When I was nine years old, my first console was a Sega Master System II, with copies of both Alex Kidd and Operation Wolf. I must have played Operation Wolf hundreds of times despite not having a light gun, and in spite of its spectacular difficulty level. I remember thinking that gaming could never get better — the sound effects, the visual pop of the “bullet wounds” on enemies and the incredible 1980’s action movie vibe. Different people will recall each of the four games on Operation Night Strikers: Assault Edition differently, but this is a collection where the nostalgia hits hard.
Obviously for me, when Operation Night Strikers: Assault Edition arrived on Nintendo Switch, I was immediately curious. But nostalgia alone tends not to be enough to make these older games relevant and to be honest, I’d never played the other games (Operation Thunderbolt, Space Gun, and Night Striker) in the collection. What matters is whether these games, rebuilt and presented by M2, actually hold up on modern hardware, and whether the Switch can do justice to a set of titles originally built around light‑guns, mounted replica weapons, and bespoke arcade cabinets that felt so incredibly authentic back in the day.
The good news is that like all the best redux’s these days, this collection is far more than just a set of lazy ports. It’s a carefully assembled and really technically sharp preservation of four Taito shooters, each restored with M2’s usual attention to detail and supported by modern control options that make them considerably more playable than I remember Operation Wolf was.
The three “Operation” titles — Wolf, Thunderbolt, and Space Gun — were all originally light‑gun shooters. On Switch, M2 offers three control schemes: analogue stick aiming, gyro aiming using the Joy‑Con’s motion sensors, and full USB mouse support. Analogue aiming is functional but lacks the tactile immediacy of the original cabinets. Gyro aiming is more immersive and works well with frequent re-positioning on the sofa as you increasingly jump from one butt-cheek to the other. I have no doubt that the mouse is the best way to experience these games, but it’s not something I’ve been able to test.
The games themselves seem faithful to their arcade originals. Operation Wolf remains a straightforward military shooter with ammo management, hostage rescues, and a relentless pace that gave it a reputation for serious difficulty. This version is far superior to the Master System version I knew so well, but I also have access to a MAME version of Operation Wolf and can confirm that the Night Strikers version is a very good port of the original, but with a few mod cons that improve it significantly over a classic emulator. In addition to the control enhancements and modernisation options, authentic scan lines and visual enhancements have been done exceptionally well.
Operation Thunderbolt builds on the Wolf formula with more dynamic environments and scaling effects although I found some of the ideas in the game (which revolves around a plane hijack and some nameless Middle-Eastern terrorists) a bit questionable. Space Gun shifts into sci‑fi horror, using angled sprites to simulate 3D corridors and leaning into a more atmospheric, alien‑infested tone.
I have to say, I really liked Space Gun and despite finding it even more difficult than Operation Wolf, I would love to spend more time with it. In fact, all three games retain their steep, original difficulty curves (they were designed to eat coins for hours on end after all) but M2’s save states and practice tools make them far more approachable today than they would have been if you were spending your pocket money.
Night Striker is perhaps the standout game in this collection, offering its name to the second half of the collection to make a passable play on words. It’s a “Super Scaler”‑style shooter where you pilot a futuristic hovercraft through neon‑drenched cityscapes, branching paths, and high‑speed tunnels. Night Striker blends elements of Space Harrier and OutRun, and its bonkers soundtrack remains a highlight. Unlike the light‑gun games, Night Striker feels completely natural on a standard controller, and it’s arguably the most enjoyable title for that reason alone, especially in my case because it’s completely new to me. 
As is commonly becoming the expectation in these collections, M2’s enhancements go beyond basic emulation. The compilation includes their signature GUI, featuring small UI panels around the screen that display extra information such as ammo counts, damage indicators, or internal game data. There are also replay functions, save/load states, and the ability to upload and download play data, giving the package a light competitive edge. These additions don’t alter the games, but they make them easier to learn and for a hardcore part of the community, will add value.
The Assault Edition itself is a physical, collector‑focused release that for me only added to the nostalgia. It includes the full Operation Night Strikers compilation on cartridge, plus a small DLC pack. In the box you get a fanbook, a “Taito Sound Bullets” soundtrack CD, an A3 poster, a reversible titlesheet, and a special edition box. It’s region‑free and supports one or two players depending on the game — Operation Wolf and Operation Thunderbolt in particular benefit from co‑op and I think I even remember playing Wolf with my friends for brief periods whilst their patience lasted.
Performance on Switch is solid across the board and I didn’t see any inherent issues during my play time. There’s no attempt to modernise the visuals beyond clean scaling, scan lines and the GUI overlays, making the collection more about preservation than reinvention. That will appeal to purists and people who remember the originals, although players expecting a full visual remaster may find the presentation starkly retro. Even so, the games in this collection are not the roughest examples of 1980’s game design and these were very much premium cabinets at the time of release.
The biggest limitation is absolutely linked to the hardware: without a true light‑gun, the experience of Operation Wolf, Thunderbolt, and Space Gun will never fully replicate the original cabinets and even I, who experienced Wolf on a terrible Master System pad, struggled to see the value of persevering through some of the tougher section. Even with gyro support, you’re still aiming a cursor rather than pointing a gun and perhaps a mouse setup really is a worthwhile way to experience these classics.
But as someone who grew up with Operation Wolf on the Master System II and has profound memories attached to games of this era, there’s something undeniably satisfying about seeing such games preserved with care. They’re not perfect and they’re not modernised, but they’re authentic, often bastard-hard and certainly have their own strange kind of charm.
Operation Night Strikers: Assault Edition is a lovingly assembled slice of arcade history. It won’t convert anyone who doesn’t already enjoy old‑school shooters, but for fans of Taito’s late‑’80s output — or for anyone who remembers the thrill of mowing down pixelated soldiers in their thousands as a bloodthirsty nine year old — it’s a well‑made, respectful, and surprisingly playable return to a very specific era of gaming.
Operation Night Strikers is available now for PC and Nintendo Switch.
