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Midnight Resistance

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The Midnight Resistance fighters are up against the awesome powers of mad scientist King Crimson and his Crimson Corps. Crimson has kidnapped your scientist grandfather and five more of your relatives, and aims to put his advanced plans to evil use. Take control of a Resistance fighter in this...

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Developer
Data East

Released on
1989

Size
1–2 Players

Version
Arcade

Requirements
Arcade

Downloads
Platform

ESRB Rating
Not Rated

Cooperative
Yes

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Description

The Midnight Resistance fighters are up against the awesome powers of mad scientist King Crimson and his Crimson Corps. Crimson has kidnapped your scientist grandfather and five more of your relatives, and aims to put his advanced plans to evil use.

Take control of a Resistance fighter in this scrolling shoot ’em up consisting of nine platform-based levels, each ending with a Boss to defeat. Your enemies appear on foot and in vehicles, and Crimson has also planted machine gun bays en route.

Dead enemies release keys, which can be traded in at shop points for weapons. These weapons include machine guns and flamethrowers, for which ammunition must be bought – weapons are discarded when you have no suitable ammo. The control system is unusual – you can shoot in different directions and crawl along low ledges.

Midnight Resistance

Overview & History

Released by Data East in 1989, Midnight Resistance is a gritty, post-apocalyptic run-and-gun arcade shooter that stands out for its heavy metal aesthetic and unique weapon customization system. The storyline drops players into a grim future where a sinister tyrant known as "King Crimson" has kidnapped the protagonist's family. To rescue them, you control one of the Eiji brothers—or both in simultaneous two-player cooperative mode—battling through heavily fortified alien-cyborg installations across nine relentless, side-scrolling stages.

Gameplay Features & Mechanics

Unlike standard genre contemporaries such as Contra, Midnight Resistance introduces a signature economy system based on red keys collected from defeated enemies and high-ranking officers. These keys act as currency, allowing players to unlock weapon pods at the end of stages or checkpoints. You can purchase and swap between devastating firepower upgrades like the flamethrower, shotgun, homing missiles, and the iconic heavy-duty backpack-fed chain gun. The control scheme features a unique 360-degree firing mechanism mapped to a rotary dial, though standard cabinet configurations utilized independent directional buttons to aim while moving. Characters can jump, duck, perform somersaults to dodge enemy fire, and unleash a screen-clearing special attack using stored energy. The game is notoriously challenging, punishing reckless play with instant deaths, yet rewarding tactical weapon management and memorization of enemy spawn patterns.