''Guerrilla War'', released in Japan as , is an overhead

run and gun video game Shoot 'em ups (also known as shmups or STGs) are a Video game genre, subgenre of action games. There is no consensus as to which design elements compose a shoot 'em up; some restrict the definition to games featuring spacecraft and certain typ ...

developed and published by SNK. Originally released in 1987 as a coin-operated

arcade video game An arcade video game is an arcade game that takes player input from its controls, processes it through electrical or computerized components, and displays output to an electronic monitor or similar display. All arcade video games are coin-oper ...

, ''Guerrilla War'' was ported to the

Amstrad CPC The Amstrad CPC (short for "Colour Personal Computer") is a series of 8-bit home computers produced by Amstrad between 1984 and 1990. It was designed to compete in the mid-1980s home computer market dominated by the Commodore 64 and the ZX Spec ...

Apple II Apple II ("apple Roman numerals, two", stylized as Apple ][) is a series of microcomputers manufactured by Apple Computer, Inc. from 1977 to 1993. The Apple II (original), original Apple II model, which gave the series its name, was designed ...

Commodore 64 The Commodore 64, also known as the C64, is an 8-bit computing, 8-bit home computer introduced in January 1982 by Commodore International (first shown at the Consumer Electronics Show, January 7–10, 1982, in Las Vegas). It has been listed in ...

, MS-DOS, Nintendo Entertainment System,

PlayStation Network PlayStation Network (PSN) is a digital media entertainment service provided by Sony Interactive Entertainment. Launched in November 2006, PSN was originally conceived for the PlayStation video game consoles, but soon extended to encompass smartp ...

, and

ZX Spectrum The ZX Spectrum () is an 8-bit computing, 8-bit home computer developed and marketed by Sinclair Research. One of the most influential computers ever made and one of the all-time bestselling British computers, over five million units were sold. ...

Plot

''Guerrilla War'' followed the adventures of two unnamed rebel commandos (

Che Guevara Ernesto "Che" Guevara (14th May 1928 – 9 October 1967) was an Argentines, Argentine Communist revolution, Marxist revolutionary, physician, author, Guerrilla warfare, guerrilla leader, diplomat, and Military theory, military theorist. A majo ...

and

Fidel Castro Fidel Alejandro Castro Ruz (13 August 1926 – 25 November 2016) was a Cuban politician and revolutionary who was the leader of Cuba from 1959 to 2008, serving as the prime minister of Cuba from 1959 to 1976 and President of Cuba, president ...

in the Japanese version) as they raid an unnamed

Caribbean The Caribbean ( , ; ; ; ) is a region in the middle of the Americas centered around the Caribbean Sea in the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean, mostly overlapping with the West Indies. Bordered by North America to the north, Central America ...

Island An island or isle is a piece of land, distinct from a continent, completely surrounded by water. There are continental islands, which were formed by being split from a continent by plate tectonics, and oceanic islands, which have never been ...

in order to free it from the rule of an unnamed tyrannical dictator. Along the way the players vanquish hordes of enemy soldiers while attempting to rescue hostages (with large score reductions for any hostages killed in the crossfire), collecting weapons from troopers and operating tanks.

Releases

The arcade version, released by SNK in 1987, followed the format of '' Ikari Warriors'' (1986). Using eight-way rotary joysticks, the game allowed players to move their character in one direction while shooting in another. The game was moderately successful as it spawned

ports Ports collections (or ports trees, or just ports) are the sets of makefiles and Patch (Unix), patches provided by the BSD-based operating systems, FreeBSD, NetBSD, and OpenBSD, as a simple method of installing software or creating binary packages. T ...

onto home video game systems.

Data East , also abbreviated as DECO, was a Japanese video game, pinball and electronic engineering company. The company was in operation from 1976 to 2003, and released 150 video game titles. At one time, the company had annual sales of 20 billion yen in ...

released home editions on the PC,

and

, while Imagine Software published the

and

ports in Europe. SNK in-house published a version for the NES/Famicom

8-bit In computer architecture, 8-bit integers or other data units are those that are 8 bits wide (1 octet). Also, 8-bit central processing unit (CPU) and arithmetic logic unit (ALU) architectures are those that are based on registers or data bu ...

console. Because of the limits of the home platforms, the home versions did not have the rotating joysticks. Both the arcade and home console versions were included on the '' SNK 40th Anniversary Collection'' for Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, and Xbox One. The NES version's two-player simultaneous play, unlimited continues, and frantic action gave it an edge over its arcade predecessor. It received a perfect 5-star rating in the book ''Ultimate Nintendo: Guide to the NES Library 1985–1995'' and is also available on

. This version featured box cover art by Marc Ericksen, who was also responsible for the cover illustration for SNK's own '' Ikari Warriors III: The Rescue'' and '' P.O.W''.

Che Guevara connection

As the original title indicates, the game is based on the exploits of revolutionary

, and the defeat of the

Batista Batista is a Spanish language, Spanish or Portuguese language, Portuguese surname. Notable persons with the name include: * Batista (footballer, born 1955), Brazilian football player João Batista da Silva * Dave Bautista, Batista (wrestler) (Dave ...

regime in

Cuba Cuba, officially the Republic of Cuba, is an island country, comprising the island of Cuba (largest island), Isla de la Juventud, and List of islands of Cuba, 4,195 islands, islets and cays surrounding the main island. It is located where the ...

in the late 1950s. In addition, player 2's character was

. Castro, as he appears in this game, is ranked fifth in ''

Electronic Gaming Monthly ''Electronic Gaming Monthly'' (''EGM'') is a monthly American video game magazine. It offers video game news, coverage of industry events, interviews with gaming figures, editorial content and product reviews. History The magazine was fou ...

''s list of the top ten video game politicians. Nevertheless, fearing anti-Communist sentiments in the West, SNK did a localisation of the game's dialogue and instruction manual for its North American and European releases. The version of ''Guevara'' released for the Japanese Famicom is a sought-after item for many video game collectors.

Reception

In Japan, ''Game Machine'' listed ''Guerrilla War'' on their January 15, 1988 issue as being the ninth most-successful table arcade unit of the month.

References

External links

* * * ''Guerrilla War'' a
Neo-Geo.com
(review

C64 ''Guerrilla War''
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Guerrilla War (Video Game) 1987 video games Amstrad CPC games Apple II games Arcade Archives games Arcade video games Cold War video games Commodore 64 games Cooperative video games Cultural depictions of Che Guevara Cultural depictions of Fidel Castro Data East video games Hamster Corporation games Imagine Software games Multiplayer and single-player video games Nintendo Entertainment System games Nintendo Switch games PlayStation 4 games PlayStation Network games Quicksilver Software games Run and gun games SNK games SNK Playmore games Video games based on real people Video games developed in Japan Video games set in Cuba Works about Che Guevara ZX Spectrum games