I'm huge fans of fun beat em up game. Some are well made, some are bit janky, and one of them is fun and zany . Emphasized on zany because how wacky it is. I'm talking about Sega's Dynamite Cop (1998-1999).
I play the Dreamcast version because it's easier to emulate than the arcade version. At least that's for me. The title screen doesn't talk much about the zaniness but you will see very soon.
Here's the main screen which takes place in machinery. It's not telling much about the game. Those piston rods and drills will work as you choose any of the menu. Also, the main menu itself resembles power battery that get placed or removed as you browse it. I pretty like this mechanical aesthetic even though the game is not barely related to heavy machine or robot. Anyway, let's listen to the game's story before we beat up anyone, first.
These modern pirates not to be mistaken with old-school pirates that wears leather eyepatch and drink cheap unhealthy grog. They utilize modern gun and (perhaps) drink better liquor like brandy or whiskey. Would you look at their leader that wear shells on his head with bionic eye. Meanwhile the chap on the right of him, wears horned helmet that considered lame and outdated. That's why he's second class deckhand at best. You need to wear something extreme like their leader there to get high rank in modern pirate, man.
The pirates taken 2000 civilian as hostages. Or so they said but as you can see the hostages aren't being held by pirates. They just run away and presumably jump into cold sea at night. Still better than being captured by pirates that don't take a bath for months.
The president's daughter also on the cruise ship. I don't know why but i feel that she doesn't have correct body proportion of female teen. She looks like adult female with dwarfism case. Maybe because of the size of her head and arms that seem off to me.
Thus President's sends some anonymous special tactical squad. You get to play as one of these 3 cop. Bruno is the main protagonist and he has pet monkey named "Banana". No i don't make that up. It's on comic within the DC port of the game. Imagine if you name your pet dog "Bone" or pet parrot "Cracker". Then there's Jean and Eddie that boast their fast kick. Note that 3 of these cops aren't the usual trilogy of: average, fast-yet-weak, and slow-but-strong. They have same speed and attack power. The significant difference between these characters is: the animation of their move and combination of grapple. If there's anything else please let me know on comment.
There's branching paths, already! It determines some of the level. The first level will be guaranteed different between branch, though. The first option is infiltration from parachute, which seems to be idiotic unless these pirates don't have any anti-air gun. The second option is using high-speed raft and later climb on to the boat. The last option is swimming. The question is: what part of large cruiser's hull that can be infiltrated by swimming? I may not know about ship's hull for that matter. There's 3 branching paths and 3 heroes. Isn't that convenient? For the main hero, i choose the first path.
I instantly glad for my decision there as i can kick that pirate in the face on my way of landing. Look at his clueless expression! :D
There's some controller's configuration. I choose where pressing 'A' button to punch, 'B' button to kick, and 'X' & 'Y' to jump. Either side trigger is for escape attack which is the usual desperation attack that knock enemies around and cost a bit of my health. As per usual, pressing either attack consecutively to produce combo attack. There's also the usual auto grab when you get close to enemies.
 |
| Die Hard arcade |
By the way, Dynamite Cop is sequel of Die Hard arcade game or Dynamite Dekka in Japan. Back then Bruno looks quite similar to John McClane (Bruce Willis), so they have idea to make the game Die Hard in America version. Of course, with 20th Century Studio's approval. As you can see the graphic is janky polygon while Dynamite Cop has better and smoother graphic. As for the gameplay, it's 2.5 side-scrolling beat em up. By that, i mean it's conventional way where the character fights in horizontal direction even though the environment is full 3D. Unlike the sequel which the fight is in omni-directional.
Back to Dynamite Cop. The enemy can get exhausted after some beating and then you can lift them overhead and throw them away like bag of scum as they are. You can know their name while you're at it. By the way, this game doesn't give you the usual feature of the name and the health of enemies that you beat (or beat you).
I attack the pirates by the bar and throw them with Blast City arcade machine. Oh no! I commit another vandalism toward arcade machine besides in Mug Smasher.
Suddenly there's QTE! Our captain there told me to get down to avoid that rocket. Press down now! Success!
