Play Venus Wars Online

Venus Wars came out on the Nintendo Entertainment System in 1990, published by Bandai. It was part of that wave of late NES games trying to capture the feel of a bigger anime story on the limited hardware. You get a sense of that ambition right from the start, even if the console can only show so much.

You control a soldier piloting a high speed monocycle, a single giant wheel armed with weapons. Your main goal is to fight through the enemy forces across a war torn Venus. The gameplay is side scrolling; you move screen by screen, blasting enemy vehicles and infantry with your cycle's cannon. You also have a limited supply of a special homing missile for tougher targets. The levels are linear but packed with enemies, making it a constant battle to dodge fire and manage your ammunition. It feels fast and a little chaotic, like a rushed ground assault where you are always outnumbered.