Random Article Summary #141

Target: Terror, also known as Target: Force in Japan, is a 2004 arcade shooter made by Raw Thrills and designed by Eugene Jarvis. In the game, players shoot terrorists who attack different locations across the United States, such as Denver Airport, the Golden Gate Bridge, and Los Alamos National Laboratory. A special version called Target: Terror Gold gives players medals as a bonus. It also includes hidden minigames that can be unlocked by damaging specific parts of the environment, like windows or oil drums. Players use optical guns to stop terrorist attacks at several famous sites, with the final mission focused on preventing a hijacked airliner from crashing into the White House. The “Gold” version keeps the same main levels but adds bonus rooms, including shooting bomb-carrying turkeys and intercepting ICBMs with flares, and rewards players with combat medals after each mission. The game can be played in two modes, including simultaneous 2-player play on one gun (Justice Mode), and all characters are shown as real live-action people. After defeating the terrorists and saving everyone, the players board a hijacked Boeing 747 and must fight to reach the cockpit to stop a suicide attack on the White House. If they succeed, the president thanks them and calls them heroes, but the Wii version cuts to static, while the arcade version has terrorists interrupt the speech and then shoot the players. All versions end with “To Be Continued,” though no sequel was ever made. Target: Terror was Raw Thrills’ first arcade game, designed by Eugene Jarvis and inspired by U.S. paranoia after September 11. The developers used motion capture for realistic animation and included a nonviolent paintball mode for families, while its final mission involved stopping a hijacked Boeing 747 from crashing into the White House. After being unveiled in 2004 and published in Japan by Taito, the story ended with a “to be continued” screen, but no sequel was ever released. Target: Terror was ported to the Wii by Konami in 2008 and supports the Wii Zapper peripheral. Critics largely disliked it, with low scores on GameRankings and Metacritic, and IGN even awarded it “Worst Visuals.” Despite this, it later ranked 19th in a Retro Gamer list of top light gun games, with praise for its surprising moments and live-action visuals.