Taking it's cue from countless other action platformers, RoboCop puts
you in control of the slow moving metal-man hybrid thingy from the feature film. Your
large list of abilities include punching (only when close to an enemy of course), jumping,
and firing a gun with unlimited ammo. You'll walk right, constantly oppressed by street
thugs who must be wearing some sort of space-age bullet protective coating. These guys
don't quit for anything. Of course, a simple punch is enough to take down almost anyone so
it's generally the preferred method of killing when possible.
Enemies fall into the generic categories usually associated with games of this type. They launch grenades, fire their guns, and jump kick. Yes, jump kick. Why would anyone would attempt to beat down a metal cyborg with a jump kick? It does the most damage this side of the grenade chuckers. Go figure.
In between all of this action are little side games and/or bonus stages if you prefer. One has you recreating the hostage situation from the film (though you're unable to shirt through her skirt to the suspects "area") and another has you matching up a picture. The latter is infuriating since your time is limited, the controls inadequate, and not finishing it properly sends you all the way to the beginning of the action stage that preceded it. Actually, anytime you die you'll be sent back to the very beginning of the stage. Things are only made worse by a horrific difficulty that makes the game nearly impossible once you've made it to level three.
About the only thing this game does get right are the graphics and music. The RoboCop theme is replicated to the best of the consoles ability (save for the title screen song). RoboCop does look like himself and animates fluidly, but the street thugs are fairly lifeless. It's an early release for the system so a few first gen quirks are easy to forgive, except for that whole gameplay thing.
When a console has action games like Operation C, there's hardly room for licensee dredge like this. It's not horrific, but there's a glaring lack of care and the lead character could be anybody. The only thing truly "RoboCop" about this one is the title screen. Die-hard action fans may find something to like about this one, but they can certainly do better.
