Dick Tracy is probably best known for its comic, which is one of the longest-running comics in American history, and for the live-action film released in 1990. The film did a great job translating the kind of action and mystery seen in the comic strip to the big screen, and it received a relatively positive reception from critics and consumers alike. The comic strip took an interesting angle that wasn't seen very often in the comic books of the time, and it's still running even to this day. But, like every other popular film of its time, Dick Tracy had to be turned into a Nintendo game. How well did they do?

To start with, the graphics clearly had a lot of effort put into them. They're dark and stylish, and make excellent use of the limited NES color palette. Every location has its own individual look to it, which helps to make each location feel like an actual location instead of a bland backdrop. If you enter a nightclub, there'll be a lot of bars and barstools, as well as chairs in the background, and a garage will have a lot of vehicles in the background that can be used as platforms.

The sound, on the other hand, didn't see as much attention as the graphics. The songs fit perfectly to their respective situations, and are great to listen to...until you realize that they're the only songs in the game. There's only one song for fighting, one song for driving around the streets of the city, one song for the police station, etcetera. It gets a bit tiring to hear the exact same song for every combat section, no matter how fitting it is to the situation. The sound effects are decent, but nothing to write home about - everything sounds just like it should, and nothing more.

The first problem comes as soon as you leave the first police station. The driving feels awkward, and the car shares the same life bar as Tracy himself, which doesn't make much sense. You have to constantly be on the watch for snipers on the rooftops, which are tiny, indistinct objects on the roofs of buildings. The first time you see them, you probably won't realize they're supposed to be enemies! They do a great job of draining your life really quickly unless you get out of the car and shoot them, which is a chore because of their tiny size. The snipers were honestly a useless addition to the game.

The sidescrolling isn't the greatest, either. You have two options for most encounters in the game: punching or shooting. There isn't much variety in weaponry, and the game limits you even more by draining a large amount of life if you ever shoot someone who isn't armed. The game also focuses on platforming, which is awkward to do because of the stiff jumping controls.

For the most part, the case-solving is well-done, but there's a few issues that I had. I really didn't like that the game sometimes makes you repeat entire areas to be able to arrest the culprits of each case. The car chases, which are required to progress, are guaranteed to make you take damage, especially if you didn't make sure to clear out all the nearby snipers first. Some of the cases also expect you to do completely off-the-wall things that you'd never think of doing otherwise, like exploring an out-of-the-way pier to find a hypnotism booklet.

There's also some issues with Tracy's notepad. It's there so that you can check the clues you've collected up to that point, in case the clue contains some information that you missed, but it doesn't record everything that it should. If you interrogate a criminal, you'd better remember what they tell you, because Tracy doesn't think to write it down in his notepad, and you need that information to continue.

Now, with the snipers and gunfights draining your life, is there a way to restore it? Yes, there is, but it just showcases the boneheaded design decisions even more. You can find first aid, in the form of a heart, in some areas of the game, although it's rare. Question is, how do you use the first aid? You can't use it with B like the rest of the items in the game, so what do you do? Hold B and push Select! Now how would you guess that? Not only is it difficult to guess, but it's incredibly awkward to do in the middle of a gunfight!

Now, the clues are there to lead you in the direction of the culprit of each case, and they tend to do a decent job of doing that...but this game wants you to be as thorough as possible for no good reason. You have to make sure to get EVERY clue, or else you won't be allowed to arrest the culprit, no matter what evidence you have. Even if you have a bunch of evidence that proves that the culprit is the only one who could possibly have done it, you'll be rejected and told to collect more evidence.

This game gets really hard really fast. After the first three levels, the difficulty spikes upwards like you wouldn't believe. The cases become a bit more cryptic, and the gunfights become far more difficult, with most enemies either having machine guns or incredible speed that you can't get away from. At the same time, you only have one life, and it's game over as soon as Tracy dies. You can use a password to start from the beginning of a case, but you won't have any of the items you need to survive. Despite all that, the final boss is a complete disappointment whose only difference from the average thug is that he takes 20 shots to kill.

Overall, Dick Tracy represents a lot of wasted potential. It could've been a hidden gem on the NES, with its emphasis on crime-solving along with crime-fighting, but its numerous issues prevent it from being one of the NES greats. With the annoying snipers, Tracy's faulty memory, the pickiness of the game when it comes to evidence, and many other issues, I can't really recommend this one to the average player. Don't go for this one unless you really like sidescrollers and crime-solving gameplay similar to L.A. Noire. The AVGN reviewed this game, and I agree with him that it's really not worth your time.

Final Rating - 5 annoying snipers out of 10

NovemberJoy : Good review!