Starsky & Hutch

"1970s Buddy-cop sitcom heaven."

Being born in the late 1980s, I have no memories of watching the Starsky and Hutch TV show when I was younger. But I do know a good video game when I see one, and Starsky and Hutch is an excellent game to be added to the PS2 library.

Graphics- 9/10
The graphics are cell-shaded and give the game a certain cartoon feel to it. Bay City, which is Starsky and Hutch's home town, is animated perfectly, and really makes one feel as though they are in the 70s. Skyscrapers and other buildings can be seen a long way down the street, but as you approach them all the details become clearly visible. The cars are animated perfectly, with realistic damage. Only the pedestrians seem to be from another planet, but that isn't a problem as you don't see very much of them. When you manage to destroy a car you're chasing, the wheels come of and the cars comes to a dead stop. No blood or massive explosions which kill everyone on the street as in the GTA series, which helps Starsky and Hutch maintain it's comic appearance. The cutscenes seen to be made from carboard cut-outs which move across the back-drop and the characters lips don't move but their voices make it obvious who is talking. The only drawback with the graphics is that cars sometimes become semi-visible if a collision is really bad, but these faults quickly correct themselves and don't really spoil the game.

Sound- 9/10
The music used in the game is probably the best I've heard from a game, with a large soundtrack of 70s beats, which capture the moment during gameplay. The original theme song from the TV series is included in the game, as is the voice of Antonio Fargas AKA Huggy Bear, who gives a quick briefing before and after every level and sometimes gives his two-cents during gameplay. During the game, car crashes don't exactly sound as realistic as they might do in real life, but this is Starsky and Hutch. Guns used by Hutch and the bad guys sound a lot like toys, but as I said before, this is Starsky and Hutch. The cop radio can be heard giving hints about the bad guys location and the our main dudes praise and criticize each other whilst they're on the jobs. The only other thing you hear is Huggy Bear, but not all the time. There is no pedestrian dialogue or sarcastic comments from the bad guys which you could consider good or bad.

Gameplay- 10/10
The gameplay is incredibly simple. There are three seasons in the game, each with six episodes. This is this games level system. On each episode you have a primary objective and a secondary objective. The primary objective is required to complete the mission, and the secondary objective is for bonus points. Throughout each episode you get Viewer rating points or VR points. You gain VR points for cool stunts or accurate shooting, as well as many other things. You lose VR points for hitting civilian cars or hitting buildings, and the VR points slowly creep down during the episode, so you have to keep them up. If your VR rating is zero, it's game over. There are loads of power-ups to be had which can be shot or drove through. These include; special events, which boost your VR points, turbo, which speeds you up for a bit and siren, which freezes civilian traffic and stops your VR rating from decreasing for a limited time. Most episodes are more or less the same, chase a car and shoot until it stops. Sometimes guys will be shooting at you, sometimes you have to avoid shooting a passenger and so on. Occasionally, you have to escort a car from A to B, but of course someone is after your escortee, and you have to deal with them whilst protecting the target car. All episodes are based in the car, which is normally Starsky's Ford Gran Torino AKA ''the Red Tomato'', AKA ''Zebra 3''. You have to control Starsky and Hutch at the same time throughout the mission, Starsky driving and Hutch shooting. It's not as hard as it sounds though. Hutch aims at anything worth shooting and you have to wait for the right moment to shoot. You have all the information you need on screen. You have a radar, you VR points, enemy and allied car damage, power-ups in use and ammo. That's all you need. You will either get a donut, a bronze badge, a silver badge or a gold badge based on you VR points when you complete an episode. You need a badge in every episode to proceed to the next season. It is an original way of keeping you hooked and getting you to replay levels over and over.

Replayability- 9/10
Each episode has a bonus car to find, which gives you the potion of using the car in free roam or if you replay the mission, two ''Huggy cards'' which can be collected to unlock all kinds of cools stuff and you have a secondary objective to complete, which unlock new special episodes. The achievement of unlocking these bonuses may keep you playing for hours and gives you the full experience of the game which is of course a good thing if you enjoy games of this genre. There is also free-roam which allows you to explore Bay City for a certain amount of time. Bay City is huge so you'll keep going back to see the sights.

Overall- 10/10
The sheer originality and simple but slightly varied gameplay makes this game a classic in my eyes, and will be over looked by younger gamers. ''Starsky and Hutch? My dad used to watch that in like the 70s!'' Just because it is based on an old TV show doesn't mean it's rubbish. I'm sure all of you out there who used or still does like the TV show will love this game.

Rent or buy?
Rent first to see if you like it. If you liked The Getaway or Driver 2, you will feel right at home with this game.

Reviewer's Score: 10/10, Originally Posted: 07/12/03, Updated 07/12/03