Dynamite Cop!

"Great beat up action, just wish there was more!"

For those who dont know, Dynamite Cop is the sequal to Die Hard Arcade, and imports many elements from it, but the whole thing is over much too soon.

The story here is that some modern day pirates have stolen a huge luxury ship, and 2000 hostages are inside, one of them being the President's daughter, its up to you (and a friend, if needed) to use any weapon to take down the pirates.

The gameplay here is quite good, those who have played the original DHA will be right at home here, but it is much better this time. You can choose one of 3 characters, and reach the boat by 3 means (parachute, boat, scuba). You roam the rooms of the ship beating up the pirates using almost anything as a weapon, from guns to hairspray to soda machines. After you defeat all the enemies you enter the next room. Like the original, there are "quick thinking" scenes where you have to press a certain button while moving, if you succeed you get a cool triple take and move on, if you fail you may have to fight an enemy or lose health. This game also feels just like a cruise ship, you fight on decks, casinos, kitchens, cabins, and even bathrooms. There are also a good number of enemies to fight, along with some bosses. The game also has some nice cinemas to move the action along.

The graphics are very nice and light years ahead of the original, there is great animation and explosions (one of the best is when you hit your opponent with a missle and they fly high up in the sky, and fall back down). The sounds are also quite nice, with the screaming and taunting of the pirates. The music is in the action movie area and sounds great.

If there is a problem with the game its just too darn short! With only 3 missions the gameplay gets old fast (even though each mission gets harder and you get less credits). Sure there are the Showdown missions you can unlock by beating the first 3, but they are nothing special. However, the game does put in some bounus featues, like survival and verses modes, which is nice to kill time, and like Die Hard Arcade for the Saturn, there is an old early 80s arcade game, this time its tranquilizer gun, and instead of getting credits for the main game by doing good, you get credits to play TQ by beating the main game (beat all 3 missions and you get unlimited credits). There is also all the pages of the original Dynamite Cop Comic Book (which was on the Japanese Sega site for awhile) put in here (translated), which is a nice read. There is also a picture gallery where you find over 100 photos by playing the game (they are in certain areas that you have to attack), which ups the replay value, get all the photos and good stuff happens.

This game is a great rental, and probably nothing more. It may be too much to pay the full price tag on this game (unless you just love this type of game). If you can find it cheap it may be worth it, but a rental will be enough for most people.

Reviewer's Score: 7/10, Originally Posted: 12/02/99, Updated 12/02/99