Scrolling beat-em-ups have long been associated with sprite based games like Final Fight and Streets of Rage, yet there was a brief period of time where the genre went 3D. These experiments are not fondly remembered, although that's a rather unfair assumption. Eidos' Fighting Force may have been mediocre, but Sega's Dynamite Deka series is an exemplary effort, updating the mechanics substantially and coating it in luscious 80s Hollywood action movie-style cheese. The naming conventions of the series are a tad confusing due to licensing. The plot is strikingly similar to the movie Die Hard, to the point where the main character looks much like Bruce Willis, even right down to his wifebeater-and-jeans outfit. In North America, Sega obtained the license for the movie and called it Die Hard Arcade. In Japan, there is no official connection with the film and it is simply called "Dynamite Deka" ("Dynamite Detective"). Whether it was designed specifically with the license in mind, or whether it was simply ripped off and the license obtained later, is unknown. The sequel does not have any affiliation with the movie in any territory. It is known as Dynamite Deka 2 in Japan, and Dynamite Cop (offering a close translation of the Japanese name) in North America. A third game, released only in Asian territories and actually a variant of Dynamite Deka 2, is known as Dynamite Deka EX: Asian Dynamite. Die Hard Arcade Terrorists have taken over the NAME building, intent on stealing the vast riches from a vault in the penthouse office, and taking everyone hostage. Perhaps more important than the cash, they're also kidnapped the President's daughter. As two police officers, Bruno Dilinger and GET NAME, you must infiltrate the building through its ventilation systems and fight your up to the top to face off against WOLF NAME, and save the day, as expected. The parallels to Die Hard are obvious, though since the building and characters are different, technically it's just a parallel situation, with the president's daughter added in for an extra bit of ludicrous melodrama. In fact, there's a running gag that the girl has eluded the kidnappers and is hiding right underneath their nose the entire time, but the terrorists are too daft to find her. Sega had quite a number of arcade beat-em-ups under its belt by 1996, but Die Hard Arcade is the first to go 3D. It still looks very much like a product of its era, complete with low polygon models and blocky textures, but the high resolution and smooth frame rate put it in a better class than most PlayStation games, and is easily up there with Nights as one of the best looking games on the Saturn. The extra dimension allows for impressive cinematic cutscenes, even though they're expectedly goofy. The camera is always fixed it an overhead angle, but occasionally swoops downwards and upwards in line with the action to make it look more dramatic. CLOTHES TEAR AS ACTION GOES ON The extra dimension also means that it controls completely differently from its 2D counterparts. The attack movements are quick and snappy, making it feel a bit like Virtua Fighter. There's a punch and a kick button, with a number of combos and grabs depending on button presses, as well as a jump button. Generally it plays well, though it's not without its quirks. Like the days of old, your characters can only face left or right, which made sense with sprites but is incredibly awkward looking into 3D. And since the jumps are meant to be more realistic, it also means they aren't nearly as fast or as effective. There are only two characters, Bruce and Caroline for the first and second player, and each controls identically, so there's not a whole lot of variety either. There's also a noticeable lack of any screen-clearing or crowd control special moves, but this is made up for with the copious amount of weapons. Most screens have at least a few objects that can be picked up and used to bash enemies (or used to bash you), as well as a handful of guns and other projectile-firing weapons. Most amusingly, even though you can blow up enemies with missile launchers and anti-tank rifles, they'll usually shake the explosions off with just a bit of minor damage. You can also use these weapons at point blank range without taking any damage, a true indication of ridiculously Hollywood-style bravado. You can collect handgun clips even if you aren't equipped with it, allowing you to store them up whenever you need them. Many screens also have environmental obstacles that can be used to your benefit (or detriment), like the fire truck in the basement that moves back and forth spraying water. There are five stages in total, and most of it is very similar to the movie, with the exception of four-legged robots in a few areas, which are silly. Still, you can pick up their dismembered legs and proceed to beat them into submission, so it's all in good fun. It's got a good sense of humor of itself, especially when you walk into