Best of Commodore 64: Beach head II
One of those games where the sequel is better than the original, Beach Head II is everything the first one was but better. Both games are based on WW II combat. They’re a combination of duck shoot type game and a River Raid type game.
Some stages have you shooting at anything that moves. While other stages resemble Zaxxon. Where you navigate a ship or tank past obstacles and enemy fire. The goal being to rack up more points than the your opponent.
Released in 1985, Beach Head II was available for the Commodore 64 at the peak of it’s popularity. It offered two player head to head action. You could play against a friend or the computer. Either way the game offered a lot of fun.
How to Play
Players began by choosing sides. There were the Allies or the Dictator. The Allies played the offense and the Dictator played defense. Depending on the side how the game played was different. One side did the shooting while the other did the dodging.
There were four stages: Attack, Rescue, Escape, and Battle. The Attack stage had the Allies dropping soldiers from a helicopter you controlled. The soldiers automatically ran for cover while the Dictator side shot at them.
Attack
Once all the soldiers were dropped the helicopter went away and the Ally side controlled the soldiers. They had to travers three walls before reaching the safe zone. The whole time being shot at by the Dictator side.
Rescue
Once all the soldiers were shot or made it to the safe zone the next stage started. The Rescue stage involved a prisoner trying to cross the battle field to safety. During this stage the Allies side gets to do the all the shooting while the Dictator side tries to stop the rescue by controlling various obstacles.
By inputting up, down, left, or right various countermeasures were launched. A tank or armored vehicle could be launched which had automated attacks. The Dictator could control two attackers. One on top of a wall and the other from a trap door below. By moving certain directions they could control the placement of these two attackers.
In this stage, it’s up to the Allies to thwart all the attempts to stop the prisoner from reaching the other side. The Allies have to aim well to stop the tank, armored vehicle, and attackers.
Escape
The next stage is the Escape. The Ally side controls a helicopter again. You load up hostages and fly through the obstacles to safety. This part feels similar to Zaxxon. If you’ve ever played Zaxxon then you know it’s all about picking the right elevation to fly through obstacles in you way all while shooting enemies in your path.
There isn’t much for the Dictator side to control during this stage. The course isn’t any less difficult with the computer controlling all the enemies.
Battle
The last stage is the Battle. This is the only stage where each side has identical controls and action. It’s two people throwing knives at each other across a river. This is the where the iconic line, “You can’t hurt me!” comes from.
Even though there’s only one button, the characters can still jump, duck, and throw. It’s all done by sacrificing the left and right axis for actions instead of direction. The characters only need to move up and down, not forward or backward during this knife fight.
Assessing the Points
After completing all four stages, the score is tallied up and the winner is declared. The game gives the Allies a slight advantage since it’s so hard for the Dictator to score points during the Rescue stage.
It somehow never mattered much since the Dictator was the computer. Even when we played with two people, each player took turns playing either side.
One game could last 10-15 minutes, so we played several rounds taking turns as either side. We were more focused on having fun than keeping score.
A Great Game for Being So Old
Overall, Beach Head II is a combination of several games rolled into one. A shooting gallery, an obstacle course, and a fighting game. All which make it a fun game.
It isn’t as flashy as modern party games but it was a very popular two player game in the 80’s. It still holds up after all these years as a simple yet fun game with a World War II theme.
Best of Commodore 64: Beach Head II brought to you by: David M.
I’m David M. I’ve been playing video games a long time, my pong game was fire. Now, my kids run circles around me but we always have a good time. We mostly play party and family games. Strategy and battle games are still among my favorites. I like writing about games almost as much as I do playing them. My favorite games are: Moving Out 2, Out of Space and Overcooked All You Can Eat.
