Jackal (NES) Playthrough

A playthrough of Konami's 1988 action game for the NES, Jackal.

Jackal doesn't get the spotlight treatment as often as other Konami NES classics like the Castlevania, Gradius, and TMNT games do, but it certainly deserves the attention.

Jackal began life as the Japanese arcade game 特殊部隊ジャッカル (Tokkusyu Butai Jakkaru, lit. "Special Forces Jackal"), which was released in Europe as "Jackal" and in the US as "Top Gunner." The game was adapted, with some significant changes, to the Famicom Disk System as ファイナルコマン赤い要塞 (Fainaru Koman Akaiyousai, lit. "Final Command: Red Fortress"), and finally, a few months later it appeared (again, in heavily altered form) on the American NES as "Jackal."

The game places you in the role of an American soldier who has been sent deep into the jungles of Vietnam to rescue prisoners of war, hence the reference to Communism in the title of the Japanese FDS version. The intro sums it all up nicely:

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.

RESCUE THE POW'S IN THE
BUILDINGS.

YOU'LL NEED A POCKET FULL
OF MIRACLES, AND THE
FEROCITY OF A WILD JACKAL.

If that's not poetry, I don't know what is.

You drive around in a jeep equipped with a machine gun and an upgradable grenade launcher, liberating prisoners from camps and getting them safely to the extraction point in each of the six stages. Since you're deep within enemy territory, you'll also have to mow down throngs of Charlie while taking out heavy weapon installations, and each stage is capped off with a big boss fight.

The stages are fairly large and offer opportunities for some limited exploration, and there are multiple paths through many of the areas, so there's a good bit of fun to be had from multiple replays. The controls are sharp, your weapons are more than capable of handling the opposition, and though the game steadily ramps up the challenge as you progress, it never becomes frustratingly difficult. It's surprisingly forgiving for a Konami game of its vintage. If you find Contra and Castlevania III to be a bit too demanding, this one might be more your speed, especially if you play in the 2P co-op mode. For as great a single player experience as it is, it's even better when you play it with a friend.

The graphics and sound are exactly what you'd expect from Konami in 1988. The stages are detailed and showcase a lot of variety, the flicker is kept to a reasonable level, the soundtrack bumps just as hard as Contra's, and the cutscenes look great.

Jackal is heaps of fun and an overall excellent game. If you don't already have a copy, you should go ahead and fix that. I promise you won't regret it.

YEAHHHH!
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No cheats were used during the recording of this video.

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