![]() ![]() It’s never a dull moment for the duo, and if only there was a special cabinet with mobile rotation hydraulics like OutRun, it could qualify as an amusement park thrill ride. Yet another has you gun down an enemy helicopter while plowing through a road under construction. Another area forces you to curb your speed as you crawl through a narrow alleyway full of gangsters who walk out of alleys and open fire. Try not to get distracted by the insanity of the setpieces, like driving through a mall as a potential classic homage to The Blues Brothers. You also need to watch for obstacles ahead, most frequently in the form of cars you just shot up. Grenades and Molotov cocktails frequently go flying, while time bombs and even bold criminals jump on your dashboard to cause mayhem. There are also motorcycles, helicopters, and one level even factors in dune buggies. You can either shoot all the thugs or shoot the cars’ bodies to get it out of the way, and you’ll often have to do both. Most of the time, you’re shooting at black cars where goons pop out of the windows to shoot or toss explosives. They’re fully automatic and never need to be reloaded, so there’s never any reason to not keep the trigger held down unless your finger gets really tired. Shooting is pretty simple thanks to secret advanced police technology that somehow gives your guns infinite ammunition. If so inclined, the cabinet potentially allows for Lucky to focus entirely on driving while Wild takes both guns simultaneously! Without having to worry about steering out of harm’s way, player two can better focus on their accuracy. Wild only gets a gun without any car control, which is a bit less exciting than Lucky’s double duty, but also considerably easier. Your goal in each level is to put the pedal to the metal and reach the boss, disabling their getaway vehicle with bullets before the time runs out. Whoever plays Lucky not only gets a gun (which appears to be some sort of machine pistol), but also gets control of the wheel. Working together to bust crime lord Big Cigar, our heroes throw out police procedure in favor of chasing baddies on roadways and shooting at their cars until they pull over. ![]() ![]() The heroes may bear a vague semblance to Ryu and Ken at first, but they are more likely modelled off of the buddy cop film Tango & Cash, starring Sylvester Stallone as Tango (Lucky) and Kurt Russell as Cash (Wild). The premise sees the eponymous detectives – the smooth and well-dressed Lucky, and the rugged long-haired Wild – take on gang leaders through six stages. Lucky & Wild wasn’t just an arcade shooter, but also a police pursuit/action movie simulator. Namco is certainly no stranger to lightgun games, as evidenced by the prior Steel Gunner and the later Point Blank and Time Crisis. Standing within the crossover zone between a Venn diagram of “Cop Shooting” and “Cop Driving” is Lucky & Wild, a product of the same illustrious nineties Namco period that gave us Exvania and the Outfoxies. Before any of the above, Taito had a modest success with Chase HQ, which is like OutRun plus ramming criminals’ cars until they break down. Lethal Enforcers and Virtua Cop made two-player criminal blasting a staple of arcades, and Policenauts is basically Space Lethal Weapon. The basic formula of “loose cannon cop and no-nonsense detective fight crime together” not only made for some great cinema, but this premise influenced multiple games. With the successes of 48 Hours and Lethal Weapon, the buddy cop film genre was thriving in the eighties and nineties. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |