I've lately noticed that a lot of games have taken names of old, classic games. Witness Creatures (a classic C64 game, and now a goofball PC game) and Pole Position (a groundbreaking racing game and now a lame PC racing game). Now, worse has come to worse and even the movie industry is taking the names of old games.

Witness The Jackal, out in theatres tonight. Although people in the movie industry will try to tell you that it's a remake of an older movie, those who are in to the secret know that it's really trying to capitalize on the popularity of Konami's Jackal on the NES. Because of this extremely base maneuver on the part of Universal Pictures, I'll outline on this page the differences, so you don't get them confused and so you'll see that the game is undoubtedly better.

The Jackal

Jackal

  • Based on the 1973 movie classic Day of the Jackal
  • Based on the 1987 arcade classic Top Gunner
  • With the help of an IRA terrorist, the FBI must stop its president from being killed by a man paid by a Russian mobster
  • With the help of the Green Berets' "Jeep Squad", you must track down and rescue POW's in Vietnam
  • Stars Bruce Willis as The Jackal, an international assassin
  • Stars "Lieutenant Bob" as the on-board jeep gunner


  • The Jackal is a smooth, remoseless hired mercenary
  • The Jeep Squad are a bunch of guys who drive an Army jeep around a heavily guarded fortress filled with missile launchers, enemy jeeps (?!?), helicopters, and surprisingly unguarded POW camps
  • The Jackal goes around shooting heads of state
  • The Jackals go around running over people
  • The Jackal has to contend with the deputy FBI head and a mastermind IRA terrorist
  • The Jackals have to contend with female statue heads that spit guided missiles from their mouth, huge battleships, and a presidential palace that transforms into a giant tank
  • Ending has three fake climaxes
  • Ending has no fake climaxes, but it does have a helicopter flying off into the sunset (a common motif in Konami games)
  • After movie ends, ushers kick you out if you try to see it again
  • After finishing game, game restarts so you can play it again and again!
  • It's another bad action flick
  • It's an exciting action video game that costs about as much as a movie ticket!

"I think the choice is clear."

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