Shoot em ups are amazing, but sometimes we are left wondering what more can be done with the genre. It was this line of thinking that led to the creation of In The Hunt, a submarine based shoot em up that would have an impact on gaming that would be felt for years to come. The game was developed at Irem following the success of their earlier shooters like R-Type, and was designed to break the mold of a shooter.
Instead of being set in space, it was set underwater and now had an excellent two player mode. But there was another innovation brought by In The Hunt that would define gaming for years to come, and that was eliminating the auto scroll of the levels and having the player control the scrolling screen. Because of this, the player now had complete control of the pace of the game and could proceed as they saw fit. One can look at In The Hunt and see similarities to other games, and that is for a good reason.
After developing the run n gun game Gun Force II, the developers left Irem to form Nazca Corporation and created what many consider to be one of the greatest run n gun series of all time, Metal Slug. In The Hunt can be seen as a direct predecessor to Metal Slug’s vehicular combat, and in fact the latter game was initially designed to be solely controlled by the titular tank. The developers took the best ideas from In The Hunt, including the all out insane action and combined it with ideas from Gun Force II to create the experience we now know and love. In the Hunt sees you attacking in two directions, forward and up, and you must keep your attacks timed just right. This is a hard game, but also extremely satisfying. Your movement is a bit slower, so as to simulate the movement in water. It is easy to adjust to though, and fighting the enemies and amazing bosses is a great experience.
In the Hunt received console ports to the PlayStation and Saturn, but the ports fell far short of the arcade version. The arcade version was intense and constantly upped the ante, but the console versions were hampered by additional slowdown that held it back. Now HAMSTER has released the game onto Nintendo Switch and PS4 as part of the Arcade Archives series and the game can once again be experienced by a new generation of fans. The game lacks the slowdown of the console ports, and thanks to the credit system in the Arcade Archives ports, the difficulty is not an issues due to the ability to constantly continue.
This is an amazing shooter on its own, and one of the best games to come from Irem and the arcades in general. It is one that everyone should check out, because of how amazing the port by HAMSTER is, and how fun the game is. I highly recommend it.
In addition, I would like to add that there is an active retrogaming Facebook community group you can join.
For more, visit Retro Gamers Hub (www.retrogamershub.com) for their extensive collection of retrogaming interest groups to choose from.
Who did the developers leave, now?