Today, I review Sega’s beat em up game. Not the famous Streets of Rage/Bare Knuckle, you silly! It’s D.D. Crew (1991)
That’s some dynamic introduction. You get the prologue, the cast, and the cast all in few seconds. So there’s someone in neon colored suit, phones LAPD “Yo gotta bomb in ya park” then explosion happens in an amusement park but strangely no damage happen because of the explosion. Maybe it’s not real bomb. It’s just warning bomb for intimidation or extortion but also it can potentially induce heart attack and can kill someone. Unforgivable! This (mild) terrorism action must be punished! Luckily, D.D. Crew is on the case. But what’s D.D. stands for? I have no real answer for that unless it’s written in the arcade marquee or pamphlet which I don’t have. Doomsday probably the fittest answer for edgy 90s trend. But my guess is Demolition Defusal. Demolition Defusal crew sounds good for me. I’m not native speaker of English so feel free disprove my theory regarding what D.D. stands for.
Here's the D.D. crew. From left to right: Gung Ho, F.F., King, and Buster. Once again, we have to face another acronym. I assume F.F. stands for Final Fighter. He got that nickname from his fellow policemen after finishing Final Fight at local pub within 1 credit. Good for him. I will start with Gung Ho because he’s on the most left in the roster.
Look at that sick looking jump kick. This old man still flexible and healthy to fight these thugs. I don’t what the deal with them. They attack me with knife and nunchaku, so they must be evil and need of thorough dose of beat em up. The control is as simple as you get. Joystick to move D.D. crew around. First button to attack and second button to jump. Pressing attack button while jumping produce jumping kick. Even though it looks cool, it’s quite slow and makes you floating defenselessly in mid-air for second. I don’t recommend you to jump kick often. Although jumping kick deal damage twice amount of a regular standing attack does, I think. Pressing attack button consecutively doesn’t produce neatly order combo. What it does is making your D.D crew attack with random animation without any combo finish. So, we’re off to good start. [Average-explosion generated-by-C4-explosive sized sarcasm]
Anyway, what’s up with the lady selling the popcorn? You realize that there’s bomb in this amusement park, right?
See what I mean by Gung Ho still healthy to fight thugs? He even able to lift this thug over his head. I think the key to his healthy body in late age is drinking high calcium milk twice a day. Good for him. Like in Battle Circuit, you can pick up enemy when they lie on the ground and then throw them very hard. I like it. I think this throw deal damage as many as the jumping kick.
Then this merry-go-round moves by itself! This what you expect from merry-go-round that’s imported from Silent Hill. But this is beat em up game so we beat these thugs and shouldn’t care about the creepy carousel. Anyway, pressing both attack and jump button doesn’t produce desperation attack that’s certainly needed against these relentless thugs in this game. Alas! However, you can throw enemy by pressing both of those buttons together while enemy is in exhausted state. Gung Ho does Tomoe Nage or whatever throw that Dee Jay from Street Fighter 2 does.
During throw, you’re invincible like in other game of its ilk and luckily the throwing animation is pretty long which gives you invincibility for quite long time. Besides dealing damage thrice amount of a regular standing attack does, you can throw the bastard at his friends that are behind you.
You can run by wiggle the joystick twice on same direction. However, the only running attack is available when you press both attack and jump button. It has startup animation (usually involve cartwheeling or flipping) before your D.D. crew actually does the attacking animation. Kind of like sliding attack in Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles - The Hyperstone Heist. However, when you hit enemy while still in startup animation, you also get damage besides the enemy. The running attack sounds bad because it is. But you can deal high damage with it (approximately the power of thrice standing normal attack) and also the recipient can get knocked back that can potentially hit his friend.
Some dead enemy drop a health item. It’s just item with “LIFE” letters! Come on! Even Golden Axe that came out years after this game, has creativity on the heal refill item in the form of chicken drumstick. Also, GA has better and more intuitive running attack. I just assume that this “LIFE” item is healthy sugar cubes and be done with it. I notice that there’s roller coaster running behind me without any passenger! Maybe it becomes sentient and run away as fast as it could before another bomb explodes. It’s smarter than that popcorn lady.