the bathroom and find a bad guy casually relieving himself in a urinal. Then some guy clad only in underwear breaks out of a stall and proceeds to terrorize you. You no longer traverse levels in a traditional manner, by moving left to right. Instead, upon conquering each screen, your character(s) will take off and automatically move to the next destination. Usually in between these are quicktime-style cutscenes, where you're given a few seconds to hit a certain button to avoid an enemy attack. Hit the right button and you'll escape danger, but fail, and you'll either take extra damage or be forced into an extra confrontation. Either way you'll be shown slow motion recaps applauding your success or bemoaning your incompetence. Die Hard Arcade was developed as a joint production between Sega AM-2 in Japan and Sega Technical Institute in America. The former handled the design and programming, while the latter handling modeling, as well as providing the soundtrack. Sega mainstay Howard Drossin composed the music, which is appropriately over dramatic and cheesy in the best way. Unfortunately the number of songs is limited, so you end up hearing the same music throughout the entire game. In 199XXX?? the game was ported to the Sega Saturn. Considering the arcade version ran on the ST-V hardware, which is almost functionally identical to Sega's 32-bit console, it's a nearly perfect port. The only major downside is that the music is all redbook audio played directly from the CD, which means it fades in and out as it loads each new screen. The pauses are brief, but noticeable. Despite its quality compared to similar games, Die Hard Arcade didn't exactly get the same warm reception as games like Streets of Rage. By this time, consoles were moving away from quick arcade-style games to longer, more intricate experiences - and this button-wailing, 20 minute long didn't exactly gell with that. Strangely, while the arcade version allows you to modify the difficulty, granting longer health bars and extra lives, these options are missing from the Saturn version, granting you, by default, only a single lift and three credits. As a bonus, you can play a ported version of the 1980 Sega arcade game Deep Scan, where you control a boat dropping depth charges on submarines. The higher the score, the more credits you get when playing the main game. There's also an extra, hidden soundtrack enabled through a code, but it's mostly the same as the arcade version with slightly different instrumentation. PS2 version STUFF Dynamite Deka 2 / Dynamite Cop Even though the second game in this series lacks an official movie tie-in, Dynamite Deka 2 / Dynamite Cop is basically "Die Hard on a Boat". In turn this was technically the plot of Speed 2: Cruise Control, a movie best forgotten, and a concept that this silly little video game executes to far better effect. GET WOLF NAME is back, and his group of "modern day pirates" have hijacked a cruise liner, which - of course! - just happened to be ferrying about the president's daughter. (It appears to be a different girl this time, at least.) This time you have three different characters to pick from, although there's not a huge difference between them. PICTURE/DESCRIBE At the beginning, you can also pick three different approaches to infiltrate the submarine - you can jump out of a plane and parachute onboard, take a speedboat and grapple onto the side, or scuba dive straight into its lower decks. The route will determine the path throughout the rest of the game, and while each path shares some of the same rooms (and the same bosses), there are unique areas in each route, so you need to play the game through three times to see everything. There are four stages in total, plus a final boss fight, leaving the whole game slightly shorter than the original. For the most part, the actions work very similar to the original. You can now face and attack in all eight directions instead of just left and right, and there are a number of cool grappling suplex moves that are easy to pull off and immensely satisfying to watch (and listen to, given the exaggerated bone-breaking sound effects.) You can also pick up disabled enemies and use them to whack other bad guys, a bit like the Kunio games. In addition to the numerous weapons, there are also "P" icons, which will grant your character additional strength for a short amount of time when you collect enough of them. The game runs on the Model-2 engine, meaning a rather substantial visual upgrade compared to the original. Unlike the first game, this one was developed entirely in Japan, although the music is once again supplied by Howard Drossin. While the first game was fairly faithful to the style of American action movies with a bit of Japanese arcade-game silliness, Dynamite Cop takes everything much further and joyfully revels in absurdity. The rocket launchers and anti-tank rifles in the first game were fun, but this game has ship-to-ship missiles