Dick Tracy review by Shion


   A modern movie adaptation of the well known comic-strip crimefigher,

 Dick Tracy, appeared in 1990. All cartoon characters, movies, etc. are

 made into video games at some stage or another, so it's no surprise 

that this one was made into a Master System (and Mega Drive/Genesis) 

game in the same year.


   Strictly an action game, there isn't much of a storyline. And as I 

haven't seen the movie, I can't really tell you what the game is about 

:-) But basically, as Dick Tracy, you are progressing through the 

stages after Big Boy Caprice, a villain manufacturing explosives.

   There are several stages to complete, each consisting of three 

rounds and a bonus round. Most of these rounds are just simple, 

left-to-right side-scrolling levels of shooting and punching up bad 

guys, but there are a few 'car chase' scenes where you hang out the 

side of a car and shoot at the people in the cars around you (as well 

as avoid their bullets).


   Sounds like a simple game? Well, it is a simple game. But actually 

playing the game is not simple, due to awkward control and a pretty 

high level of difficulty.


   Moving Dick is simple- all you do is walk and left and right, duck, 

jump around, and shoot. It's kinda slow, but it's straightforward. 

Except for the shooting part. To shoot directly in front of you (an 

oncoming baddie), with a handgun, you tap the button. To shoot one of 

the villians 'above' you (across the road), with a machine gun, you 

hold the button down and aim as you shoot. It's fairly easy once you 

get the hang of it, but it's finnicky at first and it feels a bit 

stupid.


   As for the game's difficulty- I like a challenging game, but I don't 

like games that are too difficult to enjoy. Dick Tracy is one such 

game, in my opinion. There are four difficulty levels to choose from- 

easy, normal, hard, and hardest. I was playing on 'easy' all the way, 

and even that I found frustrating. The poor control, piling-up of 

enemies, and super-tricky bosses meant I soon had to resort to keeping

 savegames as I went. I reached level 6-2 but was too bored and annoyed

 with it by then to go on.


   Almost forgot to add: By pressing buttons 1 and 2 together, you can

 call for help via that radio-watch thing, but all it does is make some

 bullets appear out of nowhere, aimed at a few of your enemies, and it

 doesn't always work anyway, so I didn't find it useful.


   Graphically, the game is reasonably well done, but boring. Animation

 (especially of the main sprite) is good, but in terms of levels and 

enemies, there isn't much in the way of variety. Same goes for the 

sound- the music is okay, but nothing special. It's repetitive, but it 

doesn't drive you mad like the gameplay, at least.


      On the whole, I found Dick Tracy pretty plain and unenjoyable.

 That's not to say you shouldn't download it and have a few shots at it 

yourself (especially if you're a fan), as you may be better at playing 

it than me :-) But I think you'll forget about it fairly quickly...