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Take the role of soldiers infiltrating enemy territory in a jeep to rescue your POW comrades.


Background
Jackal (Special Forces Unit Jackal) was initially released in North America as Top Gunner, though the most commonly known, NES version of the game retained the title Jackal (in North America and PAL regions). Jackal is an overhead run and gun game released by Konami in 1986. Players take the role of a jeep driving soldiers on a mission to rescue their POW comrades in Vietnam.


Story
"Your brothers-in-arms are hostages behind enemy lines, and you're their only hope for freedom. But the firepower you'll face to rescue them is awesome. Rescue the POW's in the buildings. You'll need a pocket full of miracles, and the ferocity of a wild JACKAL."

These opening lines from the game sum up the gist of the story. In the game, players take the role of Col. Deckar (driver) and Lt. Bob (gunner) in single player mode, and Cpl. Grey and Sgt. Quint are added in cooperative two-player mode.


Gameplay
In Jackal, players traverse through six levels on their armed jeep. The aim of each level is to rescue POW's from buildings in the stage and transport them to transport helicopters. After each sucessful dropoff, players fight a variety of bosses. Points are awarded based on performance (by both enemy kills and POW pickups), eventually rewarding the players extra lives. If the player rescues enough prisoners, weapon upgrades are rewarded, in addition special flashing prisoners award these power ups.

The player controlled jeeps feature a primary and a secondary attack. The primary weapons in the game are grenades (upgradable 4 times). The granades first upgrade to a "rocket launcher" then and enhanced ranged rocket launcher, then a shrapnel producing rocket launcher (area of damage) and lastly an enhanced area of damage rocket launcher. As a secondary weapon, the jeep features a machine gun which can only be fired upward. The machine gun lacks the power of the explosive weapons (and can not be used to rescue POWs from buildings) but can be used as a minor complimentary weapon while dodging enemy attacks.