Punching in Prisoners of War

[nathanlarson3141]

In reference to Matt Paprocki's review at
http://www.digitpress.com/reviews/pow_arcade.htm, in which he says, "Yes, it offers both a punch and a kick button, though using anything but a kick is useless. Punches send the enemy away from the player, allowing them to get a shot in before another strike can be launched": That is incorrect, because sometimes when the enemy jump kicks you, you have to punch him; the kick is ineffective.

[rbudrick]

Yes, I found this out in the NES version too. You really do have to master the punches and the kicks.

The NES version, in a lot of ways, is similar to Double Dragon in that the NES home versions were extremely hard to beat, and harder than their arcade counterparts (no quarter pumping allowed), but are equally if not more rewarding to play.

I was so psyched the first time I beat NES POW without the 21 man code. I used to be able to get well into the dreaded Level 4 before dying....the game takes a lot of practice.

As a side-note, POW was the second arcade game I ever beat, the first being Bad Dudes. I beat Bad Dudes when I was 10 years old on a trip to Washington DC. My Aunt and her friend took me and her friend's younger brother (a year or two older than me) on the trip. They were so pissed when at night all we wanted to do was go to the nearby arcade...we NEVER got to go to arcades where we lived and seeing games that were WAY more advanced than our home games was worse than being given crack...we we SO psyched to be there. The most memorable part of my trip, really. The funny thing is, as I was beating Bad Dudes, Phillip, the kid I was with beat POW...the first arcade game he ever beat. I ended up beating it somewhere between 2-4 years later, though closer to home.

-Rob