Heavy Barrel
Heavy Barrel (1987) was another Data East game in the spirit of games like Ikari Warriors and Front Line. We wasted many hours and many quarters on this game in the late 1980’s, but thankfully 1 quarter could last a seasoned player a long, long time. In this game, the player battles a group of terrorists that have seized an underground nuclear missile site.
At the start of the game, the player begins with a laser gun and a limited number of grenades. There were power-ups available that would improve weaponry, some of which had to be accessed using crate keys. Some of the crates would include one of the six pieces needed to build the ultimate fighting weapon, the “Heavy Barrel”. Once the Heavy Barrel was constructed, it became this mega-huge blasting cannon that would decimate the enemy. Once the energy of the gun ran out (30 seconds or so), new pieces would have to be collected to build a new Heavy Barrel. If timed right, the building of the Heavy Barrel could be coordinated with the dealing with the boss at the end of a level.