''Demolition Man'' is a pair of

action Action may refer to: * Action (narrative), a literary mode * Action fiction, a type of genre fiction * Action game, a genre of video game Film * Action film, a genre of film * ''Action'' (1921 film), a film by John Ford * ''Action'' (1980 fil ...

video games based on the film of the same name.

Acclaim Entertainment Acclaim Entertainment, Inc. was an American video game publisher based in Glen Cove, New York. Originally formed by Greg Fischbach, Robert Holmes and Jim Scoroposki out of an Oyster Bay storefront in 1987, the company established a worldwide d ...

published the

16-bit 16-bit microcomputers are microcomputers that use 16-bit microprocessors. A 16-bit register can store 216 different values. The range of integer values that can be stored in 16 bits depends on the integer representation used. With the two mos ...

version, which features run and gun gameplay, for the

Super NES The Super Nintendo Entertainment System (SNES), commonly shortened to Super NES or Super Nintendo, is a 16-bit home video game console developed by Nintendo that was released in 1990 in Japan and South Korea, 1991 in North America, 1992 in E ...

Sega Genesis The Sega Genesis, known as the outside North America, is a 16-bit Fourth generation of video game consoles, fourth generation home video game console developed and sold by Sega. It was Sega's third console and the successor to the Master Syst ...

and

Sega CD The Sega CD, released as the in most regions outside North America and Brazil, is a CD-ROM accessory for the Sega Genesis produced by Sega as part of the fourth generation of video game consoles. It was released on December 12, 1991, in Japan, ...

Virgin Interactive Virgin Interactive Entertainment (later renamed Avalon Interactive) was the video game publishing division of British conglomerate the Virgin Group. It developed and published games for major platforms and employed developers, including Westwo ...

released a completely different game for the 3DO that combined several distinct gameplay styles. In both games, the player controls John Spartan, the main character from the film, as he attempts to find and defeat his nemesis, Simon Phoenix.

SNES, Sega Genesis, and Sega CD

The 16-bit game is primarily a

platform game A platform game (often simplified as platformer and sometimes called a jump 'n' run game) is a sub-genre of action video games in which the core objective is to move the player character between points in an environment. Platform games are charac ...

, with two overhead

top-down shooter Shoot 'em ups (also known as shmups or STGs ) are a sub-genre of action games. There is no consensus as to which design elements compose a shoot 'em up; some restrict the definition to games featuring spacecraft and certain types of chara ...

segments; in either gameplay type the player character can fire in eight directions. Stages are filled with many enemies, mostly gunmen. Enemy characters and the player character can take a number of hits before dying. Power ups can be found around the stages that increase the characters health or ammunition. The game gives the player limited continues and very few lives. The first stage is set in 1996 and all stages after in 2032, following a simplified plot of the movie. In the two overhead view stages the player must find and rescue hostages in order to unlock doors elsewhere in the level. Weapons include the basic police-issue

handgun A handgun is a short- barrelled gun, typically a firearm, that is designed to be usable with only one hand. It is distinguished from a long gun (i.e. rifle, shotgun or machine gun, etc.), which needs to be held by both hands and also braced ...

, a more powerful magnum, a

shotgun A shotgun (also known as a scattergun, or historically as a fowling piece) is a long gun, long-barreled firearm designed to shoot a straight-walled cartridge (firearms), cartridge known as a shotshell, which usually discharges numerous small p ...

which fires in a wide spread, and various types of

hand grenade A grenade is an explosive weapon typically thrown by hand (also called hand grenade), but can also refer to a shell (explosive projectile) shot from the muzzle of a rifle (as a rifle grenade) or a grenade launcher. A modern hand grenade genera ...

s. Even though he is the final boss of the game, the player has to fight Simon Phoenix in short-lived "teaser" battles before defeating him for good at the cryo-prison. The SNES version included cheat codes that are accessed by pausing the game with the start button, and then followed by a sequence of button presses to acquire a particular power up, or skip to the next level. The Sega CD version was the last release for the console in North America.