Even after ate “LIFE” sugar cubes, Gung Ho didn’t make it to the boss of this level. F.F. gladly replaces the old man. The boss of this level is Freddy Mercury impersonator with sticks to beat F.F. up. You can throw the boss with no problem. However, the grab won’t connect if the boss is in blocking animation. Isn’t that the opposite the nature of throw which is attack that should bypass block where normal strike blocked? So, the only solution of boss blocking any of your attack is you give him some distance until he decides not to block anymore.
With fake Freddy Mercury beaten, F.F. moves on to cable train and immediately robbed by one of the knife thugs. “Would you kindly hand over the jacket, officer” “No! I will gladly hand over you some beating up!”
Not wanting to be mug target, King decides to climb up the cable train. However, there are more knife thugs jumping on the top of cable train. Plus some Karateka. King’s throw is very useful which is big swing that can potentially hit enemies around him before he throws his victim away. The throw is very useful move. In fact, it’s as important as super combo in Legend on PS 1 game! I’ll be honest with you. Back when I didn’t know that there’s throw in this game, I regarded this game as utter unfun trash. However, when I realize that I can throw enemy in this way, the game become substantially more fun than before. Although I discover the throw from someone’s YouTube video. If you didn’t know how to throw, you will get clobbered over and over again. Lesser enemies will be in exhausted state after 3 successful normal attack. Unless you follow it up with the throw, they will do invincible get-up counter which you can’t avoid most likely.
Not long after that, the level boss comes out and this time it’s Bruce Lee impersonator which is easier opponent than previous boss because he’s unarmed.
Nonetheless, the fake Bruce Lee defeated King who’s similar to Dolph Lundgren. But Buster manages to extract vengeance from him and come out triumphant. But there’s no celebration moment even just a bit because the cable train hit the wall pretty hard and Buster jumps out from the impact. I get some sort of Déjà vu feeling for some reason. Oh, I know! This kind of cutscene also happens in Nekketsu Oyako but with roller coaster ride.
Then Buster is abruptly involved in bonus stage by hitting motorbikes for no reason. There are some items come out from destroyed bike and they’re random. They’re ranged from DUD that does nothing when picked up, LIFE, or 1UP. This bonus level is not as intuitive as the one in Final Fight because D.D. Crews aren’t as strong as Mike “Metro City Mayor” Haggar. And you don’t even get pipe to help you bash these bikes. When timer runs out, the remaining bikes explode on its own. Maybe these bikes are meant to be the second bomb attack so there’s reason to destroy them. I shouldn’t doubt D.D. Crew’s competency. Medic_goodjob01.wav
Then our hero enters the lift on construction site for no reason other than fighting same old goons. Sadly, Buster’s throw is the same big swing as King’s but it’s still useful throw nonetheless.
In this elevator section, some soldiers with gun join the fray but they don’t shoot their gun at all. Lucky for me then. I believe I was in the middle of blinking invincibility state there so you can’t see me in this screenshot. I swear to God. When the elevator reaches to the top, my brain expects me to fight Nitou Ryuji from Burning Fight. Not just once. But everytime I play D.D. Crew because both beat em up game has pretty similar elevator section on the construction site. No wonder I keep them mixed up although both games have different art design.
So, the construction site is connected to this building’s helicopter landing. The boss of this level this time is a lady with spiked ball with chain. You certainly don’t want to get hit by that wicked medieval instrument. When she does the spinning swing like hammer throw athlete, she’s completely invincible so don’t attack her while she does that.
She also like to do some backflip to dodge your attack. I think she is combination of Nora from Streets of Rage because she is armed with sadistic weapon, and Poison from Final Fight because she like to backflip. I think well timed running attack is useful against her.
As I defeat the lady boss, the helicopter escapes and the phone caller terrorist shoot his bazooka at me! Luckily, I jump away from the explosion in time, unscathed.
Nevermind. I don’t fall safely into those pile of card boxes. During fall, I can move left and right but I had no idea that the card boxes are right there. During the test, the card boxes are in the most left spot. You have to take my word for it.
After walking a bit on the rooftop with billboards that advertise Zero Brand VHS and Zero Air Company, I traverse in this fire escape filled with all kind of goons that I have fought. Including these lads with unfunctional Sten gun. Maybe they have gun but barely any bullet, like what happened to Nazi soldiers when they invaded Russia during World War 2.
