Us vs. Them

Also known as: N/A

Developer: Mylstar

Us vs. Them is a so-so shooter that is honestly only worth playing for one reason - it uses a videodisk to put movies in the background while you shoot and to play videos between rounds…and sometimes to cut into the action with. Essentially, Us vs. Them's shooting levels vary from side-scrolling levels where you can fire both in front of you and behind you, levels where the camera is positioned behind your ship and you're either firing in front of you or the ship is quite a bit in the background and you're firing towards the screen behind you. Then there are the video-based levels that typically have you avoiding obstacles. There are the tree levels, where you realize that either the Earth has a lot of giant trees or you are piloting a ship the size of a matchbox, and your goal is to avoid random trees that pop up on the screen. Then there are the awful energy field levels, where your goal is to roll your ship through small enclosures in the energy fields. These levels wouldn't be so bad except that the zone to "safely" pass through seems to be off…where it looks like you're hitting the field when you safely pass through and you take damage when it looks like you should have gotten through unscathed. The action, as I mentioned at the start, is nothing special…but I will admit that the video aspects made me want to play more. Specifically, I wanted to see all of the bad acting that awaited me as I advanced on. I could definitely see a backlash happening with players of Us vs. Them at the arcades, though…if you decided to pop a bunch of quarters in with the intention of seeing this game through to the end, and, let's say you enter the final levels with a ship that only has enough energy to take a single hit, there are no continues. After taking that single blow, you'll see a screen that says that you can't buy your way to the ending in this game…and so, you may feel like you just wasted time and money. Still, though, Us vs. Them is still a neat novelty and worth laying through at least once just to see the corny videos…just don't expect thrilling action along the way.

Review added: 11/20/2025