Walker

Walker, a shooting game developed by DMA Design and published by Psygnosis, was released onto the Amiga personal computers in the early 1990s.

A quick look at the game would assume the game was based on MechWarrior or the Star Wars AT-ST Walker. The game was a side-scroller shooter, a popular genre to do at the time due to obvious limitations. At the time, one of the major setbacks to the game was the loading time. The game wasn’t one you played by downloading it digitally or streaming it from dedicated servers. No, Walker came out on three different floppy discs. Just waiting for the first level to load means you have time to make yourself eggs, sausage, hash browns, and a cup of coffee. Luckily, you can now play with our HD-enable package with an emulator included.

Just like any side-scroller at the time, your whole purpose when playing Walker is to massacre everything in your path completely. Of course, you’re not only going to be fighting enemy soldiers, but you’re also going to be fighting their airplanes, cannons, and other vehicles. There’s just something so satisfying about crunching the bones of your enemies beneath your Walker’s long metal legs. Unfortunately, it isn’t a complete massacre. Walker was one of the first games to test out the concept that your bullets can overheat if you’re firing it too long. That set off an annoying pattern of shooting games, adapting this real-life mechanic into future titles.

You control the giant robot with the joystick/keyboard and the gun with the mouse. This makes it possible for two friends to play a cooperative game, one at the keyboard and the other one at the mouse. Definitely, the best way to enjoy Walker.

For an older title, the atmosphere of war-torn landscapes really adds a great atmosphere to the game. The game is further immersed by the sounds, but that’s where the positives for the game ends. The game has absolutely no variety at all. You could play through an entire level of the game and feel like you’ve played the entirety of the game already. It’s a sad affair, but some may enjoy the game for what it is.