Lethal Enforcers

"Kill the crooks..."

Lethal Enforcers was one of the top first person shooters for a long time in the arcade, featuring a near life-like visual and game play mode as well as forcing you to shoot off-screen to reload your gun. Set in the middle of a city, your job is to take out as many bad guys as you can without getting yourself killed in the process, and shooting up too many of the innocent civilians that seem to enjoy walking out right in the line of fire. With several different shooters out on the market, this one is more than likely to be overlooked unless you're down to last few shooters, and looking for a brief period of nostalgia. A decent game, but definitely not the best there is, or the best there ever was.

The Super Nintendo version of the game allows you to have the same experience that the arcade cabinet allowed you to have complete with life-like visuals and action at every point. The only thing that this game doesn’t offer to my knowledge is the ability to play with a light gun, which really doesn’t hamper the game play in any real way. You’ll find that the challenge available here is substantial as long as you’re attempting to get a perfect rating on each of the stages and trying not to get nailed by the first enemy that pops up un expectantly. If you want some good shooting game fun on an old system, then you’re looking in the right direction, though there are other games {such as Techno Clash} that really bring home the arcade experience.

Lone Gunman…

You're a cop in the middle of a crime wave. Your duty is to knock off as many of them before they take you out. You have several different locations to choose from that range from the realistic to the ridiculous. With that in mind, the play turns to shooting the gun toting criminals, and there is nothing more satisfying than popping a cap in some criminals ass. Innocents can get in the way, and you're based on a rating system. Unlike Dirty Harry Callahan, the more damage you do to the bystanders, the worse off your rating is going to be. If you want to be a patrolman, then keep wasting the poor lady who is just getting out of the way, or shoot a fellow cop but it's all in good fun, right?

As you progress through the game, you’ll be able to pick up different weapons that will increase your firepower from just the standard pistol. Although these weapons are few and far between, you’ll be able to hang onto these weapons for the most part as long as you don’t shoot one of the bystanders or get hit by an enemy that simply pops up. What you’ll find is that the game is simply about remembering where the enemies pop up at and you should be able to get a higher ranking each and every time. Once you’ve been through the game a couple of times though, the paths become predictable and you really won’t have anything new that leaps out at you because you’re already expecting it.

Control in Lethal Enforcers really isn’t that much of a big deal considering that you can really get into the action by simply aiming with the cross hair and then pressing one of the action buttons. When you need to reload, you no longer have to point anything off the screen, as the reloading can be done with a simple shoulder button press and away you go. The different weapons don’t require anything important and you’ll find that picking them up in the midst of the many different battles is easy to do as long as you pop your enemies accordingly. One of the few problems that I had with the game was during some of the boss battles, as the game requires you to make precision aiming and firing, but after a few tries, it isn’t anything you can’t learn and defeat.

The Real Deal…

Giving you a first person view of the action on screen, you're forced to make split second decisions based on what appears in different areas of the screen. Although variety between the enemies really isn't much to speak of, the best part of it all is to watch an innocent bystander go flying when you put a bullet into them by accident. Each stage is comprised of a different theme, either inside of a bank during a robbery, a car chase on the freeway, to a shoot-out at the docks. Each stage has it's own detailed theme that include moving targets and actually gives the feeling that you're in that specific environment, which adds to the overall theme of fighting crime in a big city. The addition of breaking items and bullet holes that appear in some of the objects gives way to visual bliss if you’re looking for surroundings that take damage.

Battle Sounds….

Somewhat tinny to the ear, Lethal Enforcers doesn't offer the best of FPS soundtracks. Even for a game of it's age, the musical accompaniment sounds more or less like a cruddy downloaded MIDI that's being played way to low to make any sense out of. Sound effects range from the obvious {bullets ricocheting, and explosions} to the surprising yet somewhat comforting death cry of a shot enemy. There is a need for more realistic sounds in some of the later stages though, as the enemies pretty much sound the same after the first couple of stages. Although the theme is kept with the gunfire and the items that break, you might desire more later on to enhance the overall experience.

Firing Squad…

Although Lethal Enforcers isn’t the best shooting game that you can find on the Super Nintendo, it is one of the more impressive ones based on its ability to emulate the feel and look of the arcade game. While there isn’t much to it that really keeps you glued to the title after the first couple of times through, you’ll find that there is just enough to make it worth checking out if you’re into the shooting game genre. The visuals are good, though the audio seems to be a little lacking in what there could be if you were really in the middle of the battle. Overall, the game play is challenging, but in the long run, you might be chomping at the bit for something with a little more substance than a simple move and shoot type of shooting game unless you’re simply looking to collect it for your Super Nintendo library.

Reviewer's Score: 7/10, Originally Posted: 02/23/03, Updated 02/23/03