Tengen presents Atari’s 1988 arcade game Vindicators for the Nintendo Entertainment System. A very fun game, a very cool game. If you like Ikari Warriors, I think you’ll enjoy Vindicators because it plays in a very similar fashion. But instead of playing as a dude with a machine gun and a bandana, you’re playing as a little tank. But you can’t strafe. You can only fire in the direction that you’re driving, and that makes Vindicators pretty tough.

Also, your tank, unlike guys with bandanas, can run out of fuel, which makes me question why you’re driving a tank in the first place. A bandana seems far more stylish and efficient, but whatever. Tanks are cool. I like tanks. It does seem strange that you can’t rotate your turret though.

This is a one‑ or two‑player game. I’m playing single‑player here. Invite a friend, play two players simultaneously, crush enemies together, collect power‑ups and stars to buy new upgrades like increased shot strength and projectile distance. Vindicators is a fairly compartmentalized game. You drive your way through these levels and, like something out of Smash TV, you escape the confines of this studio‑like environment to customize your tank.

Keep an eye on your fuel gauge, by the way. Very important. If you run out of fuel, it gives you a few seconds and then you explode and die, and that’s bad for you. Also keep an eye on your shield down there on the bottom left. You can’t take too many enemy shots. Vindicators starts off easy but gets insanely difficult quickly when you approach the first boss battle because your little tank isn’t very powered up yet.

My recommendation is to spend your stars first on shot range and shot power while also keeping an eye on your shield and fuel gauge. It doesn’t really matter how fast your tank is in this game. You need to get through levels quickly, but not that quickly. Maneuverability doesn’t do much for you in Vindicators, at least not at first. You’ll level up your speed anyway after you upgrade your firepower. At first, just concentrate on staying alive. Increase your shot strength and range. You’ll thank me later, because the pesky enemies in this game do more damage than you expect.

While the music is a bit repetitive, I like the cheerful style of Vindicators. This is a likeable game. It’s not a great game. It’s just a likeable game and a fun game. Make sure to destroy everything in each level, especially the gun turrets, because as the game progresses it starts to hide the keys you need to escape each level under gun turrets. So you may start a level and there’s a gun behind you, and you think you can just drive away and ignore it? No. There could be a key lurking beneath it.

Warrior needs key badly. I’m going to start talking in my Kylo Ren voice. Nobody understands me and how much I like Truxton. It’s a disease. A very good disease.

Pick up all the green power‑ups. The F is fuel, of course. You need fuel to survive. The things that look like headphones are really important because those are bombs. Don’t use any bombs until you get to a boss battle, because the boss battles are cheap and dirty in this game. I’m using the NES Advantage, of course, because that’s how I roll. That’s how you should roll too. That’s how everybody should roll, with the NES Advantage. You can wear that thing as a necktie, as evidenced in my Grand Prix review for the Atari.

Save your bombs for the boss battles and then just rapid‑fire bombs into the enemies. That’s pretty much the only way you can actually get through the boss battles. If you try to avoid enemy fire and play properly, you die every time, or at least I did. Stockpile your bombs and unleash them all at once. Boss battles will kill you instantly if you get within range.

And of course I’ve got a Classic Game Room shout‑out and thank‑you going to my man Mark from East Meadow once again. East Meadow, New York. I have this stack of NES and Famicom games thanks to him.

This Mark also has great taste in games. I hope that all Marks enjoy games with spaceships and dudes with bandanas and machine guns and little tanks. Vindicators is a fun game. Recommended for your Nintendo Entertainment System. I also have good taste in video games. Is that so, Kylo? What’s your favorite game? Stop looking mopey. What’s your favorite game?

I like Tetris. Go away.