Dynamite Cop! for Sega Dreamcast

Remember Die Hard Arcade? AKA the "good" video game based off of the Die Hard movies? (That's probably because it originally had nothing to do with Die Hard. Any resemblance was a mere coincidence.) It was released in 1996 in the arcades using the ST-V (Sega Titan Video game system), and saw a home release a year later for Sega Saturn.

Die Hard Arcade is kind of what you would expect of you took Streets of Rage and turned it into a 3D game. There are battles in an isometric view with crazy weapons and ridiculous bosses, and a few QTE events for good measure.

What's this have to do with Dynamite Cop!? Well, Die Hard 2 was originally going to take place on a boat. Sega must've caught wind of this and began designing a sequel to the hit Die Hard Arcade. In the end Die Hard 2 ended up taking place in an airport, but Sega had developed a game on a boat on their Model 3 arcade board. Model 3, by the way, was a whole generation behind NAOMI, the arcade hardware that the Dreamcast is was based on.

Dynamite Cop! is exactly like Die Hard Arcade with improved graphics and a different "plot." Without the Die Hard moniker and the overall decline of arcades, it never became the hit that its predecessor was.

Nevertheless, Sega thought that it would be a fantastic idea to port Dynamite Cop! quickly to the Dreamcast, where it would be instantly overlooked, and immediately forgotten. Maybe this is why they left Charge 'N Blast and Virtual On: Ontario Tangram to be picked up by other publishers, and never even bothered to release Planet Harriers or Jambo! Safari (I'll never forgive them for passing up Planet Harriers.)

The game just looks antiquated. It's not up to the par of Dremacast caliber graphics at all. It's more comparable to an N64, to be honest. Sega made virtually no enhancements* for the home conversion. If they had, then the success if the game would've been different. Why? Because it's actually fun, especially when playing co-op, and for the same reasons why we loved Streets of Rage, Battletoads, and Double Dragon in years past. Classic beat-em-ups are fun, and that's what Dynamite Cop! is.

*The SEGA arcade game from 1980, Tranquilizer Gun, is included as a bonus feature. As far as I can tell, this game was never released for any console until 1999.