Operation Wolf

 is a light gun shooter arcade game developed by Taito and released in 1987. It was subsequently ported to various home systems. The game was critically and commercially successful, winning the Golden Joystick Award for Game of the Year.
"Operation Wolf" popularized military-themed first-person light gun rail shooters and inspired numerous clones, imitators and light gun rail shooters over the next decade. It spawned three sequels: "Operation Thunderbolt" (1988), "Operation Wolf 3" (1994) and "Operation Tiger" (1998).
Gameplay.
Assuming the role of Special Forces Operative Roy Adams, the player attempts to rescue five hostages who are being held captive in enemy territory. The game is viewed from a first-person perspective, and is on rails, with the screen scrolling horizontally through the landscape. The game is divided into six stages, each of which advances the story when completed. For example, after the Jungle stage is completed, Adams interrogates an enemy soldier and learns the location of the concentration camp where the hostages are being held. This was one of the first shooter games to feature a storyline.
The game utilizes an optical controller housed inside a gun assembly scaled after and which bears a strong resemblance to an Uzi submachine gun. This, in turn, is mounted on top of a square base covering the pivot shaft which allows players to swivel and elevate the "gun". A geared motor inside the casing simulates the recoil felt by the player when they "fire" the weapon at in-game targets. 
Pulling the trigger allows fully automatic fire, while pressing a button near the muzzle launches a grenade with a wide blast radius that can hit multiple targets.
In order to complete each stage, the player must shoot a required number of soldiers and vehicles (trucks, boats, helicopters, armored transports), as indicated by an on-screen counter. The player begins with a limited supply of ammunition and grenades, but can find more throughout the game, either openly displayed or revealed by shooting crates and barrels, coconuts in trees, and animals such as pigs and chickens. Dynamite bombs cause heavy damage to every target on the screen, both enemy and friendly, and a special machine gun power-up allows unlimited ammunition and an increased rate of fire for 10 seconds.
Enemies attack with gunfire, knives, grenades, mortar and bazooka rounds, and missiles; all but the first of these can be shot out of the air. The player has a damage bar that slowly fills as hits are taken; in addition, shooting friendly targets such as nurses and boys adds to the bar. Damage can be recovered by picking up health power-ups and completing stages.
The six stages, and their objectives and effects on gameplay after completion, are as follows:
Completing the airport stage with at least one hostage rescued awards a bonus based on the number of stages played and the number of hostages who boarded the plane. A new operation then begins at a higher difficulty level, with a fully healed damage bar and a fresh supply of ammunition.
The game ends if any of the following events occur, with each outcome showing a different "game over" screen:
Continuing the game allows the player to restart the last stage played.
When the language of the game is set to English, the six stages are always played in the above order. As a result, the effects of the communication setup and jungle are not obvious, and the number of enemies in a particular stage remains constant from one operation to the next. When the language is set to Japanese, only the first four stages are initially available and the player may choose the order of play, allowing for strategic planning.
The ported version to the Nintendo Entertainment System allowed for multiple endings depending on how many hostages were rescued. The player would be awarded points in the form of "combat pay" and be greeted by the President of the United States. The number of surviving hostages corresponded with the president's tone to the player:
Home conversions.
The game was ported to the Amstrad CPC, DOS, NES, Amiga 500, Atari ST, Master System, FM Towns, Commodore 64, PC Engine and ZX Spectrum. Most of these ports lack any kind of light gun support (with the exceptions of the NES, Master System, and the ZX Spectrum, which featured Magnum Light Phaser support) and must be played with a keyboard or a controller. The box for the Master System version features promotional art from "Operation Thunderbolt".
In 2005, "Operation Wolf" was released on the Xbox, PlayStation 2, and Microsoft Windows as part of "Taito Legends"; however, light gun support is unavailable. The NES version of "Operation Wolf" was released on the North American Wii Virtual Console in February 2008. Whereas the NES version allowed NES Zapper support, the VC re-release does not feature any kind of light gun support (including the Wii Remote's pointer functions), making the game only playable with the standard controller mode.
Reception.
