CT Special Forces obviously gets its inspiration from SNK’s famous Metal Slug series. While Metal Slug Advance was the first Metal Slug game released on the Game Boy Advance, GBA fans will remember that CT Special Forces beat SNK’s franchise to the punch on Nintendo¹s 32 bit portable. The Metal Slug games are often regarded as some of the most intense and addictive 2-D platformers ever, so the question is, does CT Special Forces offer the same enthralling fix?
As different members of the Counter Terrorist Special Forces Team, you must prevent various terrorist organizations from killing hostages and gaining control of besieged areas. Special Forces’ plot is minimal. Rather than creating an interesting story and building upon it, the game throws you right into the action, no questions asked.
The gameplay is inarguably where LSP’s platformer shines the brightest. Most of the action takes place in pseudo Metal Slug side-scrolling levels. You can jump, crouch, shoot various weapons straight ahead or up, and throw grenades. You¹re always equipped with a simple semi-automatic with unlimited ammo, but various weapons you can collect on your journeys are important if you want to beat the game. Most notable of these are the assault rifle, rocket launcher, and flame thrower. Other equipment available includes handcuffs to lock up all those nasty terrorist leaders and a rope to scale up to those difficult-to-reach places. This extra equipment can only be used at specific times (as indicated by on-screen icons).
Level environments range from snow and ice to sandy deserts to lush green jungles. While it’s mostly only the background graphics that change, some new gameplay elements are also introduced with each new mission.
The game includes four missions to beat, each with three levels. Most stages simply require that you make it to the end of the level, marked by a red flag, though at the end of every mission you¹ll fight one-on-one with an imposing boss. You can only save your game (luckily via a short password) at the end of each mission, a system that I normally dislike, but it works well here. You are given four lives at the beginning of every mission, and these will pretty much have to get you through all the mission¹s levels. You can recover your health by collecting first aid kits, and gain lives by freeing hostages or handcuffing the unarmed.
Occasionally players are treated to more unique levels than the side-scrolling portion of the game, like surprisingly realistic first-person sniper stages where you attempt to free captured hostages. Other additions include a fun side-scrolling parachuting mode, in which you must line yourself up by scrolling from left to right and release your parachute at the appropriate moment. Last of all are classic top-down helicopter shooter stages, where you can shoot enemy aircraft and drop bombs on tanks and rocket launchers. The flight stages are a bit too easy, but still add nice variety to the rest of the game.
Part of what makes CT Special Forces so intuitive are the controls. Though they utilize every main button, the controls are easy to learn, and most importantly, always easy to use. Quite typically, the D-pad is used to run left and right, shoot up and crouch, A is jump and B is use weapon or other equipment selected. Scrolling through your arsenal is incredibly easy. No sub-menus are required; you can scroll through your items by tapping the left shoulder button. Small icons on the top left hand corner of the screen will indicate the item selected. R (the right shoulder button) is reserved for throwing grenades, since you¹ll always want them handy for blasting through doors or enemy battlements.
Enemy A.I. is practically non-existent. Most terrorists run back and forth, shooting this way and that, apparently ignoring you completely. Ducking under their fire would usually save your neck, if not for uneven ground, snipers high above you, armed vehicles, and rocket-launching terrorists. I ran into one terrorist so stupid he repeatedly attempted to shoot a rocket launcher in my direction, but was foiled by a large mass of rock. The launcher exploded in his face over and over until he died. I was completely unharmed. Luckily, the cartoony style of the gameplay, makes the lack of artificial intelligence mostly unimportant.
The difficulty level is perfectly balanced, as are all aspects of the gameplay. CT Special Forces is simple, and yet complex enough that it can be approached with many different strategies.
Rather than create realistic graphics, developers LSP went for a more cartoony look. Again, the game is very reminiscent of the popular Metal Slug series by SNK. The graphics are big, bright, bold, and easy on the eyes. All the levels are fairly colourful, and the graphic colour schemes well planned out. There¹s also a lot of detail in background environments and enemies, who are all drawn like characters in superhero comics. The frame rate is smooth and character movements realistic. Overall, Special Forces is a very nice package graphically.
While the actual sound effects are limited and repetitive, the music is excellent. Many tunes are included, nearly all of which are catchy and go well with the game. The sound effects and music are all very clear, and can only be fully appreciated with the use of headphones.
CT Special Forces introduces few new ideas, but offers an impressive collection of everything good in 2D action platformers. You¹ve got all the right weapons, ultimate bosses, first-person sniping and classic helicopter shooting stages, topped off with excellent visuals and the perfect musical score. Intense and addictive? You betcha!
