Games of the Abstract: 64th Street - A Detective Story (1991)

 

Developer: C.P. Brain

Publisher: Jaleco

One to Two Players

Arcade / Nintendo Switch / Sony Playstation 4

 

Once an obscurity, suddenly in 2020 64^th Street escaped obscurity, of word of mouth from M.A.M.E preservation, to appear on the Nintendo Switch and the Playstation 4 through Hamster's Arcade Archive series¹. This is cool, if I wish this was available on the likes of Windows too, but it is a good thing to have transpired, allowing people to take a gander at this obscure Jaleco beat-em-up. This one, set in 1939 USA, follows private detective Rick, and his younger partner Allen, who are on the hunt for the kidnapped daughter of a wealthy man, finding them embroiled in a criminal cabal whose nefarious ideas include robots whilst trying to find the daughter. The only real exposition in the pre-credits is that, Sherlock Holmes-like, Rick spots their secret codes in newspaper advertisements before they spend the rest of the game in a completely different genre, punching thugs or using the old reliable metal pipe to get on their way. Even if the idea of a Holmes-like puzzle game crossed with this game’s beat-em-up stages is a tantalizingly weird premise I would play, what you still get is a pretty solid beat-em-up from this time period too.

There is a sense of 64^th Street sadly not fully fleshing out its premise as much as one would wish, not following the faithfulness to the era chosen, like Boogie Wings (1992) in the scrolling shooter genre, of this early Americana. You would presume, knee deep past the depression and reaching World War II, fighting Mafioso, but there is a surprising number of Mohawk punks in Hooverville era America, more befitting a later era of New York City exploitation films. I exclude the inclusion of cyborgs in this, and this is an alternative reality and befits the sci-fi pulp written at the time, and that does not stop the virtues on hand here, only that there is a sense of a game which could have been rushed, not technical quality, but not having as many additions as you would presume to the gameplay. 64^th Street is an example of a good game which could have been greater if it had more touches, even in the story not having enough of its period influencing the story. (This is a shame if you consider, from this era, a game like El Viento (1991) for the Sega Mega Drive, which is effectively the tale of Al Capone trying to summon a Cthulian entity, specifically one from an Ambrose Bierce short story reinterpreted and referenced even by H.P. Lovecraft among others later). There is still a lot of personality here to admire, including the surprising amount of kittens you can rescue for bonus points, but there is a lot to the time period this could have taken advantage of. More so as the engine is a solid beat-em-up, one which already had a better advantage than some in that the leads are actually interesting, an older suave detective who with Allen, his slightly dimwitted younger assistant in a paperboy cap, judo throw goons into shop windows and off trains.

The game follows many others of the time, with an attack and jump button that have some variety, whilst most of the strategy is to avoid being hit. Throws here are commodity to spam as, not only are they effective and emphasis how exploiting the quasi-three dimensional areas is a huge advantage in this genre, but where you get more collectables and even health throwing people into the destructible backgrounds. Strangely there are not a lot of secondary weapons only two here which are frequently accessible. One is the wrench, the other a metal pipe, an enlarged version of that used to brain Dr. Black in the conservatory in a game of Cluedo/Clue, the later so useful in its reach it should have gotten a third protagonist credit even if as a “Pipe” onscreen. This is of use as, with other beat-em-ups, 64^th Street throws enemies at you, and if one aspect of the game has not aged, it is that a couple of the bosses are unfair in their tendency to stun lock the players, spamming special moves you would normally presume the player would in spamming jump kicks back at them to survive.

These do befit the time period more at least, between a sailor from Popeye, who does an airplane spin with his fists out on the peg leg, to wrestlers who, contrasting those regular enemies who look like they have wandered out of the eighties pro wrestling era, look like grey haired strong men whose aerial cannonballs are the reason spamming jump kicks became a common tactic in these games. A kabuki dancer masquerading as a buff elevator attendant, out of place among out figures clearly lost to time, add a dash of eccentricity too, and that the final boss feels abrupt - whose main pieces of note is his obsession with spin kicks and trying to reclaim the pool cue you can use against – it does not detract from the sense of fun this possesses. Out of all the beat-em-ups I have played, this is definitely one of the weaker ones, but it does show the virtues of a game where the little details stand out and shine. Details such as the emphasis on throws, which can be commanded to go forwards and go up the screen, usually into walls or windows, breaking or damaging them, and providing more collectables as much as graphical style in the damage caused, do provide the game its own personality, and it is of note in how, not a game from Capcom and a developer who claimed dominance in this genre, it is from a developer working with Jaleco.  

Jaleco would invest more into the genre with the Rushing Beat trilogy for the SNES, but they are more of a case of a publisher/developer where the term "cult" is truly apt, titles if you recognize them standing out for their peculiar idiosyncrasies. There is, for example, Momoko 120% (1986), an arcade game where the titular lead shoots at strange creatures in burning buildings during various stages of life, from infancy to adulthood, to Game Tengoku – The Game Paradise! (1995), a game which has also been rediscovered and re-released too, a tribute to their own game library in a scrolling vertical shoot-em-up featuring characters like Momoko among other references. Sadly they are another company who do not exist as a working publisher, though thankfully their library is being released in pieces over time on multiple formats; they had games released in the West on numerous consoles up to the 2010s, but they feel another case of a company who were focused on their own homeland, considering one of their biggest series was Idol Janshi Suchie-Pai, a franchise of strip mahjong games.  C.P. Brain's history is sadly shorter, though they again contributed another of Jaleco's curious titles, one which got a release in the West and even a Retro-Bit Publishing Game Boy release for the original hardware, the 1992 curiosity Avenging Spirit, specifically the Game Boy conversation of the arcade game the one that got the limited edition cartridge in 2022². Getting to companies like this, you see these idiosyncratic personalities appear even in the same genres each company touched upon, and whilst not the best of the beat-em-ups at all, with later ones improving on the template greatly, 64th Street: A Detective Story, especially as a rare one which got a re-release, is a worthy title to still play.

 

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1) Old-School Brawler 64th Street: A Detective Story Is Coming To The Switch eShop Tomorrow, written by Damien McFerran, and published for Nintendo Life on October 28th 2020.

2) Retro-Bit Publishing's First Game Boy Release Will Include Glow-In-the-Dark Collectors Cartridge and Restored Endings, published for their site on May 31st 2022.