Reception

Reviewing the Genesis version, Scary Larry of ''

GamePro Gamepro.com is an international multiplatform video game magazine media company that covers the video game industry, video game hardware and video game software in countries such as Germany and France. The publication, GamePro, was originally la ...

'' found some problems with the game, in particular the generally "dreary, dark" graphics, but found it overall effective in every respect. He described it as "the kind of game that brings a smile to the faces of 16-bit vets who appreciate a good solid platform/action game." Captain Squideo reviewed the Super NES version for ''GamePro'', and commented that it "parallels the recent Genesis game: it's fast, fun, and explosive." He remarked that though veteran gamers may find the game too simplistic, it is intense and fun overall, and that unlike the Genesis version the graphics are colorful and effectively convey the postapocalyptic settings. ''

Entertainment Weekly ''Entertainment Weekly'' (sometimes abbreviated as ''EW'') is an American digital-only entertainment magazine based in New York City, published by Dotdash Meredith, that covers film, television, music, Broadway theatre, books, and popular cul ...

'' gave the game an A. ''

Next Generation Next Generation or Next-Generation may refer to: Publications and literature * ''Next Generation'' (magazine), video game magazine that was made by the now defunct Imagine Media publishing company * Next Generation poets (2004), list of young ...

'' reviewed the Genesis version of the game, rating it three stars out of five, and stated that "Ultimately ''Demolition Man'' is another Acclaim movie game, and if you own one, there's no need for any of the others."

3DO

The 3DO game was developed in tandem with the film and entails several gameplay styles: of the game's 16 levels, nine are

light gun shooter Light gun shooter, also called light gun game or simply gun game, is a shooter video game genre in which the primary design element is to simulate a shooting gallery by having the player aiming and discharging a gun-shaped controller at a scre ...

levels, four are one-on-one fighting, two are

first-person shooter First-person shooter (FPS) is a sub-genre of shooter video games centered on gun and other weapon-based combat in a first-person perspective, with the player experiencing the action through the eyes of the protagonist and controlling the pl ...

; and one is a mission-based

racing game Racing games are a video game genre in which the player participates in a racing competition. They may be based on anything from real-world racing leagues to fantastical settings. They are distributed along a spectrum between more realistic rac ...

. Due to the advanced 3DO sound engine, the

soundtrack A soundtrack is recorded music accompanying and synchronised to the images of a motion picture, drama, book, television program, radio program, or video game; a commercially released soundtrack album of music as featured in the soundtrack o ...

is ripped directly from the movie, and

full motion video Full-motion video (FMV) is a video game narration technique that relies upon pre-recorded video files (rather than sprites, vectors, or 3D models) to display action in the game. While many games feature FMVs as a way to present information duri ...

is heavily used, incorporating both footage from the film and exclusive footage of

Sylvester Stallone Sylvester Enzio Stallone (; born Michael Sylvester Gardenzio Stallone, ) is an American actor and filmmaker. After his beginnings as a struggling actor for a number of years upon arriving to New York City in 1969 and later Hollywood in 1974, h ...

and

Wesley Snipes Wesley Trent Snipes (born July 31, 1962) is an American actor, film producer, and martial artist. His prominent film roles include '' Major League'' (1989), ''New Jack City'' (1991), ''White Men Can't Jump'' (1992), ''Passenger 57'' (1992), '' R ...

made specifically for the game.

Jesse Ventura Jesse Ventura (born James George Janos; July 15, 1951) is an American politician, actor, and retired professional wrestler. After achieving fame in the World Wrestling Federation (WWF), he served as the 38th governor of Minnesota from 1999 to 2 ...

reprises his role as a minion to Simon Phoenix as the only actor in the movie to play a cryo-con henchman in the underground level and cryo-prison level. A version of the game was in development by Virgin Interactive and planned to be published by

Atari Corporation Atari Corporation was an American manufacturer of computers and video game consoles. It was founded by Jack Tramiel on May 17, 1984, as Tramel Technology, Ltd., but then took on the Atari name less than two months later when WarnerMedia, Warn ...

for the

Atari Jaguar CD The Atari Jaguar CD is a CD-ROM peripheral for the Jaguar video game console. Atari announced a CD-ROM drive for the Jaguar before the console's November 1993 launch. Codenamed Jaguar II during development, the Jaguar CD was released on Septem ...

