Infiltrator (1986) Developed by Chris Gray Enterprises and published by Mindscape for NES. This is a classic kind of NES game, one that is surprisingly ambitious and unrelentingly punishing. It has a tongue-in-cheek attitude, calling on the main character, Johnny “Jimbo Baby” McGibbits to stop the Mad Leader’s evil scheme. The game is divided into two chunks: three flying missions, where you take control of a helicopter to drop near an enemy base. Here, the second chunk takes place on foot, entering several buildings in disguise to steal an important item, plant explosives, or obtain information. Both of these gameplay styles are… unfriendly, to say the least. The flying missions have surprisingly complex controls, and it’s not unlike a real flight simulator, though the NES’s primitive graphics make it difficult to know where you’re actually going. The on-foot missions are on a strict time limit, and require you to know exactly where to go and what to do like you’re doing a speedrun. Guards will stop you every time they see you and ask for your papers, and whether or not they see through your faked documents is literally random, in which case you need to sleeping gas them and get out. A guard can approve you once, and then in five seconds call a security alarm on you. It’s not surprising that the developer let you choose which order to do the flying and stealth sections in, or else you might never see one of them. If you’re interested… strongly consider a walkthrough.