which blow up enemies with miniature mushrooms clouds. Even fairly innocuous objects like soda machines and arcade cabinets will explode upon impact when thrown. The game takes the theme of "modern day pirates" a little bit too literally, with most of the terrorists dressing like they stepped out of a theme park. In addition to the guys and gals dressed in garish neon ascots and ridiculous eye-patches, you'll find people in shark outfits. Throughout the ship, you'll fight enemies in a nightclub, in a casino, and a gym. You will fight a gigantic sushi chef while wielding an enormous tuna. At some point you will fight a gigantic octopus. The final battle is, against, a fist fight with GET NAME, although this time he's modified his body with cybernetic enhancements and can shoot lasers out of his eye. It's the sort of thing that acts as both a loving emulation of action movies and a gloriously over-the-top parody. Dynamite Cop was ported to the Dreamcast, although the upgrade in hardware didn't do much to the visuals other than displaying them in a slightly higher resolution. All of the cutscenes have been pre-rendered at a higher quality though. A few minor things have changed in these, like the president's daughter now hiding in a bright pink suitcase rather than beneath a desk. Upon completing all of the standard courses, you can also unlock a second, more difficult set of missions. There are also a number of extra costumes for the characters. The game can also be upgraded to version 1.1 using a special save file, which allows you play as Caroline, the second player character from the first game. When the game was initially released, you were supposed to get this save either through a disc included with a magazine, or through downloading it straight from the official website. Nowadays, the easiest way to obtain this is to DOWNLOAD CD, a fanmade disc full of pretty much every save game for every system and load it onto your VMU. Like the first game, there's also a port of a very old Sega arcade game, which will earn you bonus credits. This time it's Tranquilizer, DESCRIBE THIS A BIT) Dynamite Deka EX There's a reason that the third game in the series is called Dynamite Deka EX and not Dynamite Deka 3. That's because it's really just a revised version of the second game, featuring completely new graphics and an upgraded power-up systems. It developed by a team in China with supervision from Japan. The concept is actually closer to the first game than the second, featuring a terrorist takeover of a skyscraper. However, it now takes place in Hong Kong rather than an unnamed American city. There are again three characters to play as, though NAME has been replaced with NAME: Since the levels and layout are essentially the same as Dynamite Deka 2, it offers the same three infiltration options - parachute on the roof, take a wagon up its side and grapple up, or dive to the local docks and walk right in. At first glance it does appear to be a brand new game, because all of the graphics are completely, 100% new, but the parallels are pretty easy to see when you're familiar with both games. For example, in the second game when you're running along the deck, you'll see a lifeboat pulled up next to you. In Dynamite Deka EX, you're running along scaffolding on the side of the building, and the lifeboat has been turned into a construction elevator. Most of the interior now resembles various Chinese offices and apartment buildings. The fight against the sushi chef is now a battle against a panda bear. Unfortunately, while Dynamite Deka EX runs on the Naomi hardware (it was probably built on the Dreamcast version of the second game), the artistry really isn't on the same level, and most of the new textures are artistically dull, with the whole color scheme permeated by browns. The new soundtrack is also rather boring. The game isn't entirely a retread, as some cutscenes and bosses are different. The octopus has been turned into a giant living statue, and the president's daughter now hides outside the building window. The ending is different as well. Mechanically the only difference lies in the power-up systems. Rather than picking up "P" icons, there are three different colored briefcases that trigger a "costume" change, allowing your character to take on a different persona. Each character has three costumes - DESCRIBE THESE. The Game Over screen, where a cook tosses together a plate of fried rice and writes GAME OVER in red sauce, is also bizarrely appropriate. When piled on all of the ridiculousness already present in the core game, it transcends to a new level of campiness. Dynamite Deka EX was certainly an odd thing to release in 2007. Not only was it visually dated, but the beat-em-up genre had been dead or quite awhile, and this one obviously doesn't do much to upgrade it. It is, however, still just as goofy and fun as it ever was. It was never ported, and thus exists only in arcades and on emulators.