Midnight Resistance

Midnight Resistance uses play mechanics and controls similar to that of the Contra series, and can be played by up to two players simultaneously (except Sega Mega Drive/Genesis). The main distinguishing feature is the inclusion of a rotatable joystick similar to the one used in Ikari Warriors, in addition to the traditional set of shoot and jump buttons, allowing the player to adjust his character's aim in one of eight directions by rotating the joystick clockwise or counter-clockwise. This allows the player to keep their aim in one direction while moving in another, even while crawling or jumping.

The power-up system is similar to the one featured in Heavy Barrel (a previous Data East game), in which the player can collect keys after defeating certain enemy soldiers (each player can possess up to six keys at a time). At the end of each stage the player will enter a weapon storage room in which various new weapons and other power-ups can be released from their lockers depending on the number of keys in the player's possession. When the player loses a life, he will drop all the weapons and keys he has in his possession and they can only be recovered if they do not fall off-screen.

In the arcade version, two nameless brothers are on a mission to rescue their family from an entity known as King Crimson.

In the Sega Genesis/Mega Drive version, the main character is Johnny Ford who is a member of an operative group who shuts down drug cartels in South America. After completing his last mission, Johnny returned home only to find it in shambles, and he sees a note in which King Crimson kidnapped his entire family. The reason for the abduction is that Johnny's father, Malcolm Ford, was developing a serum which could help people break their addictions to all narcotics. Since the government is unable to help Johnny, he sets off on his own to rescue his family and destroy King Crimson's empire of evil for good.

In Japan, Game Machine listed Midnight Resistance on their December 15, 1989 issue as being the fifth most-successful table arcade unit of the month.

The ZX Spectrum port was awarded a score of 90% in Sinclair User and 93% in CRASH magazine. It was also included in their 100 best Spectrum games ever made, reaching number 10. The Spectrum version was also voted number 11 in the Your Sinclair Readers' Top 100 Games of All Time.