I got flung but i'm safe as i fall safely to swimming pool. After fighting with some more lesser enemies, the bosses appear! First stage's boss is 2 person, already? Luckily i got this laser gun that conveniently lies around here so i can deal with them with no problem.
Meanwhile the pirates haven't found the president's daughter. I like the henchmen's apologetic gesture. Apparently, these pirates know courtesy unlike mindless goons they're supposed to be. They will feel more sorry if the president's daughter is hiding inside that pink suitcase. Actually, that's what happens. If you look very carefully, you can slightly see her there peeking at the pirates.
The grapple system is interesting. There's combination on it. Unlike in the usual Beat Em Up game, where you're limited to 2 grabbed attack before throwing enemies. In here, you input certain combination attack button. I find this combination of grabbed attack, 2 DDTs and finally rolling side slam, done by pressing punch button twice and the rest is pressing kick button thrice.
There's another QTE where i have to press kick button quickly! The results is slow motion of me flying kick that pirate's face. Also with 4 split screen of it. Heavy_goodjob02.wav
Then i beat the pirates with head model in barber shop. Those pictures of a man silently judging me.
There's "P" icon that if you pick it up will fill the power up bar. When it's fully filled (up to 5 "P" icons), you will get temporary power boost status which allow you to perform combos quicker and add more string/hit on them. Normally your punch combo don't knock enemy away so you have to add kick button as the finisher after 3 punches or so. But when you get powered up, your punch combo is developed to fully potential with uppercut finisher. It goes without saying that when in that state, you deal bigger damage indicated by trail of fire behind the swing of your punch or kick.
I'm chased by pirates armed with
sub machine guns and bow & arrow even though they're obsolete compared to
gun (or even to laser gun). But i reckon arrows to the knee still hurs me
badly like full metal jacket bullet. Thus i escape to the kitchen and i fail on the
QTE as result my ankle get stuck by the door. If you fail on QTE where you have
to punch or kick pirates in the face, you have to fight extra enemies (which
can results in wasting your health or even life unnecessarily). But i'm not
sure what's the consequence if you fail in non-combat QTE like this. Maybe your
health reduced a bit because your ankle stuck, i guess?
If you pay attention to the
overall theme in restaurant or kitchen, you can probably guess that it's French
theme. [Insert your own joke about French here]
Due to branching path, this level has 3 alternative: French (like in this case), Japan, or China and you always end up fighting against portly chef that possess lots of health and grenade. But in Alexander's case, he lobs explosive carrot instead of normal grenade. Carrot, really? Speaking of grenade, i have a box of it. If i press punch button, i throw it high and it will explode on impact. If i press kick button, i roll it along the ground. If enemies step on it, they will slip on it and later it explodes.
The pirate's leader is getting antsy. He tell his crew to forget about the president's daughter (even though she's still in the pink suitcase on the same room as him) and detonate the bombs. As for why he do that? I don't know. Something about being evil pirate and such, i think?
Hohoho! I got a machine gun. :)
Then i fall to a cold room storage and this Hulk Hogan (if he joins this Caribbean pirate and suddenly get strange insight to wear giant crab shell) lift me up, give me some spin and rudely toss me away. Soldier_negativevocalization05.wav
Then his twin brother sit on me and punch my head. Soldier_negativevocalization06.wav
That's it! I have a beef with you, mister! [Pun Intended]
The thing with using beef as weapon is: when it breaks to pieces because i slam it against muscular pirate enough time. One of the piece can be eat to recover my injury from fighting this Crab Hogan.
The we fighting in engine room. Sometime i can grab downed enemies by their leg and use them to pummel their friend. Most of the time, when they're downed they will get up pretty quick and i can't do this grab. Does that flame come toward me? Yes, it does. :P
If you think beating pirates with bare hand or their friend is boring. How about using antiship missile against them and creating mushroom cloud? This should be extremely interesting for you. :)
Suddenly a tentacle drags me to this giant room with huge piston on the back. Fighting the giant octopus with bare hand seems underwhelming because 1) Kraken has freaking long arm 2) Kraken is hugely stronger than average cop. As you can see he slam me against floor like an infant breaking their toy.
