P.O.W.: Prisoners of War (NES) Playthrough

A playthrough of SNK's 1989 beat 'em up for the NES, P.O.W.: Prisoners of War.

P.O.W.: Prisoners of War is an NES adaptation of SNK's popular 1988 arcade game of the same name.

The manual does a nice job of summing up the story, a collection of Cold War tropes borrowed from 80s action movies like Escape from New York and Rambo: First Blood Part II:

"Your codename is Bart. You are a captain of the Army Special Forces Unit 'M.' Your mission is to infiltrate GOON (Government of Offensive Network), a subversive organization whose mission is to break up the international economy and establish a worldwide smuggling ring [...] Your goal is to eliminate the members of GOON before they can carry out their diabolical scheme!"

The arcade game is exactly what you'd expect from a 2.5D beat 'em up from the late 80s, and the NES version is solid. By the time POW came around, SNK had ceased farming their NES projects out to Micronics, and the wisdom of that choice was immediately made clear in the sudden, dramatic rise in quality of SNK's output on the console. Instead of being turned into a vile dumpster fire of an NES game like Athena and Ikari Warriors were, POW's 8-bit demake sits more in line with SNK's later in-house developed efforts - games like Guerilla War, Ikari III, and Iron Tank. Hallelujah!

The 2P co-op mode was scrapped and the graphics and sound have been scaled down from the 16-bit coin-op, but the NES game still closely resembles the original, and in many ways improves upon it.

All of the levels and enemies have been retained, and this version introduces its own new enemies and boss battles. Players can also now duck into sub-areas to collect power-ups and upgrades, including brass knuckles for stronger punches, armor that protects against projectile attacks, and life refills. These thoughtful changes rebalance the difficulty by blunting the rougher edges of the arcade game's quarter-munching focused design, resulting in a game that feels fairer and more fun to play.

The controls are simple and snappy, the graphics (though occasionally glitchy) are clean and detailed by NES standards, and much of the music (which sounds like it could've been lifted from a Konami game) is excellent.

P.O.W.: Prisoners of War is often overshadowed by higher-profile NES beat 'em ups like Double Dragon and TMNT II: The Arcade Game, but it's a well-made, thoroughly enjoyable game that, given the chance, will keep you coming back for more.
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No cheats were used during the recording of this video.

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