After hours fighting in fire escape for hours [average-sized exaggeration], I fight with this Capoeira guy boss and he’s super annoying because his spinning Capoeira kick depletes half of my health bar while making himself invincible. Soldier_negativevocalization05.wav
You like spinning, huh? I give you spin!
I taste my own medicine. Apparently, he can do throw too. Through some more lucky hits, I defeat this Capoeira guy.
Then I went into this gym where the aerobics instructor throws prizes around, including the useless “DUD” item. Joy. I like to pick this LIFE item, but Gung Ho decides to push this invisible box instead.
As I exit the gym center, knifemen appear from the gym to shank me. No doubt that they’re jealous to me because the aerobics instructor gave me lots of stuff (that 80% I fail to pick up).
Somehow there’s factory not far from the gym center and enter it without any reason other than there are more evil mooks inside of it. The life refill item is not the only thing that you can pick up. There are knife that F.F. can stab with it or throw it. It will be nice if the knife goons drop their knife most of the time but no. It’s like 25% occurrence, at most.
I think this facility is where they process these metal scraps. Don’t fall into the smelter below if you don’t want to die. Fighting enemies in this section is easier because they let themselves moved by the conveyor belt into the hot smelter below.
Oh, I see. They smelt those metal junk into red explosive barrel that they use in modern First Person Shooter and I get to be the guinea pig for the explosive test. Heavy_negativevocalization03.wav
I managed to land couple hit on the barrel thrower but he escaped to this place below and the real boss fight begins. His attack method is simple: bull running as hard as he can but when it does connect my health is depleted to 50% again like what that Capoeira bastard does. Even if I can dodge his running, he will jump and land face first like in this moment and this attack is even harder to dodge because he tracks on me very accurately. I wish if I were able to dodge his face drop, he would take so much damage because how utterly stupid it is to land very hard with his face first. At least, this guy doesn’t do lots of melee attack and can’t block my attack.
After another ascending
elevator section, I arrive at airfield that belong to the Zero Air company.
These evil soldiers don’t fire their gun but they drop stikk bomb stick
hand grenade when defeated. Needless to say, that the grenade is the best
weapon in this game so far.
Buster is pretty enigma. At the glance, he looks like a boxer (probably he seeks career to match Mike Tyson's) but he throws elbow and kick sometime. Plus, his jumping attack is weird. It looks like he asks for hug aggressively.
Finally, we encounter the phone caller. Obviously, he doesn’t want to give up without a fight. First, he uses bazooka that probably made of sanitary pipe but with the strongest material. Punching him enough time, his bazooka dropped and explodes!
But now he fights with assault rifle with hitscan bullets which are impossible to dodge. Bazooka and rapid-firing gun, eh? Now I know where Mr. Y from Streets of Rage 4, learns his warfare. Another thing that i realize is: this bastard keep all the bullets for his assault rifle and spare none for those soldiers that I have beaten up. It’s hard to hit him in this phase but eventually I can defeat him. Heavy_domination13.wav
Our reward, is free trip by chopper into Zero Corporation building...
...filled with BOSS RUSH! There’s nothing I can speak out of this boss rush except that unusual floor with pink color which ease my mind a bit, and that center elevator that open on its own. I think Zero Corporation need to call lift repair service or ghost buster.
So, the last boss is the CEO of Zero Corp. who I assume the mastermind behind the bomb accident. You didn’t think that caller is the mastermind, did you? He’s just right-hand man, silly. Anyway, the Zero Corp. president fight D.D. crew with katana and he pull out another katana (presumably from his ass) when his health depleted by half. There’s not much to say about this final boss fight. He’s just big katana weeb but he’s very deadly nonetheless. When he has 2 Katana, he can assume this defensive stance and if you try to hit him in this state, you will get hurt. It’s logic that you will get hurt by punching sharp thing such as sword. Take aside of the final boss a bit. Here’s another rare opportunity to analyze how accurate my country Indonesia’s geography in world map in video game. In that background world map, it’s pretty pathetic. Sumatera island fairly accurate but the rest of islands are just horrible. Java island is just 2 small dots. Kalimantan island is nowhere to be seen. Papua Island is just a line. Lastly, Sulawesi Island looks like that N block from Tetris -you know- the block that everyone hates and the most useless ones.
