is a

1988 File:1988 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The oil platform Piper Alpha explodes and collapses in the North Sea, killing 165 workers; The USS Vincennes (CG-49) mistakenly shoots down Iran Air Flight 655; Australia celebrates its Australian ...

shoot 'em up Shoot 'em ups (also known as shmups or STGs ) are a sub-genre 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 types of chara ...

arcade game An arcade game or coin-op game is a coin-operated entertainment machine typically installed in public businesses such as restaurants, bars and amusement arcades. Most arcade games are presented as primarily games of skill and include arcade v ...

Konami , is a Japanese Multinational corporation, multinational video game company, video game and entertainment company headquartered in Chūō, Tokyo, Chūō, Tokyo, it also produces and distributes trading cards, anime, tokusatsu, pachinko machin ...

Plot

Set in 1989, the player takes control of a mercenary duo known as the "Devastators", who are hired by a small undeveloped country to defend their land from a fanatical

Middle East The Middle East ( ar, الشرق الأوسط, ISO 233: ) is a geopolitical region commonly encompassing Arabian Peninsula, Arabia (including the Arabian Peninsula and Bahrain), Anatolia, Asia Minor (Asian part of Turkey except Hatay Pro ...

dictator threatening to conquer it.

Gameplay

The game is essentially a vertical behind-the-back shooter that moves forward only. The soldier walks straight into the scenery, with a perspective similar to the "3D view" stages of Konami's own ''

Contra Contra may refer to: Places * Contra, Virginia * Contra Costa Canal, an aqueduct in the U.S. state of California * Contra Costa County, California * Tenero-Contra, a municipality in the district of Locarno in the canton of Ticino in Switzerland ...

'' (1987) as well as ''

Cabal A cabal is a group of people who are united in some close design, usually to promote their private views or interests in an ideology, a state, or another community, often by intrigue and usually unbeknownst to those who are outside their group. Th ...

'' (1988). What set ''Devastators'' apart is that instead of advancing automatically, screen by screen, the player walks forward by holding the Up direction, as the background slowly scales toward the screen. ''Devastators'' also featured various obstacles that could be used to take cover from enemy fire,Kurt Kalata
Konami Run 'n Guns
Hardcore Gaming 101 as well as

two-player A multiplayer video game is a video game in which more than one person can play in the same game environment at the same time, either locally on the same computing system (couch co-op), on different computing systems via a local area network, or ...

cooperative gameplay Cooperative game may refer to: * Cooperative board game, board games in which players work together to achieve a common goal * Cooperative game theory, in game theory, a game with competition between groups of players and the possibility of cooperat ...

. Most of the missions require the player to kill as many enemies as possible for survival. The missions take place in jungles, desert and sea levels. At the end of each mission was a boss. Mainly the weapons were fairly authentic; the soldier was essentially armed with a machine gun and grenades. He can pick up rocket launchers along the way which could be used against heavy armored vehicles. Additionally, the player(s) have a limited amount of time to complete each stage, otherwise the game will end automatically.

Reception

In Japan, ''Game Machine'' listed ''Devastators'' on their November 1, 1988 issue as being the third most-successful table arcade unit of the month.

References

External links

*{{KLOV game, id=7573 1988 video games Arcade video games Arcade-only video games Cabal shooters Konami games Third-person shooters Video games set in 1989 Konami arcade games Video games developed in Japan