Virtua Cop

Action 1995 Windows SEGA Shooter Arcade style

Shallow but enjoyable classic from the SEGA stable

Sega returned to its successful Virtua brand with this exciting and intense 3D shooter that takes the old-school thrills of Operation Wolf and updates it with 1990s-style graphics. Masterminded by Yu Suzuki, the creator of many of Sega's classics, from Space Harrier and Afterburner to Shenmue, Virtua Cop is a simple enough game but which is no less enjoyable for that fact. Players take the role of Michael Hardy and James Cools (worst names ever?) and are charged with bringing down an evil crime syndicate that is causing mayhem. This is basically an excuse for is copious amounts of on-rails blasting action, which sees Hardy and Cools gunning down criminals in a diverse set of environments. No shooter would be complete without a set of weapons to make your average action movie star jealous, so aside from the starting six-shooter, you also have access to shotguns and machine guns for that little extra excitement. Virtua Cop was undoubtedly a pioneering title, with its groundbreaking use of 3D polygon graphics and while the game remains quite enjoyable, it has dated somewhat. The graphics now look cartoonish and crude, with wildly oversized and out of proportion characters that are more comical than they are threatening. Fortunately, the gameplay has aged better and it remains a solid slice of action gaming. The original arcade game was played with lightguns and if you can find one, then this is by far the best way to experience it now as a keyboard and mouse just don't cut it (and with a second player as well). As a classic slice of arcade fun, this is a fun experience but its lack of depth soon shows so it might not be long before you move on to something else.

Original arcade gallery shooter by SEGA.

Another fantastic AM2 arcade title from SEGA. Virua Cop is one of the utmost challenging arcade ported shooters out there for the PC, as you can only control your gun lighting reflexes are a must to stay alive and kill of the criminals around the city, but watch out you can loose lives by shooting innocent hostages and bystanders. There are 3 difficulty modes to choose from "Easy, Normal and Expert", these modes also change the level to mix things up. Many levels have breakable objects and hidden weapons like machine guns, SMGs and shotguns, which keeps the game interesting and makes killing the criminals quicker. At the end of each level you'll reach the boss, who will try to defeat you with rockets or other crazy weapons and objects, you must defeat each boss to move onto the next stage. As this game was an original Arcade title with lightguns, playing the game with the mouse dies down the challenge a little as you always know where you're aiming, lightguns for PC are available and totally recommended for this title. SEGA AM2 also ported the sequel Virtua Cop 2. The game is rather short sadly and could of done with some extra levels for PC as you play with the mouse. If you're a SEGA fan like myself, you should try this one out :)

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