Shock Troopers (Milky, Marie Bee, Big Mama) - Valley/Jungle, Level 8, 1 credit

One of my favourite shooter games. Shock Troopers is a run and gun arcade game developed by Saurus and published by SNK in 1997 for the Neo-Geo arcade and home platform.
Valley/Jungle is the easiest route for me since I'm used to the all-girls team (Milky, Marie Bee & Big Mama). Milky excels in the first 2 stages (Valley) as she has a boost in movement speed and she can fully utilize her bombs on the enemy boss with the large hitbox. Even when the game is very generous with powerups, it is still wise to hoard certain bullet types as they are very effective against the bosses, like the 3-way bullets for stage 1 or the missiles for stage 5.
The 3rd stage (Valley) is an exploit fest, since the game treats objects as non-existent as long as they are out of screen, so you can basically move upwards and you can ignore the bottom half of the stage. Sadly, this exploit also affects powerups too, so they will also disappear if you aren't careful with your positioning. Just remember to get the final hit on the boss with a melee attack so he will drop the 64HP powerup.
The 4th stage is the train section if you change routes midway. There's nothing much to take note of other than the annoying red flying enemies right before the boss, Big Mama is great here since she has double shot to take them out twice as fast as the other girls.
5th stage (Jungle) is pretty straightforward, just remember to save the missiles for the boss. Hyper bullets work great too, but they require close range, so using the missile is much safer.
The first half of stage 6 (Jungle) is pretty straightforward, with lots of powerups. The second half is where Marie Bee starts to shine, as she has boosted movement in the area. Marie's bombs also have a homing effect, so it helps with the flying enemies during the ladder climbing part. I made a mistake here by accidentally picking up the Vulcan while trying to save up on the Buster bullets, otherwise I could cheese the first half of the boss fight like in the previous stage. The second half of the boss fight is a human boss so remember to take him out using a melee attack for the health powerup.
The final stage is basically an endurance level, the part right before the final boss have the red flying enemies again, hence Big Mama is great for taking them out unless you have spare bombs. The final boss is pretty easy as long as you know his attack pattern.

[@nerothewateruser8030]

Ah, such fond arcade memories this evokes ^^
Granted, the only shooter I've really played is Contra, and I wasn't very good at it if I couldn't get past the second stage- (I mostly played fighting games and the Bubble Bobble series there, it was a great time)

[@steel19812]

Great time at the Arcade in the 90s.

[@IAARPOTI]

Which emulator do you have to play with this game?