, but it was cancelled after several delays. A

PlayStation is a video gaming brand that consists of five home video game consoles, two handhelds, a media center, and a smartphone, as well as an online service and multiple magazines. The brand is produced by Sony Interactive Entertainment, a divisi ...

version was also in development but never released. The game uses a password system to save progress, while the 3DO's internal memory is used to save the high score list. There are three difficulty modes. The light gun shooter levels support the 3DO

Gamegun The Gamegun (styled GAMEGUN on its packaging) is the only light gun released for the 3DO Interactive Multiplayer video game console. It was released in 1994 by American Laser Games, developers of full motion video-based shooter games. The Gamegun ...

in addition to the standard gamepad. The Gamegun can be daisy-chained to a standard gamepad, which then acts as an extension cord and allows the player to navigate the pause menu and play the non-light gun levels without having to switch out controllers; in fact, ''Demolition Man'' will not acknowledge the Gamegun if it is plugged into the controller port on the 3DO itself. The light gun levels are set on a static background on which digitized enemies pop out at random, in a

shooting gallery Shooting gallery may refer to: Firearms and amusements *Shooting gallery (carnival game), a facility for shooting live firearms or for shooting recreational guns within amusement parks, arcades, carnivals, or fairgrounds *Shooting range, is a ...

style of gameplay. The one-on-one fighting levels are similar to ''

Mortal Kombat ''Mortal Kombat'' is an American media franchise centered on a series of video games originally developed by Midway Games in 1992. The development of the first game was originally based on an idea that Ed Boon and John Tobias had of making a v ...

'', in that they feature digitized sprites viewed from a side perspective. In all four levels the player controls John Spartan and plays against Simon Phoenix, but Phoenix's AI is different in each level. The first-person shooter levels are extremely simple compared to most games in the genre: there are no doors, switches, or health or ammunition pickups, and the player has only one weapon (a pistol) with unlimited ammunition. In lieu of health pickups, John Spartan slowly recovers health over time. The level designs are on a two dimensional

square grid In geometry, the square tiling, square tessellation or square grid is a regular tiling of the Euclidean plane. It has Schläfli symbol of meaning it has 4 squares around every vertex. Conway called it a quadrille. The internal angle of the s ...

and are maze-like, with a great number of branching paths. The player's objective is to reach a specific location within the level. In the racing level, the player must catch up to Simon Phoenix's car before his own car runs out of fuel, avoiding other cars on the road while picking up fuel refills.

Reception

'' gave the game a positive review. While they criticized the fighting game sections for the delayed attacks and limited number of moves, they overall approved of the variety of gameplay styles and applauded the digitized graphics, high quality audio, and the realism invoked by the game's deep level of detail. ''

'' rated it two stars out of five, and stated that "if any of the individual stages were crafted very well it might have worked. Unfortunately, that didn't happen." The game received the 1994 "Movie Translation Game of the Year" Award from Die Hard Game Fan magazine.

References

External links

* *
''Demolition Man''
(SNES infobox details) at

GameSpot ''GameSpot'' is an American video gaming website that provides news, reviews, previews, downloads, and other information on video games. The site was launched on May 1, 1996, created by Pete Deemer, Vince Broady and Jon Epstein. In addition ...

''Demolition Man''
(SCD infobox details) at

''Demolition Man''
(3DO infobox details) at

Movie Game Database - Demolition Man

{{Demolition Man 1994 video games 3DO Interactive Multiplayer games 3DO Interactive Multiplayer-only games Light gun games Acclaim Entertainment games Cancelled Atari Jaguar games Cancelled PlayStation (console) games Cyberpunk video games Multidirectional shooters Platform games Run and gun games Sega Genesis games Sega CD games Super Nintendo Entertainment System games Video games about police officers Video games based on films Video games scored by Tommy Tallarico Video games set in 1996 Video games set in 2032 Video games set in the United States Video games set in Los Angeles Video games set in San Diego Virgin Interactive games Video games developed in the United States