DICK TRACY
Publisher : Titus
Release date : 1990
Genre : Shoot 'Em Up
Players : 1
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"Retrace the steps of Dick Tracy, the World famous comic strip detective, in this superb computer conversion of the Block Buster Movie. Grab that famous hat and coat and hit the streets in search of Big Boy Caprice and his gang."
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Programming :
Graphics :
Music/Sounds :
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Download ROM
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Download Manual
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Editors review...
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Here's a novel one of this console - a tape/disk original released on cart (sigh) but WAIT!.... it's been completely overhauled and re-programmed from scratch! AND actually uses hardware sprites and scrolling!!
Suddenly expectations rise... given how dire the original game on the normal Amstrad machines was, maybe Titus can pull it out the bag. Initial reactions are fairly good, starts a bit wobbly as it has no title screen and just starts right off (typical Titus though, bit lazy they are!) however the graphics look nice, sprites and scrolling is liquid smooth... then you encounter your first enemies and it all goes to pot...
The animation to begin with is amateurish. Just look at how Dick Tracy walks, like someone's shoved a pole up his backside. So yes anyway onto your first encounter with an enemy. He walks towards you, you walk towards him, you hit the attack button and start punching - it seems pot luck if he walks into your firsts and takes a hit or he punches you. So you then work out a system... duck and wait for him to walk into you, and all he does is walk left and right around you doing nothing despite you're frickin' there just crouching down. Wait for the right moment and just hold down the attack button and watching him repeatedly walk into your fists.
Defeating other enemies in the game is very much like this. Either pot luck who gets who first, or you work out a system that works near enough every time. Most annoying are the guys with machine guns who fire *as soon as your appear or stand up* and you take a hit, so best thing you can do is nudge the screen bit by bit until you see their feet and part of the them, and select a gun and fire whilst walking and blast him before he has a chance. Kinda takes all the strategy, gameplay and fun right out of the game.
Other stupid moments occur such as the guys shooting at your from windows. You can be crouched down and bullets are clearly hitting you but nothing happens, stand up in the same place and its a different matter. Simply time it right and shoot the guy. Soon enough you'll have a simple system for each enemy (and there aren't many types) and you'll be progressing in no time.
Disappointing so far, although about the third level things get interesting when you have to jump between roof tops, but then its back to the same old for the rest of the levels until the very last one when there's a few barrels to jump on which serve no real purpose at all.
Further disappoint will come from the fact that you'll complete this before long and instead of any kind of acknowledgment that you've captured the last criminal and finished the last level... you're simply whisked back to the start of the 1st level. GRRRR! I HATE THAT! Is there anything more annoying in game?
To be honest, it did keep my playing for quite some time and I was determined to progress and finish it. It's not entirely awful, and its nice to see games with hardware scrolling and sprites being used on an Amstrad, but that will soon enough wear off. Shame then that the game now is very rare and fetches a price on Ebay, to complete your collection you're going to have to fork out for a distinctly average game.
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Graphics
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Everything is nicely drawn, great use of colours, decent sprites and backgrounds but amateurish animation.
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Music
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Music on each level, decent enough but exactly what you've come to expect from Titus (must be the same music programmer on all their games!)
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Sounds
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You can choose to have SFX instead of music, I wouldn't bother. Very limited and not particularly good.
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Presentation
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In game graphics wise, music and intro screen - very good. Losing huge amounts of marks for no title screen, nothing inbetween levels and worst of all - no ending and not even a simple 'congratulations' message!! Poor show.
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Programming
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Woo! SMOOTH SCROLLING! Sprites move nicely and at speed too! But come on ... how the game's been implemented is just simple amateurish. At least its not as bas as Wild Street's fighting.
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Playability
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Did anyone bother to play test this game??? Barely passable, however scrolling beat/shoot-em-ups are usually fun and at least its not slow and buggy.
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Lastability
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Hmm, you'll either be put off initially on how naff the gameplay and playability is, or you'll stick it out and make progress completing it before long.
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Concept
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Movie tie-in - scrolling shoot/beat-em-up - it's either going to be distinctly average or a corker. Sadly, it's the former.
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AI & Challenge
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Enemies just use the same tricks each time, although they do vary. Difficulty increases by placing more enemies per level, although the rooftop jumping does prove a nice change - however its just not good enough to compensate.
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GX4000 Features
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Marvelous colours, scrolling and sprites. Scores highly here.
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Summary
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Definitely a game made for the console, sadly is poor executed and presented.
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Final Score
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63%
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Cheats...
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No cheats found for this game.
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Further more...
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Amstrad Action final score : 52%
GX4000.CO.UK game ranking : #
Game value (boxed + instructions) : £80 - £140
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Credits...
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Manuals and some sleeve scans by mochilote at cpcmania.com
ROMS taken from NVG FTP Site maintained by Nich Campbell, see his other site - CPC Game Reviews
Cheats (various) taken from CPC Zone contributed by Hermol, cpc4eva, Malc and others
Inspiration generally taken from John King's PCW King GX4000 site
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