When people see game maker SNK, they usually think of the Neo-Geo. But did you know they were making arcade games long before that? A large batch of their early pre-Neo-Geo arcade games have been recently released on the PS3 and PSP in the form of downloadable PS Minis. So every day for the next week, we’ll take a look at each one! First up is Ozma Wars, a very early arcade shooter.

I don’t know if Ozma Wars is SNK’s very first game, but it has to be ONE of the firsts! It even says “Shin Nihon Kikaku” on the bottom of the screen, which is what SNK stands for. The game is also in black and white, and even has sound effects straight from Space Invaders. You’d think Taito would sue for that, but I guess sound effects in games back then were pretty limited.

Anyway, you pilot your spacecraft left and right on the bottom of the screen, and shoot projectiles at the enemies coming at you. Ozma Wars actually did a few innovative things for such an early game. It’s one of the first to have an energy meter (in the form of numbers). When your ship gets hit, it won’t explode. But when your energy runs to zero, it’s Game Over. Also, there’s quite a wide variety of enemy ships and projectiles to avoid. It’s almost like playing a later vertically scrolling shooter.

It’s straight up arcade emulation, but there is a menu screen you can open where you can customize controls, change the difficulty, and reset the game. I only wish it were easier to automatically save the game and your high scores. Even though it’s a PS Mini and pretty cheap at only 3 bucks, for such a simple game, I would’ve liked to have seen it for even less. But if you love old school Space Invader-like shooters, you might want to give it a try.

Kid Factor:

Classic arcade games are great for little kids because they’re easy to grasp and no reading skill is required. But some kids might get bored of the simple repetitiveness and frustrated at the high difficulty of Ozma Wars, which is rated E for Everyone.

Tags: Game Reviews