 Bitmap Brothers is a UK-based developer that primarily made games for Atari ST and the Amiga. They had a hand in only two Super Nintendo ports, the first being God's, a goofy action platformer, and Soldiers of Fortune, or as it's known in the UK and in PAL regions, the Chaos Engine. This is a top-down 8-way shooter in the same vein as stuff like Smash TV and Zombies 8 My Neighbors, in particular the latter since you're navigating mazes and collecting all sorts of stuff. The story has this evil guy named Baron Fortesque commissioning a scientist to build a massive steam engine to transmute matter called the Chaos Engine, and of course the guy goes crazy with it, people are turning into werewolves and monsters, and six mercenaries must band together to stop him somehow. For the game itself, of course you shoot everything that moves and even things that don't move since certain things need to be shot to be activated. For example, you need to activate these electrical nodes in order to unlock the exit of each stage. The number at the top of the screen is how many more nodes you need to find. Some stages only have one, but some have three or four that you have to track down. There's four worlds featuring four levels each, but what's unusual here is that there aren't really any boss fights, there is a final boss, but the name of the game here is just survival and finding the exit somehow. There's no time limit so you can wander around as much as you'd like, and there is a password system here as well so you can pick up where you left off. That may sound simple, but Soldiers of Fortune does have a lot of extra stuff going for it. For example, there's six different soldiers you can play as, each with different weapons, and four varying attributes that you can level up like skill, health, speed and wisdom, with the green showing what they have to start with and the blue showing the maximum amount that they can level up in that area. The skill meter governs the potential of the other attributes if that makes sense. If you increase your skill, then you increase your ability to earn points in the other three areas. Health and speed are self-explanatory, but the wisdom attribute brings me to the next thing that sets Soldiers of Fortune apart. Even if you play this one single player, you still have a computer AI-controlled partner. You choose who they are from one of the five remaining characters. They roam around and shoot stuff on their own, they have their own health meters and power-ups and everything, and the wisdom attribute determines how smart they are in terms of dodging and avoiding enemy fire, as well as how far ahead they can see enemies. Now, when you have an actual second player occupying that spot, the wisdom attribute is pretty much useless, but for single player purposes, it's pretty cool. I should also mention quickly that when playing with a second player, you stay locked onto the same screen together. There's no split screen here. Yet another thing that stands out about this one is the opportunity to buy upgrades after each world. You collect coins for each enemy you defeat, and enemies respawn constantly, so you can really load up on cash here, depending on the length of your attention span. Once you've got some money, you can buy health, speed, skill, or a number of special abilities like bombs, health, mines, stat boosts, and even a map so you can see the entire area. Also, if your henchmen died in combat, you can spend 500 coins here to bring them back. Soldiers of Fortune is sensibly structured. The mazes may get old and repetitive at times. There is a lot of wandering around and backtracking here, but at least if you die, you start again at the last ying and yang icon thing you've picked up. And there's plenty of those in each stage. The closest comparison to this one is probably Operation Logic Bomb. That's another top-down shooter that emphasized angles and the use of some unique weapons. You gotta approach this one the same way, using whatever is around you for cover. What's especially nice is that you can use the L and R buttons to aim without moving the D-pad, and that'll really come in handy to help you progress. I will say though, I don't think Soldiers of Fortune has laid out as cleverly as something like Operation Logic Bomb. That game had a better layout and some great weapons, but Soldiers of Fortune outdoes that one in terms of options and replay value. I love all the characters and the leveling system, even if it kinda doesn't matter what you do at a certain point, and the special weapons and power-ups are great too. Even the computer AI-controlled partner is pretty cool. He rarely gets in the way by doing something stupid. If I were to nitpick any flaws here, it's that the sound design is a little flimsy. For a game where you shoot anything that moves and make tons of stuff go boom, I would have liked to hear a more satisfying boom. I don't know, maybe that's just me. The music here is fine, but the sound effects could have used some work. I should also mention that this is available for Sega Mega Drive as well, but it's pretty much the same game. Some might like the wider resolution the Mega Drive provides though. There's also a sequel called Chaos Engine 2 that was only released for the Amiga, but I have not been able to play that one. I have played the remastered version of Chaos Engine available on Windows, Mac, and Linux, which is a lot of fun since it retains the graphics and audio of the original, but it's blown up to 16.9 and you can play multiplayer online. As for the SNES game, on the surface, Soldiers of Fortune or the Chaos Engine appears to be a very simple game, but the different characters, attributes, and henchmen give the game some replay value. I will say the mazes do get kind of old after a while. It would have been nice to see something different thrown in there, like some boss fights, but this is still certainly a worthwhile playthrough. I was really surprised because I was totally prepared to be really angry at my AI-controlled companion, but he was actually pretty useful. So yeah, I would check this one out. I'm not sure it's going to compare to stuff like Zombies 8 My Neighbors or Super Smash TV, but it's still pretty good, and it puts a subtle twist on the usual top-down action genre.