3RRDC Dynamite Cop

Dynamite cop!, or dynamite flop? The sequel to die hard arcade
(available on your Sega saturn) Dynamite cop (with an exclamation
mark! wow intense…) is very similar to that game. But can this 3d beat
'em up from the arcade hold a candle against dreamcast's other early
offerings? With games like Soul Calibur and Marvel vs. Capcom sitting
pretty on store shelves, would this arcade port make a splash? And
being an arcade game, would the home version include enough
bonuses to keep you coming back for more? Let's get to it.

The sequel to Die hard arcade (which I was able to play after this game
when my local arcade got one) this game saw the president's daughter
once again kidnapped by the evil Wolf Hongo. Send in Bruno and two
other playable characters to the rescue. This time the setting is on a
cruise ship which Hongo supposedly took over. Your adventure may
even lead you to a certain pirate isle. A few poor fmv cut scenes later
you will have to battle Hongo to save the girl. The story is way to
similar to dharcade it's scary. Even some of the cutscense play out
exactly the same (the one where Hongo wonders where the girl is
while she is hiding rings a bell). The pirate theme is interesting, and
characters range from boring to strange. So it gets points for being
different (hmm soul calibur had pirates. That sure was a good game...
Oh where was I?)

Here we have one of the classic arcade genres, a standard 3d beat
'em up. You've been playing these (maybe in 2d form though) since
streets of rage on genesis, and Konami's Teenage mutant ninja turtles
on nes (both better games). Only problem is, that this game is short.
Way short. 3 different levels. Each one has a different ending. Fight
your way through hordes of enemies (ala dharcade) using unique
weapons along the way (ala dharcade.. again). There are the standard
punches and kicks, with some combos thrown in to keep things from
getting boring (faster). Collect power ups to charge you up and make
you stronger for a limited time. Then there are the weapons. These
things range from the standard hand guns, to pieces of "French
bread" and slabs of "Tuna". There is also some screen clearing
goodness with the "anti-ship missiles". Weapons-wise is fun and
interesting. Some weapons rule over others, but you take what you're
given. Or you could use your bare hands…or your friend's bare hands!
One of the best aspects of an arcade beat 'em up, 2 player mode, is
just as fun here as it is in the arcade.

In some instances in the level, a cut scene will start and you will have
to quickly press the designated button on screen. Press it and your
character will regain some health and look cool in the process. Don't
pass it and your character will be put in a more dangerous situation,
and have to sometimes fight more bad guys. The same thing was in Die
hard arcade. The three levels are different enough. They share some of
the same locations, but overall they are mostly unique to themselves.
For instance in every one you have to fight mini boss "jumbo matsu". In
every level you always have to fight him in his kitchen, but he is
dressed differently in all 3 levels. Another thing of note is the
interaction with the stages. Some parts of the level have obstacles like
fire rushing towards you, or a spinning blade ready to slice you up. Not
all objects are out to get you though. There are some objects like the
arcade cabs in the cruise ship that you can pick up and throw at the
evil pirates. All of this arcade gameplay is fun in the arcade, but also
fun at home if the price is right. Paying 50 bucks for this would be
criminal. I wouldn't pay more than $10.00 to buy this game. But it's not
the gameplay that makes the game a freak of society no it's the....

Graphics. The poor ugly first generation graphics. Weren't good then,
aren't good now. It does look better than die hard arcade though! But
when was that game made? Let's start off with character models.
Blocky, and ugly. But the art design for the pirates (you'll see more on
that later) makes the ugly drones kinda unique. Bosses stand out as
being larger than any other character, and there are multiple different
pirates to pummel through. So it ain't like purple foot soldier, red foot
soldier, white foot soldier etc. The main character Bruno, looks like a
lot like infamous TV icon Pee Wee Herman. From the straight cut black
hair and all. Just in less casual clothing. Oh the clothing. Keep getting
hurt and the clothing of your character falls off. You'll eventually end
up wearing very little. This is both strange and unattractive due to the
terrible graphics. Stages are ok. They tend to look better than the
characters, but not by much. And we get some good variety with a
disco room, torture chamber, and dining hall among others. The fmv is
a little on the grainy side like many ps1 games. Still leaps better than
dharcade's. So the graphics won't wow anyone. (Unless they really
really really liked die hard arcade.)

The sound won't either. The pirates all seem to have maybe a total of 3
voices. And they have such clever catch phrases like "c'mon", "sissy",
"poor baby" and my favorite "Damn". Your playable characters never
speak a word during any of the action except screaming out when
attacking and once you select them from the character select screen
they will say "ha". Ha indeed. Unfortunately the president's daughter
had a very bad voice. A very annoying voice to be precise. Big bad boss
Wolf Hongo had a very deep booming voice. For good voice acting see
a game called "Grandia 2" (Oh you've heard of it?). The music was
equally non-impressive. I like it when the music fits the tone of the
game or situation in the game. Resident evil is a perfect example. With
creepy music that screams zombies, how come dynamite cop can't
have any music that screams pirates!? I wanted some yo ho yo ho
tunes, but instead I get some generic ones. But I guess in the arcades
the music wasn't very loud (as arcades tend to be loud and music is
never important in an arcade game, sans ddr and other bemani titles).
Kind of like the old x-men beat em up at the local arcade. I wonder
what the music sounds like in that one.

So you've got a short and ugly game that you want to release on
dreamcast and you want people to buy it. Some will worry that the
game will be over too soon and that bonus stuff should be thrown in for
replay. This is where the game does something right, and original. First
throw in 3 unlockable charcters. Then put the same levels out under
"showdown" mode. It's the levels you've already played just with
limited credits and difficult set goals. Beat the entire game starting
with hardly any health. Ouch. Next throw in an old school Sega arcade
game "Tranquilizer Gun" a game where you go around killing multi
colored jungle critters and drag them back to your car. That game was
from 1980 for those that care. Then throw in an art gallery where the
pictures must be unlocked, and man there are a ton of pictures! In the
main game your vmu will sometime beep. If it does that, it means your
character is standing over a hidden picture and by pressing punch you
unlock it for the gallery. All the pics have descriptions to go along with
them. There's also a comic to view that was taken from Sega's official
site. Finding all the pics will be a difficult and long task (I still haven't
got them all!) and thus it is the main reason why I continue to play the
game.

If you recall the second issue of the official dreamcast memory which
came with a demo disk with dynamite cop on it, you will remember that
the demo had a detonator pack for dynamite. Save that on the memory
card and you can then access and play as the main female character
from die hard arcade, and a ray gun will randomly appear during game
play for you to use. It also added more pics to the gallery.

So is this game a dynamite flop? For the most part, yeah. Not because
of the genre! No I love my beat 'em ups, just this is an ugly game that
fails to stand out. The pirate theme is good, and Sega did a good job of
trying to extend its life span with the hidden stuff, but it all looks and
feels like a game we've already played many times before. If you can
get it cheap, or you loved die hard arcade, you should enjoy this game.
However it must be said that this game features another fight scene in
a bathroom. With guys that come out of the stalls wearing only towels,
who then proceed to run at you and push you down to the ground. Now
that was interesting! (Oh wait... they had the same thing in die hard
arcade. Hmm oh well.)

Review by: Orochi Sonic