Developer: Sega AM1 Publisher: Sega Released: March 1997 Genre: Action
The advent of 3d brought many innovations to existing genres. Some like the 2d platformer even evolved, one could even say for the better. But in the march of progress some genres were left behind. I will always lament the loss of the side scrolling beat ‘em up, even if the genre was a little bit stale. The few that came out on the PlayStation and Saturn were not very good. One of the more interesting was Die Hard Arcade, an arcade brawler that did the “license” justice and only suffers due to a lack of content.
I put “license” in quotations for a reason. In Japan the game is called Dynamite Deka, and has nothing to do with Die Hard, supposedly. One need only look at the characters and setting to see where Sega got its inspiration. Stop me if you have heard this before: terrorists have taken over a skyscraper in order to raid its vault. Only one man (or woman) is on hand to stop them as they slowly make their way up the tower to stop their forces. To be fair they’ve also kidnapped the president’s daughter but let’s be honest, they are not fooling anyone. Sega of America wisely got the appropriate license and off we go.
Even though Die Hard Arcade is a brawler it feels more like a side scrolling Virtua Fighter. Character movement, animation, and flow seem near identical which has its drawbacks. You don’t necessarily move around; like a fighting game your character always faces left or right and hunches forward in the general direction you press. It has the same floaty jumping physics as Virtua Fighter, leaving jumping attacks as filler or a last resort. It is awkward at first but does have its merits in terms of its combat mechanics however.
Die Hard Arcade’s greatest asset is its humongous move set. The fighting engine feels like it was lifted from Yu Suzuki’s classic and lends the game a level of diversity the majority of games in the genre can only dream of. Aside from the standard punch and kick combos there is an extensive grappling engine. The available moves change depending on where you grab the enemy and when you do button combinations in the middle of a combo. There is an even a reversal engine although everything happens so fast they are usually a happy accident. In terms of its fighting engine Die Hard Arcade is close to what I’ve always wanted in the genre.
It sounds complex and to an extent it is. But you don’t need to engage with the majority of it if you so choose. Every group of enemies carries multiple weapons, from pipes to pepper spray to rocket launchers. Hand guns and extra clips are in ready supply as well, making the game feel like a prototype for the later Zombie Revenge. The massive number of weapons at every turn almost makes it seem as though the designers did not want you to engage in fisticuffs. It is entirely possible to work through the majority of the game without throwing a single punch if you so choose. It is not realistic mind you but doable.
Die Hard Arcade has everything it needs to be a fantastic 3d brawling experience. There is only one problem: it is over too soon. Owing to its status as an arcade game first the entire game is over in less than thirty minutes. Each level is a series of small arenas featuring a few enemies before you move on. The levels usually consist of three or four of these before ending in a brutal boss battle. To be fair most brawlers aren’t that much longer in general. But something like Streets of Rage 2 feels much more substantial than this. If you get good at the game it’s even shorter. It was typical to add extra modes or levels to arcade ports during that period to increase the game’s value. Die Hard Arcade has nothing, making it an all too brief experience with no reason to go back to it.
The difficulty can be hard to gauge. As in most brawlers the game can be extremely cheap. Stuns are long, it takes a long time to recover when knocked down and damage values are ridiculous. Bosses can drain 76% of your health in one combo. On the flip side with the number of weapons you can clear out a room in minutes. You get a single life and five credits which go quick. But you can play Death Tank as long as you want and earn more credits than you know what to do with in ten minutes, allowing you to cruise through the game. Some may argue that it isn’t meant to be played that way and purity and all that other elitist bullshit. But how many realistically adhere to that.
In Closing
Die Hard Arcade is a borderline great game that only suffers from its brevity. It is fun while it lasts although that time is brief. A good $5 title but not something I recommend you spend more on.
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