Not only he uses his long and strong arm to fight, but also sprays ink and his hatchling at me. But there's giant spark plug around me that i can use to throw at him. There's also some harpoon gun lying around near him, somehow. I prefer machine gun but beggar can't be picky as they said. If all else fail, you can just punch and kick him. I think the safest spot to do that is between his front and back tentacle, an area besides his eye.
With the cruiser explodes, the
pirate leader leaves to pirate's homebase with happy feeling and the pink
suitcase. Oh no! I manage to escape the sinking ship and i have to swim to go
after that pirate leader. In this bonus level, there's 2 lane in which occasionally pirate's
boats sail through. There's large indication where you have to go to avoid them
so don't worry. The challenge comes from the temptation to get health item in
between the lane. To get them you have to switch lane in perfect timing and
obviously don't get hit by the passing boat. This bonus level also appears in
the aforementioned Die Hard arcade.
Instead of swimming on sea confined with invisible wall, the hero climb inside
of lift shaft. Instead of boat, there's lift going up and down ready to crush
him.
How can you not amazed with this pirate's island especially that skull-like huge head. Did the pirates sculptured it into this wonderful shape? Fascinating! And i just thought that the pirates are just mindless criminal with no sense of beautiful art.
Eventually, i land on some part of the pirate's island where they commit a serious crime: selling Chicken Leg and one of them is in undersized cage. I mean look how cramped it is. Poor creature. If you don't know the wonderful yet weird creature, take a look at this!
 |
| Golden Axe (Arcade) |
Yes. I was talking about this bizzarian called "Chicken Leg" that can be found in basically any Golden Axe game. They don't make noise at all. But in Dynamite Cop, they make chicken sounds. Yeah, that quite make sense. Their tail sweep is as strong as horse's back kick and quite often they serve as animal that either you can ride or pull your wagon. They also pretty cute in my opinion.
Anyway, i manage to shake off some pursuer by dropping into this horrible dungeon. Good job, me. [Obviously sarcasm]
There's pendulum blade that you can use to deal against these ghost pirates if you can lure them into it. They don't called "ghost buccaneer" for nothing, they have some supernatural ability. They will split into 2 when defeated, but only for once thankfully. There's other way to defeat them besides beating them until their health bar depleted and with it they don't have a chance to split up. But i will talk about that later.
I think i figure how to do this flying cross body: by pressing both jump and kick button. Whee!
I manage to rescue our captain only he try to stab me with fire axe. Thanks to president's daughter warning from crow's nest, i manage to dodge his attack. Turns out he's fake, like Decoy Octopus from Metal Gear Solid. I feel frustrated by the dead of my captain because that means my paycheck will get cut at the end of the month, very badly.
I notice SFPD logo on his shoulder, what could it stands for? Sega Front Police Department?
He manage to tackle me and give me some punches on the face. But through some miracle of button mashing, i manage to turn the table or -in actual context- turn us around so i'm on the upper side and give him more beating than he did. Maybe my paycheck will get cut and there's nothing i can do about it. But i can savor the opportunity to smack bastard with captain's face. Captain and i have some bad time together.
Now that i defeat the decoy octopus, time to rescue the president's daughter. She risk herself when she gave us the warning. Now she's on the ledge of crow's nest with the pirate leader try stomping on her hand!
So it's the time for final boss and as you can guess, he's hard to defeat or even cheap. He occasionally spins around and teleport somewhere else to avoid being cornered. When he show up after teleport, he fires his machine gun hand. Jumping over him can be good solution to this.
From several time i play this game, i never witness that he's able to shoot laser from his cyborg eye Kano's style and create mushroom cloud when hit me. Medic_sf13_magic_reac04.wav
.
Eventually, the situation is under my control. I give him Osotogari throw and some punches. He's defeated. Soldier_cheers05.wav
We can get out of pirate's island with boat. I accidently drop a laptop that somehow activates nuke missile on this boat and blow up the island with the usual janky mushroom cloud. Then the president's daughter kicks me on the back of the head. Thanks, kid. :I [That pirate's island-sized sarcasm]
That's the end of the game but it's not over yet. I have yet to show you the other character and route. Just a bit though.
Route 2 is where we infiltrate the ship in the most common way: climbing to promenade deck. The first boss fight takes place in upper deck instead of swimming pool area. This bazooka's design looks weird but i love it!
