Die Hard Arcade
Sega Saturn
Nostalgia Factor:
The first and last time I played Die Hard Arcade was back in 1996, when my family was on vacation in Orlando, Florida. Our resort had this game in its arcade and I would go down there and play it almost every day. Beat ‘em ups were one of my favorite types of games back then, and this was one of the first titles to bring that genre into the third dimension. Not only was this game groundbreaking in that regard, it was also chaotic and a lot of fun to play. Plus it was also made by Sega. I was a giant Sega loyalist back then so anything they put out, I was going to support. In fact, I often ignored other “better” beat ‘em ups like The Simpsons or X-Men just to showcase that support.
Despite playing this game a ton while I was on vacation, I never checked out its home port. I never saw it on the store shelves, nor did I encounter it when renting games. Saturn games, even in the system’s heyday, have always been hard to find – so I am sure it was just bad luck that Die Hard Arcade never made its way to any of my local stores.
I haven’t so much as even thought of this game until the last few weeks when I started looking into Saturn emulation technology. I used to think emulation was immoral, but then I realized that without it I probably never would have been able to play games like this again in my life.
Easy choice for me.
Story:
This game loosely, and boy do I mean loosely, follows the events of the first Die Hard movie. You play as John McClane as you are sent into a large building that looks suspiciously like Nakatomi Plaza, although the game never comes out and actually says that is what it is. Your goal is to rescue the president’s daughter from a group of terrorists that have taken over the building.
This group is led not by Hans Gruber, but by Wolf “White Fang” Hongo – an old Asian man with a white beard. Battle through all of the stages and defeat him at the end of the game, and you win. Yay!
There’s not much to this game’s storyline, obviously, but seeing as how this is a simple beat ‘em up we should know better than to expect much in that regard.
Gameplay:
You can play this game either solo or with a friend. As always, I played through this game solo for this review – as I currently don’t have anyone in my life who would even remotely be interested in playing this. Channing, I can’t wait for you to be old enough to play video games with me! Gah!
Anyway, when the game begins you automatically assume control of John McClane. If you have a second player with you, that player will take control of Kris Tompsen – John’s never before seen partner. I would have liked the option to select which character you want to play as in single player mode – but unfortunately that’s not allowed.
The premise of this game is very, very simple: beat up and destroy everyone who gets in your way. You’ll do that in a myriad of ways – but mainly with your fists and your legs. As you progress throughout the game, you’ll gain access to weapons. And this is where the game gets crazy. Nearly everything you see can be used as a weapon, from the usual beat ‘em up staple of barrels to other things like TV monitors, mops, and grandfather clocks. If you see it, you can probably pick it up and throw it.
The action is chaotic and pretty much nonstop. Don’t expect anything too dynamic, however. Action normally consists of beating a bunch of enemies in one room – at which point the screen fades to black and you take on another group of enemies in a different room. You can’t really travel freely from left to right like other beat ‘em ups such as Final Fight or the TMNT games. As a result, this game just feels like a series of battles that take place in one room after another – which is really not too far from the truth.
The one wrinkle thrown at you is the ability to perform Quick Time Events. Tap the button flashing onscreen as you are watching a cinematic and you can escape certain battles altogether. Fail, and it’s off to the battle arena for you.
You’ll face a series of normal enemies, but most areas end with a fight against a boss character. Remember in the first Die Hard movie when John McClane got into a fight with a bunch of robot spiders? What about the part where he massacred a group of sumo wrestlers with a rocket launcher? Yeah, yeah. I know it doesn’t happen in the movie. But it sure happens here.
I’ve read reviews where the main criticism of this game is that it is too easy. When I first fired this game up, I expected to cruise through it with no problems. But you only start with four credits, and that is not nearly enough to be able to beat this game. You lie, online reviewers! In order to have a fair shot at beating this game you have to earn more credits. You do that by playing an old Sega arcade game called Deep Scan. In this game, you are a warship and it is your job to drop bombs on submarines in the water below you. You nab one extra credit for every 200 points you earn. And if you die, you don’t lose those extra credits. You can fire Deep Scan right back up again and look to add to your credits total.
I earned 19 credits and when I played the actual game, I ended up beating it with just one credit left. I played through it a second time and it only took 13 credits. I’d say if you are looking to beat this game for the first time, try to earn somewhere around 20 credits in Deep Scan before diving into the actual game.
Graphics:
Part of me thinks this game looks awesome and another part of me thinks it does not. Growing up in the 90s, I am used to these early experimental 3D graphics. I know a lot of people say that games from this era haven’t aged well, but I beg to differ. I think the characters in this game are just oozing with charm. The lifeless expressions, the flickering polygons. I love it.
But at the same time, I couldn’t help but laugh at the graphics from time to time. The animations in the cutscenes are just SO BAD. I can’t tell if Sega made these scenes intentionally bad or what was going on. I won’t even mention the voice acting, which I’ll get to in my next segment.
The in-game environments are filled with fun details. If you can see it, you can probably destroy it. The fire truck stage is one of my favorites. A little touch that I found humorous is when you are fighting in the bathroom and as you are slamming people into things, you can make out toilet paper rolls flying around or rolling along the ground. I had a good chuckle at that.
Sound:
This is one of those games where you aren’t going to remember ANY of its music when you are done playing. Not that this game has a bad soundtrack. It doesn’t. In fact it fits the fast-paced onscreen action pretty well. That doesn’t make it memorable, though. The sound effects are fine, filled with all kinds of satisfying punch and kick noises.
That voice acting, though. My god. It makes the notoriously bad voice acting in the original Resident Evil look terrific. I can’t even describe how bad it is. Fire up some clips of this game on YouTube and see (or I guess, hear) it for yourself.
Overall:
I’m a little torn on this title. It’s short. It’s shallow. It has no replay value. The cinematics are laughably bad. I don’t have a whole lot of sentimental feelings for this game and it will probably be a very long time before I revisit it again.
But at the same time I also can’t help but admire this game. In an era where beat ‘em ups were a dime a dozen, Die Hard Arcade broke the mold with its 3D graphics and highly interactive environments. There are so many things you can use as weapons and so many creative ways to defeat your enemies. And while the game is short, it’s also undeniably fun at the same time - particularly if you are playing with a second person. I challenge you to play this title with a friend and tell me you didn’t have a good time. Another plus for this game is just how “Sega” it is in every facet of the game. The graphics, the controls, the presentation. This game is a microcosm of many of the things that mid-90s Sega tried to do. All it is missing is cheesy singing for the stage music!
Look, I understand that this isn’t a great game. It has a lot of flaws. But I don’t care. I’d recommend this title to anyone who is into beat ‘em ups or cooperative two player games. You just have to appreciate this game for what it is: a flashy, over the top, shallow, and SHORT beat ‘em up title. If you know what you’re getting into, you’ll probably have good time with this game. Enjoy it while it lasts, though, because once you’re done with it there is little reason to come back.
"Guilty pleasure" perfectly describes Die Hard Arcade.
Final Score:
C+
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