Dynamite Cop!

"Fun as hell, a MUST for beat-em-up fans!"

I don't know how many reviews I read about Dynamite Cop prior to actually having bought it. All of them gave the game low scores, and criticized it for being too short. ''You will be pretty much done with it in two hours'', they all said. And whoever 'they' were, all of them were wrong! I only bought the game recently, and I couldn't have regretted it more! Dynamite Cop (from now on referred to as 'DC') is a blast to play, even more if you are into beat-em-ups!

Dynamite Cop is the sequel to Die Hard Arcade, an arcade and Saturn beat-em-up. It is also known as Dynamite Dekka 2 in Japan, since Die Hard Arcade was called Dynamite Dekka there. For those who had the pleasure of playing the first title, let me tell you off the bat that the sequel certainly doesn't disappoint. In fact, DC is better than the prequel in every department, except in one. But I'll detail that in the actual review, so ''Let's get sweaty!''...

STORY - 7/10 - This game, as most (if not all) beat-em-ups, features a cheesy story line to accompany all the action: this time Wolf Hongo (who also was the final boss of Die Hard Arcade) is starting trouble in a cruiser. He threatens the life of everybody aboard, including the *cliche* president's daughter's. You have to get there and save everyone, especially the president's daughter. While you play through the game, the story unfolds as you go from battle to battle, whether it's a cut-scene or a FMV video. There are also three versions of the same story, it depends on the mission you choose. I don't want to spoil much of it, so I really won't tell you much more. Right now, you, the reader, must be thinking ''What? A lame story like this gets a 7? How come?'' Well, I know the story is cheesy as hell, that it lacks veracity, but it is so FUNNY I couldn't help giving it such a high score! The terrorists are so stupid, everything happens in such an uncanny way, the president's daughter is so darn UGLY (forget your standards of 'ugly', this girl redefines them)... After seeing it once, you'll immediately get used to it, and you will think that you wouldn't want to have the story any other way! You'll definitely have a blast playing the fight scenes, and a good laugh watching the story as it unfolds!

GRAPHICS - 7/10 - Not the best example for showcasing the Dreamcast's capabilities. They suffer from early-game-syndrome, meaning that they don't take advantage of the Dreamcast's potential. Either that or AM2 wanted them to match the Model 2 board graphics the game was created on. But this is not saying they are bad, they really aren't. Every character has some detail to them (including the enemies), though their textures and models aren't really state-of-the-art. The fight locations, however, are, for the most part, well done graphically, and are interactive. The FMV is more than acceptable. And I don't have a lot more to say. Don't count on a graphical masterpiece if you get this, and you shouldn't have any complaints about the quality of the visuals.

GAMEPLAY/CONTROL - 9/10 - The essence of any video game. And this game rocks at it! As you'd expect from a beat-em-up, you're supposed to beat the living crap out of anything that stands before you. And you have plenty of ways of doing so. Every character comes packed with a HUGE set of fighting moves at your disposal, many of them straightly ripped-off from Virtua Fighter, especially throws (which is no surprise, since AM2 are also the creators of that title). These moves range from punches, kicks, throws and some other variations. But it doesn't end here. Each fight place features items that you can interact with. You can, for instance, pick up a chair and smack it into the terrorist's skulls. Or hit them with a frozen tuna. Or throw them an arcade cabinet altogether!!! The possibilities are endless, the more you search, the more you encounter to use. But this is not all. You can also find heavy weaponry in the stages. Guns, machine guns, laser guns, rocket launchers and anti-ship missiles are at your disposal to help you rid the hostages of this pirate terrorist scum, sometimes it's even them who drop them. All this for long distances. There are also close range weapons, such as pipes and brooms (!). You would think this would be enough, right? And it is. But there also are power-ups to aid you in your quest. Present are two types: the common beat-em-up health-filling items, and special 'S' power-ups. If you pick up 5 of the red ones, or simply a green one. your character becomes a raging power machine, capable of annihilating any enemy (or boss, for that matter) in seconds. You'll get, for example, crazy 15-hit one button combos, and insane throws (especially Jean's, who cracks her enemy so many bones I can't imagine how anyone could get up after that). And how does it control? Great. Everything is easily accomplished, and the control is responsive. The only thing that may get you into trouble is running, performed by double tapping any direction and holding it, because your character won't always run when you command him to. But it's a small problem, easily dealt with when you become used to it.

