Overall 6 Graphics 3 Sound 4 Addictive 1 Story 3 Depth 2 Difficulty 10
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Last Action Hero - One of the worst beat em ups on the SNES kenneth$2
Hi, ladies and gentlemen. This is a review about the often bashed and critically panned SNES game "Last Action Hero".
Is this version ANY good?
Read the review to find out.
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Graphics - 3
Oh boy.....this is not a good start. The graphics look bland and mediocre and not very detailed at all (especially Jack Slater, who doesn't
even LOOK like Jack Slater in the slightest). The graphics almost look like an NES game for Pete's sake. This is an SNES game; you would
THINK that the graphics would be at least on par with other 2D Beat Em Ups, but no, I guess Sony Imagesoft didn't care about quality in the slightest. If it wasn't for the fact that pretty much every SNES game (including this one) has parallax (that's multi-layered scrolling for those of you who don't know what parallax scrolling looks like), I would've thought that Last Action Hero on the SNES belonged on the NES - I mean, it certainly comes close to looking like an NES game.
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Sound - 4
I guess the sound TRIES to replicate that of the movie's soundtrack. While it isn't the WORST SNES soundtrack I've heard, it's definitely mediocre-sounding at best. Last Action Hero on the SNES does at least have several soundtracks (which sound fairly mediocre by SNES standards).
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Story - 3
Here's how the story goes: some magic ticket takes Danny Madigan (who's a protagonist, by the way) and Jack Slater (the character you're
playing as) back between the movie world and the real world. Benedict (the antagonist) tries to stop Jack Slater and kidnaps Danny Madigan in order to lure Jack Slater into a place of his choosing. Then stuff breaks loose. It's about as generic as you can expect.
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Depth - 2
If you expect a high amount of depth in this game.....you're wrong. All you get is a punch and a kick (unless you're playing the European version, which gives you a split kick and a duck kick in addition to the punch and kick.....NOTHING ELSE. You don't get ANY weapons, NO special moves, NO combos - NOTHING. Guess how useful the kick is? It is absolutely useless - the kick takes a second longer to activate than the punch (which you'll be using on every enemy AND boss that you come across (that is, if you care to play this game any longer than five minutes). Another thing: there's no split paths or RPG elements or anything like that. There IS the driving stage that comes during Stages 2 and 4, but we will talk about that in the "Difficulty" section. Not to mention that the repetitiveness of this game can drag on for far too long. The enemies themselves come in 4 versions: the baseball bat wielding enemy (who suspiciously looks like Ash Ketchum - because of the enemy's red cap, blue jacket/white shirt and blue jeans), the knife-wielding enemy (who has black hair, a white shirt and jeans and looks like a thug), the Molotov-throwing enemy (who's blonde and he wears a green shirt and black pants and acts like he's drunk or something) and the gun-wielding guys (who look like board directors gone bad). Now, it's true that most (if not every) 2D and 3D beat em up recycles (and reuses) the enemies and gives them colors. The problem is that this game uses 3 OUT OF THE 4 enemies you see in this game IN THE FIRST LEVEL!
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Difficulty - 10
Do you expect a fair 2D Beat Em Up? If so....do not play Last Action Hero for the SNES. This game is extremely unfair and extremely unforgiving (for ALL THE WRONG reasons). Let me tell why.
One: you don't get ANY weapons during ANY part of this game. You can't even PICK UP weapons from defeated enemies.
Two: the enemies ALWAYS have a longer range of attack than you do (because they have weapons and you don't).
Three: Like I said above, you get 2 moves (or 4 moves in the European version) at MOST.
Four: the hit detection is suspect at best - if you're too close to an enemy, you can't touch them.
Five: you barely get ANY health restoration power-ups at all.
Six: the health restoration power-ups you DO get barely even bump your health at all.