“So, crime doesn’t pay after all” he said as blood come out from his mouth presumably because D.D. Crew has done so much to break his teeth. Serves him right. So why Zero Corporation do the crime of bombing amusement park? We will get the exact answer after some thorough interrogation with this git. My early theory is Zero Corp. wants to buy the amusement park for cheaper price or even free with the bomb terrorism. Or they want to demolish it and replace it with Zero shopping mall. But we foil his plan with the only thing we know: Beat him up!
With the terrorism case closed, D.D. crew are now posing in front of lake lit by sunset. I look forward to the sequel with the name something like D.D. Sentai Go! Go! where they can transform into power rangers like to fight King Kong that perched on that Empire State Building yonder.
Sega ‘s D.D. Crew (1991) is horrible beat em up game at a glance. But once I know how to throw the enemies, the game becomes unique and fun to me. The fire escape section is bogged down with evil mooks and the most tedious part of the game. However, I’m happy as long as the game sends enemies for me to throw away. I love Beat em Up game in which throw is the key to success. Although I still get beaten fairly often in this playthrough. The basic attack is quite useless unless for making enemies exhausted after 3 successful hit and later you can throw them. Even then it has pitiful range. Jumping attack is slightly more useful because it can knock away enemy thus making safe hit trade. The OTG (on the ground) throw also fun to do but it doesn’t connect often. The running attack is big disappointment because how unintuitive it is. If you timing it wrong, you will get hurt. It’s quite shame especially knowing Sega made Golden Axe which has better running attack and it came out in 1989 (2 years prior to this game), even. But the running attack can knock back enemy into each other, which is unique effect. I don’t think I never saw this bouncing effect on other beat em up game. The lesser enemies are well varied and can be easily identified. For example: Karateka can do flying kick, sometime. The fat men (that often wear inverted color of Wario’s attire) can do flying elbow drop. The soldiers can only use their gun as clobbering instrument (in inefficient way) and they often drop stick grenade when defeated. On contrary, our hero the D.D. crew themselves are not well varied. Gung Ho and F.F. do normal attack faster whereas King and Buster do normal attack slower. I’m not sure if the fake Dolph Lundgren and the boxer do more damage with their normal attack to compensate the slower speed of their attack. However, they share same throw: the big swing which is the best throw although more varied throw is more appreciated. As for Gung Ho and F.F., their throw faster to execute but not hitting enemies too many. The boss fights are typical damage sponge while able to deal big damage themselves. Luckily, you can throw them pretty easily without waiting for their exhausted state. However, the phone caller probably the worst because he carries assault rifle and bazooka into the fistfight which is super cheating. The pick-up items look as boring as alphabet blocks. Their function also just basic stuff while “DUD” item is just useless trash. As for weapon items, they’re very welcome addition to the gameplay. Even the most boring knife is quite useful. The scoring is pretty simple and dull. 1 point for each defeated enemy, even including boss! You get extra life when your score reaches 100 and its multiples. The hip-hop music in this game is quite good. Hot take, I know. The sound effect is bland average. The presentation is pretty neat.
D.D. Crew (1991) is quite enigma. It’s probably hated for what it is but deemed unique and fun to me once I know how to play the game properly. It’s quite the same case with Legend on PS1. For your information, there’s no in-game instruction like in other arcade game, so you barely know how to do the throw and I’m gladly to impart this important information to you, reader. Not only the throw makes the game more fun but also faster to finish. As for my recommendation. I think you should try this game once just to do the throw at Corporation’s thugs. It’s pretty fun thing to do. Apparently, the game supports 3 players which -I admit- something that Golden Axe don’t do. Speaking of Sega’s beat em up game...
There’s mod of Street of Rage 2 named “Punisher and The Action Heroes” where Arnie character is -no doubt- King from D.D. Crew. He plays definitely much better in this modded Streets of Rage 2. He can defeat 2 Galsia only by flexing his muscles and he can do neck breaker. Yeah, you should play this modded Streets of Rage 2. That’s my genuine advice.
Credit to: Dha Lau Hoo for the Street of Rage 2 mod