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P.O.W.: Prisoners of War is a side scrolling beat 'em up by SNK. It was released on the NES in 1989. The arcade version was ported to the Nintendo Switch by Hamster as part of Arcade Archives.

Gameplay

The game can be played by up to two players simultaneously. Player 1 controls a prisoner dressed in blue, while Player 2 controls a palette swap of the same character dressed in red. The objective is to escape from the enemy's base by fighting one's way through four stages filled with numerous types of enemy soldiers trying to impede the player's escape. The stages consist of a POW camp, a warehouse, a jungle, and the enemy's base. Occasionally the enemy will attack the player with vehicles such as an assault chopper, an armored truck or motorcycles. At the end of the final stage, the player confronts an enemy general before contacting the extraction chopper to pick him up and proceeding his way to the final escape sequence.

Plot

The main character in single player is a captured P.O.W. commando codenamed Snake (Bart in the NES version) who must bomb his way out of a P.O.W. prison cell and escape. They must escape through four levels of gameplay where the mission is not only to escape, but to infiltrate the enemy base and destroy their leaders.

Reception

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