As i mentioned before that every path has different restaurant/kitchen stage and also fighting different chef. This time it's Sushi Chef named Jumbo Matsu. Time to tuna you up. :P
According to story in his artwork, Jumbo Matsu is ex-Sumo wrestler. Sumo industry runs really slow if one of the wrestler decides to quit and become pirate chef.
I just want to show you how QTE runs in motion. I don't know what are they carrying and what its purpose. But never mind that! How Jean can one-shot kick those 3 pirates at once? Medic_positivevocalization01.wav
If you happen to have handgun, you can initiate arresting enemies by initiating usual sticky grab and pressing punch button. Pressing kick button in the process of arresting the enemies will force them to throw health item, if you're lucky that is. Arresting enemies will instantly defeat them. It begs question though. In the place where you can find many other weapons that are more powerful than handgun (like machine gun, antiship missile, bazooka or laser gun) why they obey to get arrested with only handgun's point? Although some of them will resist by getting away or kicking you in stomach (or in the junk). I'm pretty sure with this method, those ghost pirates don't have a chance to split themselves up.
The final boss fight takes place in the upper deck of the cruiser instead of the crow's nest of the pirate ship. As i have said before that the difference between character is mainly in animation like this Jean's weird kick. I think it's called "Scorpion sting" because it looks like a scorpion stabs its prey with its poison tail. To be more precise, the scorpion bury itself on the ground scared while still stab the enemy with its tail.
Turns out, i can fire my handgun while jumping. Engineer_battlecry06.wav
After defeating Wolf Hongo, the pirate leader. A helicopter comes to pick us up. But wait. Somehow, Wolf Hongo is on the boat at the distant and launches a nuke missile at us! Luckily, president's daughter know how to hack the missile and redirect it at the pirate leader. It's very amazing what the school teaches to kids these days. Or maybe she receive special private lesson in Pentagon.
In the 3rd branch, i infiltrate the ship via evacuation door and i throw mini forklift at enemy but i miss. Demoman_jeers05.wav
There's extra CGI scene where the president's daughter sneaking in corridor and found by the special force captain. Unluckily for her, the captain is already the fake guy and lead her to pirate leader.
On some occasion, i ride a bike on a promenade deck and launch it into enemies with spectacular explosion. Demoman_specialcompleted12.wav
Another difference besides kitchen/restaurant change into Chinese theme, i fight Kraken at ship's bridge. How did it get there?
The pirate leader and president daughter go to pirate island with helicopter. While i hitch a ride on helicopter's skid so there's no swimming bonus stage. I drop on the same part of pirate island like in first branching path, but they the caged chicken leg with fish grill. Booo!
Eventually, i fight in the same pirate ship and from someone's stream i realize that i can knock the cannon and later use it against enemies. It has strong recoil and knock back power like anti-tank rifle in the Die Hard game but it makes more sense. I mean, who put anti-tank rifle lie on the floor of a mall? Naturally, this cannon reminds me of the one in Legend.
Whatever path you pick, you will get this epic cutscene before fighting Wolf Hongo. I like the "I have changed my body to destroy you" part because it implies that he had this weird transplantations (i.e. shell head along with cyborg eye and machine gun arm) for random chance to fight ordinary special ops. That's how dedicated he is to fight you.
Upon defeated, (dead) Wolf Hongo is self explode into huge mushroom cloud covering the pirate's island while the heroes escape with helicopter. Maybe all that body change/transplantation come with a huge cost, huh?
The End.
But before i close the review, i like to show you the artwork that i got from enemies or decorations that i can pick up and later throw at enemies. Personally, i like Kraken's artwork because we know that Chef Alexander was about to cook him but he escaped just in time. Makes you wonder does the chef really have the capability (and courage) to cook giant octopus in first place? That's insane idea.