Seven: The time limit is strict and unforgiving (unless you're playing the European version). You may THINK that 255 seconds is more than enough to complete the beat em up/platformer parts, but no, because of the fact that you're CONSTANTLY punching enemies and the fact that they take SIX punches to go down, you'll probably (more likely than not) ACTUALLY time out the level and die as a result. Even if you do manage to get to the boss, I ALWAYS had like 40 or so seconds left on the clock. The bosses are easy enough, but the time limit will be low by the time you get to the boss (that is, IF you get to the boss).
Eight: In the driving stages, you can (and probably will die) in 1 hit from touching trucks and enemy cars . What you're SUPPOSED to do in the driving levels is to try and avoid the enemy cars, letting them blow up (which is ALWAYS lame), because if you even SCRATCH an enemy car, you'll die.
Nine: If you die for ANY reason (whether it's due to being timed out from the strict time limit or getting pummeled by 2 or 3 enemies at once or by being bored or by running into those trucks in the driving stages (which WILL happen), you go back to the VERY beginning....EVERY SINGLE TIME. Naturally, this would make most players actually use save states, because that's just stupid and unnecessary (not to mention, it makes this already ultra-repetitive game even MORE repetitive).
Ten: you don't even get ANY special moves - you don't earn specials, you don't steal specials, you don't even BUY specials! The point counter could have been used to BUY special moves and stuff (like in Spider-Man 2: The Movie for the Gamecube and PS2, which IS a very good movie-based beat em up - but I won't compare THAT beat em up to THIS one, because I believe that's unfair).
Eleven: Jack Slater controls sluggishly and is sluggish to respond (as if he was constipated and fat and had cement shoes on his feet). His attacks are fairly slow compared to the enemy's attacks.
Twelve: once 2 or more enemies start showing up, you're gone (unless you save state or jump around like a madman TRYING to avoid their blows). Like I said up above, the enemies ALWAYS have a longer range of attack than you and they ALWAYS have weapons). Also, be careful of the gun-wielding guys: one hit from their bullet will take out Jack Slater in 1 hit.
Thirteen: you only have 2 continues. (You do have 5 lives, but it's probably not going to matter, because you'll probably get bored within the first 5 minutes anyway).
Fourteen: You do have a big life bar, but the enemy's attacks do a significant amount of damage (which WOULDN'T be a huge problem IF
the other 13 reasons didn't TEAM up on you).
Fifteen: All 14 reasons I said up above WILL team up on you.
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Addictiveness - 1
This game is the OPPOSITE of addicting - it's super-boring, ultra-repetitive and not even REMOTELY fun. Not to mention, you're just going PUNCH PUNCH PUNCH constantly to the enemies in the beat em up/platformer stages (and driving around like an idiot in the driving stages). Here's the thing: it does get ANY better, either. The point counter is ABSOLUTELY useless too (then again, I don't care about high score to begin with, so it's not a loss to me).
Another thing: if you happen to use ZSNES to play this game, be warned: there's a glitch on stage 4 that WILL kill you in 1 hit NO MATTER WHAT YOU DO - the car that you drive BLOWS up for no reason at a certain point (I suppose it's due to bad emulation - which is not the game's fault (I THINK)), but it's a reminder of how mediocre this game is. I lost whatever interest in this game when that happened; I was fully done playing at that point. I might post the ZSNES Last Action Hero SNES glitch on my YouTube channel called "Video Game Glitch/Trick/Bug/Exploit/Quirk Man" to show it off.
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So, is this game worth playing? NO. It does not do ANYTHING to help the repetitiveness at ALL (or anything different). I can name SEVERAL SNES beat em ups right off the bat that are better than this: Final Fight, Final Fight 2, Final Fight 3, Rival Turf and the like. Avoid this game like the black plague.
Another thing: I TRY to see the positives of every game and I TRY to enjoy them. However, this game is as enjoyable as getting a root canal while an moderate-sized earthquake happens (which THANKFULLY doesn't happen very often where I live).
See you later (for another review).
Graphics 3 Sound 4 Addictive 1 Story 3 Depth 2 Difficulty 10
Review Rating: 3/5
Submitted: 03-18-19
Review Replies: 3
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