Play Ikari Warriors Online

Ikari Warriors came out on the NES in 1986, a port of an arcade game by SNK. It was part of that wave of top-down military shooters that felt like a direct translation of an arcade cabinet, complete with its own particular frustrations and charms. You controlled one of two commandos, Paul or Vince, dropped into a hostile jungle to rescue a captured colonel.

You move upward through the jungle, one screen at a time, shooting an endless supply of enemy soldiers, jeeps, and tanks. The main objective is simply to survive the relentless push forward. Its signature mechanics are the ability to upgrade your weapon by grabbing new guns from downed enemies and the use of limited-use grenades to clear clustered foes. The pacing is frantic, and the difficulty is notoriously unforgiving, with cheap deaths coming from all sides. It feels like a constant, desperate fight for every inch of ground.