Code Name: Viper (NES)

 I'm not actually sure how obscure this game will be to my North American readers, but it was so unheard of to me that I'd never heard of it before seeing the vaguely unpleasant Japanese title Dead Fox in a list of ROMs, and I had to find out what such a game could be. But the NES/Famicom is still foreign territory to me, so forgive me if this was a widely-loved clasic outside of the UK.

 

What is is, though, is a Rolling Thunder-alike, albeit one with enough of its own ideas (and twists on Rolling Thunder's ideas) to be worthwhile in its own right. You play as some guy named Mr. Smith, sent to South America to destroy the seven hideouts of a drug cartel. For some reason, you aren't sent in with any explosives or demolition equipment, and have to find a guy on-site who'll give this to you. I guess it's more interesting that finding a key to finish each stage?

 

There's lots of revolving doors around the stages, and like in Rolling thunder, some of them contain ammo and weapon upgrades, and all of them can be used as hiding places from enemies. Unlike Rolling Thunder, some of them also contain hostages, little boys and grown women. They make a satisfying BEEP-BOOP noise that kind of sounds like the words "thank you" when you find them, but they don't give you any power ups or points. The game keeps a running total of how many hostages you find as you finish each stage, so I assume it affects the ending in some way?

 

The meat of the game, though, is obviously going about killing lots of guys. I really liked this! The guys are all wearing different coloured outfits, which signify their exact behaviours and abilities. You know I love that kind of clean, pure game design by now, don't you? There's something about shooting them that feels really satisfying, too. I can't explain it, it's like how shooting guys at point blank range in Elevator Action EX on Game Boy Color feels like it's much more violent and gory than it actually is for some reason. The only big flaw relates to the fact that, like Rolling Thunder, you can take a melee attack before dying, while a bullet takes you down instantly. However, while Rolling Thunder has unarmed enemies that stop to punch you whe you let them get up close, the unarmed enemies in Code Name: Viper hurt you by just walking into you. It really is a tiny little nitpick, but in a game with a pseudo-realistic setting like this, it's a little disappointing.

 

So yeah, Code Name: Viper/Dead Fox is a pretty good game. As for how it compares to its inspiration, I'd say that it's a lot better than the NES port of Rolling Thunder, but it falls a long way short of matching up to the arcade original. I definitely recommend it!