99. Under Fire

(Arcade, Taito, 1993)
Over this blog you will soon come to realise that I have a passion for "taking the streets back" games, where no good punks finally come up against a force that's decided its time to clean up. Many arcade games in the early 90s had this theme, but Oh boy, Taitos Under Fire was on a par with William's NARC in its portrayal of "zero tolerance"

Hot on the heels of the success of Konami's Lethal Enforcers, Under Fire was a lightgun game following the same principals; On-rails shooter, digitised graphics, badguys in sunglasses, car chase level etc. Under Fire however, was pure MAYHEM.
The player was a member of the "Special Police" and armed with an Mp5 style gun, mowed down hordes of repetitive members of a gang that the intro tells us "They(sic) called Hoppers." Gang members ranged from Sid Vicious style punks and little black dress chicks to some fat dude in a suit. Innocents charged across the screen screaming "Don't shoot!" whilst cars exploded, windows and doors shattered and running battles went from fighting a biker gang driving INSIDE a supermarket to a bullet fest in a fairground complete with rollercoaster ride. SOLD.
Pickups included shotgun blasts and rapid fire magazines. Players gunned through to a confrontation with the gangs boss in a skyscraper penthouse.

I remember completing this game on holiday once with an audience gathering, right on the final boss I ran out of credits and some kid I didnt even know gave me 50p just so we could all watch the conclusion. True story.

The graphics were blocky and the sound was insanely repetitive (despite some groovy jazz tunes) all the bad guys scream "YAAAAHH!!" and bizarrely, "WHADDYA THINK OF THAT?" as they pop up. Under Fire lacks the polish and slickness of Lethal Enforcers, but, as a total "crime doesn't pay" trigger massacre, they simply don't come more violently manaiacal than this.