"A good game with some glaring annoyances"

Missing in Action is a sidescrolling army combat game where you, a soldier with a green beret, run through an army camp and eliminate anything in your way. Made by Konami in 1989, it is a successor to Rush 'n' Attack. Supporting up to two player simultaneous action, our hero will have to knife his way through his enemies, while also picking up various temporary weapons along the way. The goal is to rescue POW's and bring them home safely.

Missing in Action can provide some nice fast-paced action. It's satisfying to stab multiple soldiers at once and then use a flamethrower on the grenade bomber far away. Stages are fairly replayable, with a ground level and raised level, often. The different sections of a stage have different challenges to overcome. There are also a few underground passages for finding shortcuts and extra weapons. Also, when you find multiple weapon power-ups, you can switch back and forth between them, and dying costs only one powerup.

Despite MIA's good level of design, it falters in some aspects, mainly the controls. To put it bluntly, the game's controls are terrible. For one, the game uses the up button to jump. This convention has been used well in some games, but for a game with this much climbing and jumping, it's very unintuitive. Rush 'n' Attack was more fitting for such as scheme. But that's not all. Once a character jumps, he must either jump straight up or a set distance forward, early Castlevania-style. This creates many annoying deaths with timing jumps. Furthermore, the knifing controls are very poor. You can't use the knife when climbing a ladder, which invites a lot of soldiers to kill your character, and you can't aim the knife, which is something a game life this is begging to have. Most Konami arcade games control great, so I can't fathom why they're so awful in this game. I suspect these design decisions were implemented to make the game more challenging, but the developers went completely overboard. And since any contact with soldiers equals death, you will find yourself dying repeatedly and cursing the controls. This hurts the flow of an otherwise excellent game. On a brighter note, MIA has a nice surprise in the final level. Although this level can be annoying, it's still a neat idea.

Graphically, MIA does a fine job of conveying a gritty, war-torn atmosphere. The well-drawn backdrops do this without seeming bland or depressing. The animations are solid, and the explosion effects are pleasant to watch. There are also some good cutscenes thrown in.

In terms of sound, MIA's music tends to be mostly drumbeats. There aren't many tunes thrown in, but they come at the right times and are very fitting. The sound effects are good and the music helps set the tone for points of the game. The music is just right for a war-themed game. It may be sparse, but it is well done.

With Missing in Action, I can't help but feel that it was partially a missed opportunity. This is a quality game, but expect to bite the dust a lot. Two players will probably alleviate some of the frustration. In the end, if you can get past the duff controls, you will find a quality action game.

Reviewer's Score: 7/10, Originally Posted: 01/30/07