The Final Word game review

Demolition Man -- Virgin

Based on the major motion picture, Demolition Man features digitized movie footage, as well as additional footage from Sylvester Stallone and Wesley Snipes. The mixed-media play environment includes lightgun-compatible shooting galleries, one-on-one sidescrolling fighting scenes, action-racing scenes and Doom-like tunnel scenarios. Closely following the movie plotline, players must struggle to save a world of the future from unspeakable violence with unspeakable violence in this action game for the 3DO.

Ferrari Man
DM was Stallone's best movie... Maybe even his best game. But that doesn't take you very far. The shooting scenes were fast, graphical and fun. The FMV was clear, and interesting. Everything else about the game sucked. The fighting scenes were almost unplayable. The action was gone, and the driving scenes... Well let's just say that I've seen better on the old Atari 2600. Maybe next time guys.

E.Phoenix
Maybe they should have entitled this game Demolition Scam. The programmers of DM attempted to utilize five different game engines to make it diverse and interesting. They have failed on all but one game engine; the shooting gallery could be semi-fun if you had the Gamegun. The other three engines are just horrendously coded and equate to zero fun. On the fighting levels, where Stallone engages Snipes in one-on-one combat, controlling Stallone is an exercise in frustration; not only is Stallone EXTREMELY slow and sluggish, but the control is very strange, and Snipes seems to have a major reach advantage. In the 3-D stages, where the object is to follow Snipes until he decides to leave through an elevator, Snipes seems to run in circles and spouts annoying one-liners like "Simon says bleed," over and over; after what seems like an endless wait, he finally leaves, allowing you to complete the level. I don't even know if I should classify the "driving stages" as such, because there's really no driving involved. They sort of remind me of Sega's ancient Turbo where you move the car left and right to avoid oncoming traffic (no turns), except Turbo is much more fun than DM. On the plus side, some of the FMV sequences are really good (no apparent tiling), the music is usually well done, and the "Game Over" sequence is hilarious. But, in the end, the graphics and music cannot hide the awful game underneath.

R.I.P.
Phew... what a stinker... Let's talk about gratuitous use of full-motion video for no good reason but to sell a game. Play control in all but the shooting scenes sucked and those tunnel levels have just got to go. Graphics and sound were great, but then again they better be when you're using footage straight from the film! This game was just way to short when set on easy, and when set on anything higher, became almost impossible to even try playing. No, the only reason I can see to buy this is for lightgun owners to justify the purchase of their controller.

Salamander
Demolition Man has its merits. The full motion video is intense, and the shooting scenes were equally so. The rest, however, let's just say it could use a little work... The fighting scenes were probably the worst part of the game. Its like some hellish nightmare where you're one of the SFII world warriors, but its your one-hundredth birthday. Shuffle, shuffle, shuffle, shuffle, shuffle, shuffle, shuffle kick. Shuffle, shuffle, shuffle, shuffle, shuffle, shuffle, shuffle kick. Shuffle, shuffle, shuffle, shuffle, shuffle, shuffle, shuffle, damn, missed. Shuffle, shuffle, shuffle, shuffle, shuffle, shuffle, shuffle kick... I would recommend this title for lightgun owners only.

>>>>> 57.0/100 <<<<<		Ferrari Man	E.Phoenix	R.I.P.	Salamander
Graphics		3.5	4.5	4.0	4.0
Sound		3.5	4.5	4.0	3.5
Gameplay/Control		1.5	2.0	2.0	2.5
Longevity/Playability		1.0	1.5	1.0	3.0
Overall		2.5	2.5	3.0	3.0
Total		12.0	15.0	14.0	16.0

(04/95)