifles behaving the same but whatever, I’m an AUG fan.
Big Mama – This is one lady you wouldn’t want to cross. Well you wouldn’t want to cross either of the other two, but Big Mama? She punches people so hard all of their organs fail at the same time. She’s basically a character from Fist of the North Star, except somebody gave her a gun. Thankfully she prefers saving lives over taking them.
If you’ve ever played a Metal Slug game then you’ll find that Bloody Scorpions make for quite the familiar antagonists. They stick to wearing ski-masks and somehow become endearing through their antics and well-animated deaths. It’s one thing just to take a few bullets and slump to the ground but these guys go the extra mile by losing arms, taking bullets in the knee-caps, exploding, and doing everything in their power to make their deaths satisfying to you, the player. They also commandeer vehicles and weapon emplacements, which also tend to explode when you put enough bullets into them. These guys also do what they can to defend themselves, using guns, knives, and whatever they happen to be lugging around. Still when just one of your soldiers is billed as a one-man (or woman) army you’re pretty much expected to mow them down singlehandedly. At the end of each stage you can expect a boss-fight. The generals of the Bloody Scorpions tend to get the nicest vehicles and after so many stages will take the fight to you on foot.
Running riot on this battlefield is as simple as turning one’s palm. Shock Troopers works in a manner similar to the classic Capcom title Mercs. By tapping the fire button you can move and fire in any direction, while holding the button allows you to strafe. The dodge-roll is an amazing technique since you’re completely invulnerable for a brief moment. Just be sure not to dodge-roll into danger. As with similar games the enemy loves to leave random weapons lying around for you to take advantage of. These guns have limited ammo and run the gamut of spreadshots, heavy machine guns, rocket launchers, and what looks like the freaking Cobra gun from Robocop.
Unique to this game is the mechanics of the close-range attack. This is performed by getting close and attacking, if you kill an enemy with this move they will drop bonus point items or power-ups. It’s somehow more rewarding to be able to look into the enemies’ eyes while you take their life away. More likely however it’s because getting the close-range kills is much more difficult. If you mess up you’re going to eat a bullet. This technique is difficult to master but can be very rewarding, especially because a boss taken out with a punch can drop an incredibly useful medkit.
As far as concerns the game itself, Shock Troopers is one of the better overhead run’n’guns I’ve played. It is a bit on the easy side if you play it safe — even in just a couple hours of play I’ve already come somewhat close to beating the game without continuing. Still, if you think about it, I have a ways to go. I’ve come nowhere close to beating the game without taking damage. Aside from the challenge ahead, the game also offers multiple paths, five other playable characters and cooperative play. All in all, I highly recommend that you check this game out.
*This version of Shock Troopers is version A. There's a second version (known as B) that makes the player-character take more damage, but they have three lives to work with. This adds a strategic element to the team-mode, since each member has a separate life-meter. The Playstation Network edition (available on PS3) is version B. In my opinion, B is the way to go, but it's not available on Steam. Hopefully Dotemu looks into this omission, along with the online/sound issues that tend to crop up in these SNK releases.
Steam User 12
This review is based mostly on the Humble Store (DRM-free + Steam key) release of Shock Troopers. So my Steam stats only reflect a fraction of my experience with this game. NOTE: The Humble Store release of Shock Troopers is DRM-free and includes Linux and Mac versions.
PROS:
+ Fun and frenzied arcade shooter action.
+ Different characters each have differing special attacks.
+ Weapon pick-ups add more variety and strategy from stage to stage.
+ Alternate routes from stage to stage.
+ Fun in both single player and co-op.
+ Gamepad support.
+ Modest hardware requirements.
+ Steam version includes Achievements and Leaderboards.
CONS:
- Steam version has no Linux or Mac support, yet.
Steam User 7
Shock Troopers is a classic shoot 'em up from the 90s, although one I was unfamiliar with until I grabbed the NEOGEO bundle back in 2019 (Metal Slug, on the other hand, I've known for a long time). Unlike Metal Slug, this one plays in a top-down view through most of the game, though there's a bike section that plays more like an old 2D sidescroller.
Anyway, what's Shock Troopers about? Well, you play as a member of some sort of military squad fighting against a terrorist group named "Bloody Scorpion". Their villanous leader, named Leader, has kidnapped Cecilia, the granddaughter of a scientist named George, so that George works for Bloody Scorpion. However, Cecilia just so happens to be the girlfriend of Jackal, one of the characters you can play as. Other than a few extra bits of dialogue, and Jackal crying out her name after almost every stage, not much changes in the story. And honestly, it doesn't really matter, this game is all about shooting bad guys and watching them explode into bloody messes. You shoot soldiers, you shoot tanks, you shoot bigger soldiers, you shoot bigger tanks. Sometimes you shoot helicopters, and you definitely shoot Leader.
The game also allows you to either play in Lonly Wolf mode, or Team Mode. And yes, "Lonly" is how it's written in the game. It's a Japanese game, and apparently when it was made there wasn't as much attention paid to having accurate translations. Anyway, what's the difference between these two modes? In Lonly Wolf mode, you play as a single character, while in Team Mode, you pick three characters that you can switch between. Besides that, there's also coop, so that another player can join and control a separate character. What I found cool about the game is that, at the start (and around the halfway point) you can choose one of three "routes", with each route having its own, themed levels; there's the Jungle route, the Mountain route, and the Valley route. There's also several different weapon pick-ups spread through the game, which can give you some extra firepower.
All in all, this is a fun game, so I can recommend it. Word of warning, though, for achievement hunters: a couple of achievements are bugged; not unobtainable, but they might have you scratching your head, so pop over to the game's discussion forums to look for a solution.
Steam User 17
Welcome to the Robot Maid Review of... SHOCK TROOPERS.
This is an arcade masterpiece from the 90s. A game I played in my childhood and burned more quarters than I care to admit.
SHOCK TROOPERS puts you in the shoes of one (or three) of a multinational team of absolute badasses who are fighting some very generic bad guys (called the Blood Scorpions) in three different mission paths. Of course, you won't get an amazing story here, nor will you see much of it as this is formerly an arcade game and quite a quarter eater at it.
The game handles just as well as it did almost 20 years ago and is just as fun as a result. As a top down view, 8 direction shooter, it's a very simple game from simpler times. There honestly isn't much to say about the game aside from it's very simple and very fun as a result.
8 dollars for this game is practically a steal. If you're not versed in these games, you can easily spend twice as much on this quarter eater in an arcade.
On top of that, it's a great game to run solo, couch co-op. or online co-op. Which means you can bring a friend along to your destructive shenanigans against the Blood Scorpions.
All in all, SHOCK TROOPERS is a refreshing blast from the past in an era where creativity seems to be either stunted or moving incredibly fast.
After beating the game, you can also ask yourself why a group called the "Bloody Scorpions" is led by a man that looks like a lion.
This has been a Robot Maid Review. Thank you for reading.
Steam User 13
An excellent arcade shoot-em-up classic I've never played before but I really enjoyed!
The soundtrack is awesome - I didn't expect to hear DnB/Jungle tunes ♥
Steam User 4
One of the best.