Upon release in arcades, the game received wide acclaim from critics, particularly for its gameplay, graphics and controls. However, it also received some criticism for its violence, particularly in the UK press following the Hungerford massacre that had occurred a few months before its release.
"Commodore User" said it beats Sega's "After Burner" as "the game of the year and much of next year too" but that it may draw some controversy from tabloids for its "Rambo"-like violent content. Clare Edgeley of "Computer and Video Games" called it one of the best new releases, stating that, despite the excessive violence, it was an "extremely playable" and "powerful" fast-paced action game. "Your Sinclair" called it a "fast and furious" action game, and said it "broke a bit of new 'ground' for arcade games 'cos the 'nasties' fired directly at you through the screen." "Your Sinclair" also gave the ZX Spectrum conversion a highly positive review.
Commercial performance.
The game was commercially successful. In Japan, "Game Machine" listed "Operation Wolf" on their December 1, 1987 issue as the second most-successful upright/cockpit arcade cabinet of the month, and it was the 16th top-grossing arcade game of 1988. In Europe, it debuted as the top-grossing arcade game of October 1987 in the United Kingdom, and again topped the charts in December 1987; it held the top spot through March 1988, and remained in the top five through July, when it was number four on the "Coinslot" dedicated arcade game chart (below "Street Fighter", "Continental Circus", and "WEC Le Mans"). "Operation Wolf" went on to become the top-earning arcade game of 1988 in the United Kingdom.
The home computer conversions topped the UK sales charts for four months, from December 1988 through March 1989. In April 1989, it was number two on the Spectrum sales charts, behind "RoboCop" which was number one every month for most of the year.
Accolades.
"Sinclair User" gave the arcade game the "Over The Top Game of 1988" award, for the "shooting game most likely to push you over the edge" in 1988. The home computer conversions won several awards at the 1989 Golden Joystick Awards for 1988, including overall Game of the Year (8-bit) as well as Best Coin-Op Conversion (8-bit) and Best Coin-Op Conversion (16-bit). It was later voted number 26 in the ""Your Sinclair" Readers' Top 100 Games of All Time" poll. "Crash" awarded it a Crash Smash. "Computer and Video Games" awarded it a CVG Hit.
Legacy.
"Operation Wolf" was an influential game upon release. It is credited with evolving the light gun shooter genre. It was a departure from the shooting gallery, carnival and cartoon themes that had previously dominated the genre for decades, since electro-mechanical games in the 1960s up until Nintendo's "Duck Hunt" in 1984, and moved the genre towards a more realistic, violent, military shooter theme. In contrast to Taito's earlier gun games including "Attack" (1976), "N.Y. Captor" (1985) and "Cycle Shooting" (1986) which had simple cartoon graphics, "Operation Wolf" had more realistic graphics providing a sense of depth to the perspective (using different sized sprites).
Following the 1980s military themes of 2D run and gun games (such as "Commando", "Green Beret" and "Ikari Warriors") and action films (such as "Rambo" and "Commando"), "Operation Wolf" extended this to light gun shooters. It presented a prisoner of war (POW) rescue mission that involved a large amount of violence, with the player shooting and killing a large number of enemy soldiers, which was novel for light gun shooters at the time. It was also notable for its mounted gun; while mounted guns had been used before in Taito's "Attack" and even older Midway mechanical games from the 1960s, "Operation Wolf"s mounted gun incorporated an optical light gun sensor along with a geared motor that made the player feel the kick when pulling the trigger.
The game popularized first-person light gun rail shooters and inspired numerous clones and imitators during the late 1980s to early 1990s. Examples include SNK's "Mechanized Attack" and Sega's "Line of Fire" in 1989, SNK's "Beast Busters" in 1990, Namco's "Steel Gunner" and Midway's "" in 1991, and Konami's "Lethal Enforcers" in 1992. Light gun rail shooters continued to be influenced by "Operation Wolf" as the genre remained popular into the late 1990s, when the genre's popularity eventually declined following the rise of the first-person shooter (FPS) genre.
"Operation Wolf" itself spawned three sequels: "Operation Thunderbolt" (1988), "Operation Wolf 3" (1994) and "Operation Tiger" (1998).