Mercenary Force / Tenjin Oyasen

I call it Mercenary Force, easier to remember. Love the Jap artwork though. And yes, I say "Jap".

It's a side-scrolling action/shooter game. You control your little group of men against the enemies. The interesting part is that you buy the group members before each round, and then you can put them in different formations as you play. The group members have different specialities. One is extra strong -- see the life bar down left -- one shoots long shots, another shoots short but powerful shots, and so on. During the round, you collect money that you can buy health with, and you could also save up to buy team members for the next round.

Somehow the game is unpolished. The levels are too long, the strategical element isn't that interesting in my opinion, and it's difficult because your team members are destined to get hit and die and you won't have enough money to buy new ones. Look at the screenshot above. You will take hits when your team covers almost all the screen. And, for some reason, you have less starting money in the Jap version making it even more difficult.

An interesting idea that needs more work. 3/5