Internet Arcade: Crime City

Crime City is an action and platform shooter game developed and published by Taito in 1989. Taito System is a software system developer and device system engineering company based in Yokohama Japan. Although founded by Micheal Kogan in 1953, the company did not majorly start manufacturing until 1972. Taito was a leading video game developer during the early days of arcade video games, releasing mega franchises such as Elevator Action, Space Invader, Bubble Bobble, Arkanoid and Qix. In 2005, Taito was acquired by Square Enix and transformed into a wholly owned subsidiary of its new owner. Currently, the company is still in operations and they own a chain of arcades in Japan called “Game Taito Stations”.

Crime City is a one or two player 2D scrolling shooter game where you get the view of the game from the behind and side perspective. The game narrative is a criminal action, you control the protagonist name Tony (and Raymond in a two player game) around a city and your objective is to look for the gang leaders and arrest them. Tony is a crime fighter of sorts, due to increasing crime rate and lack of justice in his city, the hero has taken the law into his hands.

The game is in six stages and each stage is played in scenes. Tony has 2 minutes to clear each scene. These scenes take place in several locations, which further insinuate the narrative and makes the gameplay quite interesting. The first stage starts off as a beat ‘em up the game, the protagonist has no personal weapon of his own, but he can collect from anyone among the hordes of criminals shooting at him. Shortly after, the platform part of the game comes to the screen. The player can now jump crates stacked on the road and cranes hanging from ships on the docks along his way. Apart from collecting guns from hoodlums to defend himself, Tony can dock gunshots fired at him. He can also hide behind objects big enough to serve as cover. Because Tony is not invincible, the gameplay allows him to pick up powers ups to give him an advantage over numerous hostiles he is going to encounter. Power-ups include a weapon upgrade, health boost, and bullets. All stages in this game have a boss which Tony must beat before he can exit the scene. Points are awarded for each hostile the hero kills and your score is displayed at the top of the screen. At the end of the game, high scores can be saved with your name.