Games of the Abstract: Dynamite Cop (1998)

 

a.k.a. Dynamite Deka 2

Developer: AM1

Publisher: Sega

Arcade / Sega Dreamcast

One to Two Players

 

Sadly, by the time of the Millennium, certain genres lost their grip as popular game types you could produce a vast quality within, one such example the beat-em-up. Games in this genre were still being made in the 2000s, past the time that Sega would bow out of the hardware industry, but alongside the decline of arcades and the emphasis on genres which allowed for longer "value-for-money", another factor to consider is that the transition to polygonal dimensions sadly was a nightmare for integrating certain genres from the sprite era with their same crispness and fluency. Even if beat-em-ups in 2D still created a sense of space where you could fight enemies at a time, polygonal space within this genre could easily struggle with, to the point tellingly (even if it might be the difficulties of making a three dimensional game on an independent budget) why returns to this genre like Fight'N Rage (2017) are both with a nostalgic mindset to their 2D aesthetic but also looking at the wiser choice for solid gameplay. In the case of Dynamite Cop however, you can see with Sega how you can manage a polygonal brawler, in mind its prequel was as successful, and have absolutely fun with create it at the same time.

There is the curious history to the pair to first consider, and it is apt to bring up as this game is ridding itself of a good marketing choice for the original. This is Dynamite Deka 2, but that it is known as Dynamite Cop without a sequel number in the West comes with the knowledge that the original 1996 Dynamite Deka ended up becoming the desire to remake the 1988 film Die Hard as a brawler, set in a skyscraper rescuing the president's daughter, with a noticeable Bruce Willis stand-in as the male character. Thankfully, rather than be sued for this, Sega had the rights for the Die Hard license and turned that game, for Western arcades and its Sega Saturn port, into Die Hard Arcade. In Japan, Sega already established this as their own distinct franchise, but imagining someone who had that Saturn port, this would have been like Sega, realising this one good licensing idea would have not been practical for sequels, having to flesh the virtues of that first game out without the marketing behind it. Even down to redesigning their Bruce Willis stand-in for this game, thought that version is an unlockable, this is an attempt to take all the virtues of original game and openly embrace more of Sega's delightfully eccentric sense of fun.

Dynamite Cop is a short game, though the Dreamcast version offers additions exclusive to its conversion, but it has a gleefully over-the-top game loop. With a solid structure to it, and the game still a challenge, this like the best of the beat-em-up genre is worth returning to over and over. There are also three ways to play the game, three ways to begin the mission, of rescuing the president's daughter again like the first game off a cruise ship, and whilst they do follow similar plot threads and bosses, they are all with their own idiosyncrasies adding something different. There is also the fact that the combat system is solid, one which is more explicitly from the fighting game genre, with more moves at hand and the ability to vary the combos, making this thankfully a varied game in style. The funniest thing, before you get to the weirdness that creeps into the story, is the series' taste for the requisite weapons and items to throw at enemies in this genre. Knowing you can lift your unconscious enemies up by their legs and bash them around or into their allies is a good sign, as is being able to use giant fish, deck chairs, arcade machines, brooms and your standard weapons before you get to the fire arms. Even those lead to rocket launchers, one laser gun and a couple of anti-tank missile launchers that are a cloud producing crowd clearer. Surprisingly throwing coins from slot machine cups and pepper is just as effective as weapons even if they take longer than the missile launcher to down opponents.

It is Sega being goofy, and this is usually also when they are at their best, as one can attest to the fact that whilst still a challenge, it does not feel like an insurmountable one, the kind of game where you have images you will remember with ease. When you are fighting a killer chef, who keeps a box of grenades in the fridge, or you can beat by lobbing apples at his head, I at least find this far more entertaining than if it had tried to be serious. The inventive nature this sense of humour provides to the gameplay means a lot, and this was in mind that the prequel was already fun its tone, including the Quick Time Event mini-games where, if you press the right button, you can skip sections of conflict with the comedic bonus of swatting an enemy out of the way, something which this follows with including additional mini-games of avoiding objects and the incentive as you are doing so of collecting health. Dynamite Cop decided however to embrace its weirdness further, with its motley crew of men in shark and crab costumes, ghost buccaneers who can split in half and duplicate themselves, and a final boss who thought revenge was bolting cybernetics onto himself. Tellingly this is a beat-em-up where, in all runs, you fight a giant squid as a mid-game boss.

Sadly the second sequel - Dynamite Deka EX: Asian Dynamite (2006) - never got a port outside the arcades nor reached the West, a lost Sega title in terms of this period where, sadly, Sega would bow out of the hardware development industry and be releasing titles on even their rival Nintendo's machines. Sadly, many games from the era from them, just in terms of arcade games, are not readily available and only emulation has really preserved many, and Asian Dynamite for all its distinct changes, from a Chinese developer working under Sega,  is as much a remake of Dynamite Dekka 2 as it has its own distinct touches. There is something to be said for this time of Sega games that is sadly lost, where even the Dreamcast port includes an old Sega arcade game as an extra - Tranquilizer Gun (1980), which is going to raise eyebrows as a game where you sedate wild animals with ones tranquilizer rifle and drag them back to the truck for points - that spark of fun and creation to these types of games which left in a lot of ways when Sega were no longer a hardware developer and allowed to indulge.