All the artworks and the comic inside of Dreamcast port of the game is drawn by Tony de Zuniga. I don't know much about men behind American comic besides Stan Lee. It blows my mind that (late) Antony de Zuñiga here is pretty famous comic artist and illustration for DC and Marvel comic. Certainly, he also did some works for Sega. Soldier_HatOverHeartTaunt06.wav
There's also minigame called "Tranquilizer Gun" where you play as hunter that hunt in this jungle maze for various animal. Because he shoots using the titular tranquilizer gun, the animals will awake after defeated within limited time. While unconscious, he must drag them to his truck like legit poacher. I can drive the truck only in counter-clockwise route. Animals appear randomly from bushes so watch out for ambush. They take a lots of bullet before taken down. Might as well as shooting them with BB bullets.
I try the damn hardest as i can and i can't even get past the first round. Maybe i just not so interested with this game. But i just realized that this game appears in anime "Arcade Gamer Fubuki".
It has the same layout of the
jungle maze, see? It's said that the cabinet is legendarily rare. The people in
that anime's setting probably blow their
mind that you can get the game free within Dreamcast rom that you can get
free in internet Dreamcast CD in 1998 which 18 years after release of this
arcade game. You may think this game is made exclusively for Sega Dreamcast port
of Dynamite Cop in faux old retro
style. You thought wrong. I'm pretty amazed that Sega able to keep the code for
this game. Or maybe they remake it from scratch? Whatever the case they still
acknowledge this very old rare game.
I guess i'm done now.
I thought Sega's Dynamite Cop (1998-1999) is just mindless fun game but i learn big thing: The Tranquilizer arcade game and Antony de Zuñiga from this game. But it's still crazy beat em up game, mind you. The gameplay is pretty simple with just enough complexity that it won't make the game hard to control or understand. There's separate 2 attack buttons: punch and kick. Given there's not many mix-up combo you can do in this game. There's only 3 punches and then kick. Or at least that's what i found. Regarding when carrying gun: punch button to fire it and kick button to either kick or smack with it so you can conserve ammo. While carrying melee weapon: punch button to produce combo with minimum movement and kick button to produce combo with more forward movement. Even though there's little result that you can get to mix the punch and kick in this game, it's still better than many beat em up that also deploy 2 attack buttons, that i played such as Gaia Crusader, Legend (PSX), P.O.W, Mug Smasher, or Burning Fight. The game applies combo on grapple that i never seen besides in this game and other game in the series. If you need to take down enemy quicker during grab, you can perform single throw by pressing away/back direction followed with punch or kick button. The arresting mechanism is interesting especially to take down enemies easily. I should tell you again about the special grab that making unconscious enemies your impromptu weapon by grabbing them while either lie on the floor or standing in exhausted condition. You can store handgun's magazine or machine gun's magazine and use it later for extra ammo in the future. You can store handgun in your pocket when picking other gun or any melee weapon, and you can use it later on. Very useful feature. There also spray can that can you combine with lighter to make small flamethrower. Speaking of weapon there's crazy variation of it, from mundane thing like umbrella or fire axe to something very wild like antiship missile and laser gun. There's pepper that maybe legacy to first Streets of Rage, that makes enemies sneezing thus they drop their guard. There's also apples, sushi, or apples that you can either eat (by pressing punch button) to recover small health or throw at enemies (by pressing kick button). Then there's Power up icons that will make your character powered up if you collect 5 of them. It's also neat feature. Like in Legend, enemies taunt/mock you when you're down. They say "Poor baby!" or laughter. I notice that there's difference number of lives you can have in branching paths. The first path give you the most lives (unlimited) and the third gives you the least lives (3) but it's the shortest route. There's next to no reason not to choose the first route especially there's appearance of chicken leg. There's QTE section to break the tedium of punching pirates to knocked out. It's simple and fast so it's welcome addition to the gameplay. The sound effect is pretty realistic and good but not for the laser gun, mind you. The visual is nice but still janky especially for the mushroom cloud. The story is fairly unrealistic and crazy but it's fun.
Without a shadow of a doubt, Dynamite Cop (1998-1999) is a Beat em up game in the good list. Even though it's not as good as my personal favorite Crisis Beat on PSX with the same premise of baddies hijack a cruiser and plant bombs on it. Surely one day, i will review it. But for now you should accept Dynamite Cop as satisfying beat em up game that you can finish within an hour also don't forget about the all the crazy stuffs on it. and they're in crazy amount too.
