52. Virtua Cop

(Arcade/Saturn/PC/PS2, AM R&D Department, 1995)
When a gang of heavily armed square faced criminals are planning to hold a weapons deal on the docks, what do you do? Well, If you're the Virtua City Police Department, you just send in two guys who are hanging around the station, don't worry, they supply them with kneepads. KNEEPADS. Gee, thanks.

Virtua Cop hit the arcades in the mid 90's as part of Sega's ground breaking "Virtua" series. Tackling various genres this series, though a little rough around the edges, would build the foundations of many Sega releases for years to come and would be an important selling point of their new Saturn console.
Virtua Cop has one or two players taking on the evil EVL corporation (not a typo) Arriving at three crime scenes, VCPD's finest Lego looking officers blast their way through the criminals whilst avoiding the comically voiced innocent civilians who, as usual, feel the need to leap into your line of fire as opposed to keeping their heads down "DON'T SHOOT ME!"
After taking down the EVL corp. The players must battle the syndicate's boss to finally free blocko-land from crime.

Virtua Cop redefined the lightgun shooter, using huge polygons, an auto targeting zoom effect and an innovative 3D rail route that took the players in and around the locations, a far cry from the usual fixed side scrolling camera and slide into view baddies. The enemy also reacted to the placing of the shots, from dropping his gun from his exploding hand to a John Woo style spin through the air. For a generation of lightgun users attuned to their victims falling backwards slightly and flickering, it was an exciting time indeed. Especially if you could get over the fact VC looked like Lethal Enforcers meets a Dire Strait's video.

Virtua Cop has its issues, the gangsters all look very similar and the game is only three stages long, but this is more due to the limits of the technology at the time than anything else. The soundtrack is cliched and cringe-inducing at points but, as a 90's Sega arcade, this is to be expected.
Virtua Cop was a ground-breaking title that would spawn a great second and not so great third sequel. The game is still incredibly satisfying to play and whilst the game's square faced, badly coloured characters might be hilarious to look at now, it cannot be denied that it was a critical turning point for the lightgun genre that, had AM R&D not evolved it right here, may not be around today...

...and a world without House Of The Dead is a world I would denounce.