Dirty Harry
System: NES
Release Date: December 1990
Developer: Gray Matter Inc.
Publisher: Mindscape
Genre: Action
Go ahead, punk… Make my day in Dirty Harry! The Dealmaker has taken over as kingpin of the Bay area and is benefiting from the dearth of police on the force. But as quickly as he rocketed to the top, he was taken down by the Anaconda. Enter Inspector Harry Callahan, who wants to put an end to the Anaconda’s reign with a swiftness. There are three sprawling levels for you to tackle, killing torrents of bad guys along the way.
Harry has to make his way through the streets and buildings of the city. Along the way, he’ll encounter countless numbers of gang members who are out for his blood. Controls are okay at best. You can throw punches by pressing the B Button and kick if you press up and the B Button. I think the kicks are a bit stronger. Kicks are also how you open up crates in the background of rooms. Jumping is done by pressing the A and B Buttons simultaneously. You need to do a lot of jumping to get around each stage, and also to open crates on the floor, and get this white suit.
Harry also comes equipped with his .44 Magnum, which has a limited number of bullets. Enemies are strewn about the stage and like to respawn any time you come back on screen. Shooting them is a quick way to get rid of them, but you’ll run out of bullets if that’s all you rely on. You can find ammo refills in the wild. Plastic explosives are required to open safes in buildings. The streets are a maze I couldn’t figure out. The manual says I have to make it to the sewers to make it to the next level, but I didn’t find the right entrance and only met dead ends.
Graphics: 1.0
Sprites don’t look good, animations are horribly stilted, but the backgrounds are kind of neat.
Sound: 1.0
Music and sound effects are really crappy.
Gameplay: 1.0
Doing anything is a chore. Things kind of work, but it’s bad.
Difficulty: 0.5
The enemies are never ending and I had no clue how to get to the end of the level.
Fun Factor: 0.5
I didn’t enjoy this at all.
Overall Rating: 0.8
Dirty Harry earns a D. I was hoping to get lucky and find something entertaining, but it didn’t happen. I only met a bunch of punks…