Walker

About Walker

Walker (1993) is DMA Design's Amiga shooter in which a giant bipedal mech stomps from right to left through battles in 1944 Berlin, 2019 Los Angeles, the Middle East and a future Great War.

Walker in Depth

The player controls a bipedal mech through four stages of two levels each: 1944 Berlin, 2019 Los Angeles, the contemporary Middle East and Earth in 2420 during "The Great War". Its machine guns cut down waves of infantry, tanks and airships, and a level is finished when every enemy is dead, followed by a boss at its end. Firing raises a temperature gauge, and overheated guns must cool before firing again, while missiles can lock on to targets. The mech's shield is its health; when it is destroyed a life is lost, and losing all three ends the game. Unusually, the action scrolls from right to left.

The mouse aims the guns while the keyboard or joystick walks the mech, a split Ian Dunlop said kept the weapons free while moving and "gave the gameplay a bit more depth and interest". The huge mech meant enemies had to be small, partly inspired by the Lemmings characters, and the side-scrolling drew on DMA's own Menace. There are two difficulty levels, easy and arcade, with only the first two stages in easy mode, and on advanced Amigas the mech exchanges speech with its headquarters, recorded by Dunlop and Neill Glancy over walkie-talkie. Critics praised its graphics and sound: Amiga Force called it "one of the most satisfying shoot-'em-ups", though The One Amiga thought the mech looked "more like a mechanical chicken".

Making Walker

David Jones began it after Blood Money in 1989, with graphics by Scott Johnston, but scrapped it in early 1990 when the design was not coming together. After the C64 and TurboGrafx-16 ports of Shadow of the Beast, he hired Ian Dunlop and Neill Glancy to continue, Glancy redesigning the game, and Raymond Usher wrote the soundtrack. Psygnosis cut some features for financial and time reasons and released it in February 1993. Reviews were positive for its animation and sound, with Amiga Action giving it an Accolade, though the repetitive play drew mixed reactions. A Mega Drive port and a 3DO sequel, Walker 2, were both cancelled.