AUDIO - 7/10 - I don't know why, but this game's BGM music can go barely unnoticed. However, if you hear them loud or pay them attention, you'll realize that they have enough quality to be classified as good music. Many of them capture the feelings of the cut-scenes or situations you're into. You'll find that many of them resemble tunes from action movies, which is great if you like that kind of music. Some of them are especially memorable, like boss Alexander's ''Souffle samurai'' or final boss Wolf Hongo's ''No one gets out alive''. Voices are great and match the main characters perfectly. The same can't be said about the enemies'. Generic enemies apparently all feature the same voice. But the voices are quite funny to hear, and so you'll sometimes die on purpose just to hear them. ''More baby!'', ''You sissy!'', ''Not even!'' are some of the best comments I've ever heard in this kind of game. SE are good and varied, such as the common beating-the-crap-out-of-the-enemy sounds, weapons hitting or chairs breaking from the impact against the enemies' bodies.

CHALLENGE - 6/10 - Here resides the game's biggest problem. When you first start the game, you have access to three super-easy missions. In one of them, you get infinite continues, I don't think I need to explain any further. But I will. Barely any enemy ever touches you, pretty often they just stand there waiting for their share of ass-kicking. Besides, health power-ups are abundant (not that you really need them). The bosses could pose a big threat, even if the common enemies are worthless (in reality, they are, quite simply, cannon meat). But they don't. And why? Because of the 'S' power-up`. You get them almost always before going to a boss. And they stand no chance against them, since they can remove all their life bar pretty quickly. And many can't even block, which makes matters even worse. But it doesn't end here. You have access to an escape move that hits everybody around at the cost of some measly health points. This wouldn't be all that bad had it been well implemented. Sadly, it wasn't. You can even use it while you're being hit, whether it is a punch, machine gun fire or (shock!) a throw. Basically, it turns you invincible during anytime you want, at a low life bar cost, need I say more? This problem wasn't present in the first Die Hard. Sure, common enemies also were cannon meat, but the bosses proved a challenge. Not here. Which is a shame, since the bosses are well designed, only they don't get a chance to show their worth. Captain Gonzalez and Ada Mendoza are pretty easy, but Jumbo Matsu, Alexander and Master Yang could hurt you real bad with their punches, throws and grenades. Giant octopus Kraken would be a pain if you couldn't escape his throws. Mask de Pedro (perhaps a typo in the translation) has great moves, but falls for the same stupid patterns over and over again. Final boss Wolf Hongo would be a pain without 'S' power-ups, due to cheap moves, such as missiles, machine gun fire, teleports and highly damaging sword attacks. But due to the game's system, they all get pretty easy to beat. I won't even start on what happens if you play with a friend, lol. So, why does it get a 6/10? Because after you beat the 3 super-easy missions, you gain access to Showdown mode, where you get some missions for REAL. Like getting hit by a gun almost fully depletes your health bar, or you have to end the game starting with a pixel of health in your life bar. Did I mention you get almost no power-ups? Forget killing bosses quickly with an 'S' power-up. And the same goes for health bonuses everywhere. Also, NO CONTINUES now. This is great to have; some challenging missions in stark contrast with the initial ones. But this is not all. In Survival Mode, you must beat 100 enemies with a single life bar!! They just keep appearing. As you'd expect, you also fight the bosses, though in much harder ways than in the mission modes. The combination of Alexander, Jumbo Matsu and Master Yang, all at the SAME time is just INSANE!

REPLAY VALUE - 8/10 - Plenty of stuff for you to do. You have 3 totally different characters to play as (and supposedly some more). Caribbean Pirates features 3 different missions, which then become a lot harder when you unlock Showdown Mode. In Bonus Game Mode, you can play an ancient Sega game (Tranquilizer Gun, for those who recall it), you can beat your friends senseless in Versus mode, or enter the supreme 100 enemy challenge in Survival Mode. You also get the Gallery Mode, where you can unlock illustrations and game info by picking them up in Caribbean Pirates Mode. As if all this wasn't enough, you can download the Detonator Pack, which will add more illustrations to the Gallery Mode and a secret character for you to play as (if you can find a working download link, that is). As a nice bonus, there's an 18 page comic for you to read and have fun in Gallery mode. All this wrapped up in a package that was accused of ''being done with in 2 hours''...

Final thoughts - Buy this if the chance presents itself, where else can you hit your opponent in the head with a toilet? Or hear such provoking statements as ''You sissy!''? Or beat the living crap out of a giant octopus? Forget the bad reviews you've read about it, this game is the epitome of FUN. And that's what we all play video games for, right? A skull-crushing piece of software by AM2!

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 09/24/02, Updated 11/16/02