Beat. I don't think the developers of this game knew much about game design. The 1st stage was boring navigating a 2D vertical maze to the exit. Then repeat as if once was not enough fun. At least I can say the level graphics made it clear what was solid vs traversable. The bronze robots were not so noticeable. The live action character graphics did not match well with the environmental graphics, making the game look cheap. Worse, the character was over animated to the point of being somewhat awkward to control, and many moves have such a wind up as to be useless. Moving in one direction and suddenly changing direction caused the guy to enter a ridiculous 3 to 4 second long slowing down and turning around animation that prevented all control for the full duration, and almost certainly resulting in being hit by enemies. What the hell? Who designed this? You can stop moving and then turn instantly though. There is a jump kick, high kick, and uppercut that lock the character in place and have too long wind ups to be worth using, though I had to use the kick to hit some late game robots and hazards. Punch, shoot, low kick and jump were the only moves worth using. You only start with 6 bullets, and the enemies never drop bullets, rather they are pickups. The enemies also use quick melee attacks without enough tell to react, so I found the best strategy was to jump over and run away. If it had to be killed, jump back and forth over them and punch them in the back. Such exciting combat that perfectly matches the realistic graphics. I saved bullets for awkward positions and multiple enemies, and used them more liberally in the 3rd level of the stage where I actually got a decent amount.

Stage 2 was deep sea diving and really showcased the obnoxiousness of not having the screen scroll until the character had like 75% of it behind him. I would say that it was to simulate the reduced visibility of being under water, but the rest of the game had it as well, and it made it nearly impossible to see a threat quickly enough to react. This stage was full of octopus enemies the came out of nowhere and immediately swam up, while this stage disabled up and diagonal shooting. Stupid. There was plenty of ammo for a change and the gun was an auto rifle, but it could only shoot full auto. Tapping the button would not allow shooting single shots or bursts, instead I had to hold down the button. Stupid. This stage was quite dull and slow. I almost ran out of time by exploring in the wrong direction but then happened upon a convenient time pick up. Part 2 was a shoot em up in a sub, which was the best part of the game. The sub was way too big on the screen but the level was so easy as to be pointless. Then the giant octopus boss. It came right at me for melee attacks and both it and the sub were too big for the screen. How am I supposed to deal with this without taking significant damage? Oh it died. Well it is not really a boss then with health that low. Next came the 1930s mob level, which was the worst part of the game. The mobsters only shoot and can't hit you while ducking, so they are too easy. The car that keeps doing drive bys can't hit you if you duck or jump on the back of the car. But the guys in windows that shoot diagonally in full auto, can't be seen until it is too late to avoid getting shot. I had to listen for the automatic shots to know one was ahead and to know when to move up during the pause, all the while trying to deal with the other enemies. I had to restart this level twice because I ran out of time. Take it too slow to avoid damage and you will run out of time. Go too fast and you die. It was tough to find the right balance, knowing who to jump over, saving bullets and bombs for the window guys and occasionally getting on the car, but not staying too long. Then a repeat level with more ammo and fewer window guys. Why couldn't I have this much ammo in the previous level? Then another expansive maze with a robot boss. I had just enough bullets to kill it, but damn that turning around animation for when the robot jumped over me.

Then off to ww2 to fight Nazis. Without any bullets. It was here that I discovered the low kick because the mini artillery were too low to punch and the barbed wire was too long to jump over. Got bullets for the tank boss because a pistol is a good way to defeat a tank. I ran out of ammo 1st try because I did not know what to do. Like am I supposed to shoot the shells as they come out, or wait for a guy to pop out the hatch? Oh a few shots to the rear wrecks it. Didn't know shooting a tank in the brake light with a few pistol rounds was so devastating. Then back to the future for another big maze with lots of pointless dead ends. Find the big bad and low kick him into the corner until I won. He could not even hit me, but it took a while. Good I defeated the villain and this lousy game is finally over. Wait there is another stage? A simple level with new hazards where the beginning enemies suddenly learned how to crouch punch to counter my low kick. Or maybe they could do that all along and every other time I fought them the ceiling was not too low to jump over them. Then the final boss fight in jet packs with naval mines from the sub level floating in the air for some reason? Guess they really wanted to reuse that asset. This battle was stupid because the boss kept going off screen where I could not follow. So I ended up shooting him in the foot once then waiting for him to glide back down and trying not to send him flying so far that I could not predict where he would come down. Took a couple tries to figure out how to not send him too far off screen. This was not a good game and I was wavering on giving it a high 3 or low 4.

4.0/10