Ah Dick Tracey. That name takes me back to the early 90’s quite well. As this episode of The Angry Video Game Nerd explains in its opening, Dick Tracey was a major motion picture release in 1990, based off of a somewhat obscure comic strip from the 30’s. While there had been other media based on this character, the 1990 Warren Beatty Film was a pretty big deal in its time, although quickly forgotten. Of course, it got its own NES game, which is what James will be focusing on here.
This is another one of those “genuine” Nerd episodes where James covers a game from his youth. He, like many back in the 1990-1991 frame, quite enjoyed the character and (I can presume) the film to such a degree that he even dressed up as Dick Tracey for Halloween in 1991. Naturally, he just had to try the NES game when he discovered it existed, but as you can imagine from it being here, it wasn’t a good experience.
So, on to the main review, after the Nerd explains a bit of his history with the franchise and makes the obligatory “dick” jokes, he fires up the game. It doesn’t look too bad at first — the style is good, it has a key mechanic that seems to work, with you acting as a detective, but then things go south. The driving controls are a mess, everything seems to damage you and you really can’t fight back, navigation is nearly impossible — it’s an all around mess, and since this is so critical to the game, well, it doesn’t make for a fun time.
Then come the platforming sections. Things get weird here, an odd mix of hyper realism (don’t shoot unarmed people) and typical game absurdity (punching people who fly around like a hockey puck!) Difficulty stays high here, with poor level design adding to the annoyances. Limited lives, the lack of status overview screens, slightly unclear directions as to how to progress, things just keep adding up against the game.
Interestingly, this episode has a couple of later edits added in, explaining a few aspects of the game which James didn’t understand when he originally did the review — one covering taking out the “snipers” on the roof, the other addressing how to restore health in the game which is far more confusing than it should be.
After trying as hard as he can to complete the first level of the game, the Nerd has had his limit, going off on one of the most excessive rants so far! Seriously, he loses it in way that reminds me of a 7 year old throwing a tantrum! It’s hilarious, yet sad at the same time. It ends with a rather hilarious scene involving a power drill, though, so we do go out on a laugh.
Final Rating: 3.5/5
An all around decent episode. Oddly, it’s almost stressful to watch, as this one is based on both James’ feeling when he was 10, and his feeling as an adult playing the game — he clearly was frustrated by it back in 1991 as much so as he was when recording the episode. It kind of hurts how much, as a gamer, one can related to this frustration and childhood memories of games enraging us, but then again that’s why the Nerd struck such a chord with so many gamers — we’ve all been there. It’s a strange one, really.
Enjoy.