WELCO METOT HENEX TLEVEL - Demolition Man
Publisher: Acclaim Developer: Alexandria, Inc. Released: 1994
Our series goes from the dizzying heights of a quality stratRPG like Dark Wizard to the depressing lows of a bog-standard 16-bit licensed action game in Demolition Man.
The film Demolition Man is memorable for a few reasons. Firstly, it was definitely one of the last of the 80s-style action movie breed – big guns, big muscles, ridiculous one-liners, extremely improbable scenarios and lots and lots of explosions. But despite that, it was also memorable for its satiric take on the future and genuinely funny jokes. I'm gonna go ahead and say that it's also one of the first films a lot of us ever saw that featured Sandra Bullock, back before Speed made her a mega star.
The story begins in 1996, where cop John Spartan (Stallone) has finally tracked down and captured super criminal Simon Phoenix (Snipes). In the process, however, Spartan apparently set off an explosion that not only leveled a couple city blocks, but inadvertently killed a group of hostages Phoenix was holding. Thus, Phoenix is sentenced to an eternity of incarceration in suspended animation, while Spartan is sentenced to 70 years of the same punishment. During which time, both of them will be subconciously rehabilitated.
Flash forward to 2032, where LA, San Francisco, and Santa Barbara have merged into San Angeles – a planned city where pacifism prevails and violent crime is a thing of the past. Somehow, Simon Phoenix has been thawed out and is running amok. The woefully under-prepared SAPD decide the only way to take him down is to thaw out John Spartan a bit early and recruit him for the job. And that's where our game picks up.
Most folks who remember Acclaim know that the publisher made its money through releasing generally crappy action games that sold on the strength of various movie licenses. It has to be said, however, that Acclaim was not the only publisher doing this. The 16-bit era in general was license-happy, with movies, TV shows, and even soda and potato chip mascots finding their way into dozens of games.
The problem with almost all of these games is the business model dictates that the money is more effectively spent securing the license and marketing the game, rather than creating a quality product. Who cares about developing a fun, engaging game? People are buying it for what's on the box, not what's inside. Thus you get a unending series of mediocre-to-awful, same-ish action games simply painted up to resemble the movie/tv show/whatever they're meant to represent.
Demolition Man fall near the upper end of that spectrum, though. It's nothing special, but it's not exactly awful, either. This game is mostly a side-scrolling shooter along the lines of the Contra series (though not nearly as good). John Spartan makes his way through a number of levels (1996 LA, San Angeles' Museum's “Hall of Violence,” San Angeles underground, etc) killing dozens of armed thugs in his pursuit of Simon Phoenix. Along the way he picks up health power ups and a handful of different guns.
Most – though not all – of the levels are based on settings from the film. And as an added twist, two of the levels are actually top-down, free-roaming shooter affairs. This is a surprising and refreshing thing to discover, considering how completely by the numbers the game is in general. In these stages, Spartan must not only kill his enemies, but save a certain number of hostages before being able to move on to the next area.
Demolition Man commits one of the cardinal sins of the Sega CD library – this is simply the Genesis cartridge loaded up with some nice audio tracks and a few minutes of full-motion video taken directly from the film. Though I have to say that, in this case, the video does add to the overall experience. Unfortunately, most of the clips shown are pretty serious – the film's tongue-in-cheek vision of the flawed, utopian future is effectively missing from the game. Pity.
I couldn't find any interesting trivia about this game. Sorry. Check out the video and get a sense for what it was like to buy movie games based on faith alone back in the mid-90s.
PS - I just realized this is the second mediocre action game in our series that stars Sylvester Stallone. Arnie better make an appearance soon!