Bazooka Bill

Bazooka Bill, released by Melbourne House in 1985, is a run-and-gun actioner riding the commando-movie wave of its day — and it became one of the most divisively reviewed games on the Commodore 64. The plot is suitably bombastic: revolutionaries have kidnapped General Douglas MacArthur, and Bill sets out to fetch him back, on foot, across an entire archipelago.

Five levels take you first to Clark Airbase and then across the islands of Leyte, Mindanao and Corregidor. Enemies pour in from both sides of the screen, and Bill initially meets them with bare fists; along the way he picks up a throwing knife, a machine gun, a flamethrower and eventually the promised bazooka, which in fact only turns up in two of the stages. Every weapon runs on limited ammunition, so constantly juggling your arsenal is mandatory.

Then there is the famous controversy. Computer and Video Games declared the game a hit, scoring it 9 out of 10 as an action-packed, addictive arcade blaster. Zzap!64 handed out 30 percent and advised its readers to visit a computer shop purely to laugh at the thing. Rarely have two magazines agreed so perfectly to disagree.

In our view the harsher report card is closer to the mark: Bazooka Bill feels awkward, uneven and unfinished. Yet it has the odd charm of a B-movie that takes itself deadly seriously, and that contrast is exactly what makes it an interesting stop today — half an hour is plenty to understand what the 1985 press was fighting about.

You can form your own verdict at oldgame.cz, where the game runs directly in the browser with no installation.