Jackal 1988 By: Konami

Overview:

Driving your Jeep with machine guns blazing, rescue POW's from the enemy and destroy his fortress of evil. "You'll need a pocket full of miracles, and the ferocity of a wild Jackal!"
I have to say this is probably one of the best games for the NES platform, technically speaking. The graphics were truly excellent for the time, and the music and sound effects are great too.

Directions:

Jackal is one of the first games I can remember where your enemes have to actually attack you to hurt you. So your jeep can run over puny mortals that get in your way as long as they don't shoot you first. You can ram enemy vehicles as well, but that's more of a kamikaze thing because it kills both of you. The attack system is very interesting: you have a machine gun that always fires forward (up screen) and a grenade gun which always fires the direction your jeep is facing. This gives you some flexibility in your attack options and is great when there are many enemies on screen. Another interesting detail: you actually have to physically rescue the POWs in-game, it's not just some plot point. They are being held in various tents and barracks, which you have to blow up with a grenade to let them out. When you free them, you have to drive up to them and they all pile into your jeep. There are green POWs that just give you points, and there are flashing POWs or Officers who upgrade your weapon from Grenade to Missile and then increase the explosive damage of your Missiles. If your jeep is destroyed some of the POWs will survive and you can pick them up again, but Officers never make it, so you're back to Grenades. You have to actually carry the hostages to the end of the level to get full credit for rescuing them, but I think you get some points for picking them up the first time.

Jackal is a relatively short game for its genre, but it makes up for it in challenge and pure fun. There are a wide variety of enemies and bosses, different terrain and various obstacles to overcome. Don't worry, it won't seem short, and when you do finally defeat the final boss, Jackal loops back to Level 1, so the pursuit of fun and incredible High Scores never ends!