Dick Tracy (Genesis) Playthrough - NintendoComplete

A playthrough of Sega's 1990 license-based platforming beat 'em up/shooter for the Sega Genesis, Dick Tracy.

Played through on the normal difficulty setting.

Sega's Dick Tracy, released on both the Genesis and the Master System, was just one of several games that appeared based on the 1990 comic-turned-film: different games bearing the license appeared on the NES, Game Boy, Amiga, and Dos PC, amongst others. The Genesis version, however, is the one that not only comes the closest to mirroring the "feel" of the movie, but it's also the best playing of the bunch.

The game is unique in that most of the time you have to focus on two separate planes. In the majority of stages, Tracy walks from left-to-right in search of his next clue, firing his pistol at any of the goons that cross his path, but in the game's most novel gameplay twist, you must also pay attention to enemies that appear in the background and begin firing "into the screen" at you - to fight these guys, you fire your Tommy gun at the background, spraying and praying that you hit them before they hit you... or before someone runs up right next to you and stabs you while you're distracted. Keeping track of both at the same time gets pretty tricky toward the end since the game does its utmost to overwhelm you in the final few stages.

There are also stages in which the game decides you shouldn't carry a gun, leaving you with nothing but your fists to take out threats. There are also car-chase scenes that have Tracy hanging onto the side of his car firing at goons that attack as they speed by. They're fast and pretty exciting, though they tend to be far less forgiving than the other stage types.

If I had to compare it to another game, I'd say it probably most closely resembles a mixture of Shinobi and Cabal with some Lethal Enforcers sprinkled on too.

Even though the game starts out going easy on you, it doesn't stay that way for long. The bosses tend to be easy throughout, but the real trick lies with getting to them. There's a rhythm to tackling each of the stages, and until you figure it out, you'll find yourself bleeding out on the street pretty often. The challenge is a large part of the fun though, and rarely gets frustrating.

Like Sega's other early Genesis-era license-based games, Dick Tracy looks and sounds great. The cutscenes are an excellent tribute to the old-school comic style, and the backgrounds and enemies look appropriately gritty. The graphics all tend to get recycled a fair amount through the game, but that's pretty typical for older arcade-style titles.

I absolutely give Dick Track a thumbs up. It's not easy, it's not particularly long, and once you've mastered it there's little reason to return, but the novel gun mechanics and the constant nods to the source material make it a lot of fun to play - much more so than the Bandai DT game on the NES!
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No cheats were used during the recording of this video.

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