Arcade Archives: Devastators
Mar. 20th, 2026 07:20 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
tepidsnakeThis week's Arcade Archives release is... Devastators (Konami, 1988)
Arcade Archives (previous-gen consoles)
PSN
Switch
Arcade Archives 2 (current-gen consoles)
PSN
Switch 2
Xbox
US
Both the Japanese (Garuka- similar to Contra, the title is written in Ateji) and English (Devastators) ROMs are included, with a few differences noted in the digital manual- in particular, you have to beat three loops of the game in the Japanese version before you can see an ending, and it also has more weapons than the English version. No Preference Settings this time, and no edits either, which is notable for three reasons. First, the Microsoft Game Room version edited the title screen to remove the Sylvester Stallone-esque heroes and this version keeps it, it also keeps the "MOVE ALONG!" (or is it "MOVE IT ON?") soundclip from Aliens and, somewhat unexpectedly, the flashing has not been edied either. As far as I can remember, the flashing isn't too intense, but it is there (specifically on the title screen and the boss sprites flashing multiple colours upon destruction) so you might want to keep this in mind before playing it in the dark.
Both the Japanese (Garuka- similar to Contra, the title is written in Ateji) and English (Devastators) ROMs are included, with a few differences noted in the digital manual- in particular, you have to beat three loops of the game in the Japanese version before you can see an ending, and it also has more weapons than the English version. No Preference Settings this time, and no edits either, which is notable for three reasons. First, the Microsoft Game Room version edited the title screen to remove the Sylvester Stallone-esque heroes and this version keeps it, it also keeps the "MOVE ALONG!" (or is it "MOVE IT ON?") soundclip from Aliens and, somewhat unexpectedly, the flashing has not been edied either. As far as I can remember, the flashing isn't too intense, but it is there (specifically on the title screen and the boss sprites flashing multiple colours upon destruction) so you might want to keep this in mind before playing it in the dark.
Alright, DEVASTATORS, listen up! You two are the best, most efficient, ruthless, disciplined... And most expensive 2-man team of freedom fighters in the world! That's what your flyer says, anyway. You've been hired at the request of a small country who've been subjected to a brutal takeover by a fanatical dictator and your mission is simple: annihilate their armed forces, rescue the prisoners and overthrow the corrupt government. You only start with a rile and a limited amount of grenades, so the rest of your armaments are OSP (on-site procurement) including rocket launchers for high-priority targets, flamethrowers and even grenade launchers, so grab 'em as soon as you see 'em. Each area you liberate has a boss vehicle at the end, so blow it to bits and move on to the next area- your time is very limited, and if you fail to complete your mission, you will perish! Parachute drop is at 1000 hours, so get ready, and remember, you're doing this for the glory, the money, and to feed the beast inside your bodies! Again, just reading from the flyer. I think you should go with the other one, it's a bit more convincing.
Devastators is a pretty fascinating game, an into-the-screen action game that feels like a massive expansion of the base sequences from Contra that came out the year before, but this has a lot more freedom of movement and forces you to play quite differently due to the incluson of bullet drop, where your rifle shots have a limited range before they hit the dirt. As a result, you have to be more aggressive and get closer than you'd think to shoot enemies, but you still have grenades if you want to keep a little distance and you can also back off a little if you want (you can't scroll the screen backwards, but you do have a bit o an area to move around it). Another interesting addition is the rocket launcher which can only be fired when it locks on to a big target like a sniper tower, helicopter or boss fight, but using it locks you in place for a second, so you need to be sure it's safe. There's also two-player co-op so you and a buddy can overthrow the government together! I really like this one- the presentation is nice with some great scaling and punchy sound effects, there's not many games that have this kind of control system for going into the screen and it's fun and challenging! I'm not wild on the game cutting off continues on the final level (and limiting the number of continues in general, but this can be circumvented according to the Hamster stream as it's determined by how many times the continue screen appears, so having another player join in can prevent that from happening) but it's a Konami game from the late '80s, you have to be expecting that kind of thing. The main thing you hear about this is that it feels like a first draft of a later Konami arcade game, 1992's G.I. Joe which switches to forced scrolling, adds four-player support and runs on much better hardware... But I dunno, I think I prefer Devastators for having its own take on this kind of game. Don't pay attention to me, I'm just a little arcade game sicko~
Speaking of the Microsoft Game Room, as a little bonus... With this release, that means there's only 10 Konami arcade games included in that service that don't have Arcade Archives releases yet, so here they are:
Amidar (1981)
Gyruss (1983)
Scooter Shooter (1985)
Konami GT (1985)
Iron Horse (1986)
Rack 'Em Up (1987)
Hyper Crash (1987)
Blades of Steel (1987)
The Main Event (1988)
M.I.A. (1989)