P.O.W. - Prisoners of War (arcade)
200x100 GFX Company: SNK
Genre: Beat 'em up
Released: USA: 1988
SNK's P.O.W. is one of the more well-known and competent beat-em-ups of the post-Double Dragon/pre-Final Fight era. If you think I'm kidding, try playing any beat-em-up made between those two landmark brawlers that isn't named Double Dragon II. Inspired by the wave of '70s and '80s movies about U.S. prisoners of war being rescued from Vietnam by action heroes (a concept based on real-life concerns), the game is about two captured soldiers who break out of their cell and wage a two-man war on an entire base. Defeated captors drop knives and assault rifles that can be used to finish off more opponents and the prisoners can even use the rifle to bash close opponents upside the head instead of wasting ammo.

The game's ending names only one character: Snake. The problem is that the character says "This is Snake" during the ending no matter which player wins the game. The name "Bart" is used for the single player in the NES version P.O.W., but quite a few sites now mention Bart as if he's the name of the other player in the arcade version. Unless it's mentioned somewhere else (like the Japanese flyer), Bart is possibly just in the NES version.
Player Characters:
Snake(?), Player 2
Screenshots (click to see full-sized):
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