Crack Down

Copyright : Sega | Reviewed by : Malc Jennings

A desperate race against time.. Take on the role of brave freedom fighters attempting to destroy the fortress of evil Dr.K.

Place time bombs, cross roof tops and junk yards while avoiding the enemy on the way. Battle through 16 levels of simultaneous 2 player action against biogenetic humanoids holding machine guns, rocket launchers, super bombs and if all else fails your bare hands!

Remember if you meet an enemy there is just one rule...The are no rules!

Graphics

Well after that scary introduction that is 95% based on the original advertisement campaign for the game, would you be scared? nah didn?t think so either.

Anyway US Gold have a pretty bad reputation with the members of CPC Zone and have gone down in history for producing some pretty naff titles for our beloved CPC. Crack-Down, it has to be said is one of those titles.

Looking a little bit like Alien Breed which featured on the Amiga many years later but playing like Michael Jacksons Moonwalker (also by the same company) it isn?t going to win any awards on the graphics front. Taking things back to the very basics, shrinking the playing area to fit a second player on the right and having the worst set of colours we have seen in a full priced title are just some of the problems that litter this game.

Sound

Sound is reasonable, nothing to get excited about though. We are treated to some introduction music at the start of the game but nothing ground breaking or anything that will make you switch the volume up, in-game sounds are fairly basic with just the sound of your weapons being heard as you walk around the corridors. Ok its not bad and we have heard much worse in our time reviewing these games but it aint great either from a big developer.

Gameplay

As we mentioned earlier, the game looks and plays like Michael Jacksons Moonwalker only with the playing area shrunk to fit a second screen to the left. This creates a very unpleasant environment to be playing your game in and reduces the graphics to almost square blocks.

Having said that the game itself plays at a nice speed and although the controls tend to stick at times it isn?t bad navigating around the corridors, though it is hard to tell who is an enemy and who isn?t as some will attack and others will wait a few minutes then attack.

Either way the game isn?t going to keep you entertained for long and considering the nice cover art this game featured it just shows that you can?t judge anything by its cover.