64th Street: A Detective Story (Arcade) (1991)
Developer: Jaleco

Review by Faididi and Co.

A private eye who loves to give out black eyes. And lots of broken furniture.

Story: Above Average

One must always remember that, even in the midst of the Great Depression, there's plenty of color, action, and ass-kicking going on all over the place, especially within the big cities. This game is set in 1939, and its hero is Rick, a private eye who sports a burly mustache that nails down his archetypical rugged manliness. Hanging out with him is an equally buff partner named Allen, who looks like a chimney sweeper who drinks milk mixed with steroids. So, when a client steps in one day and asks for help in finding his missing daughter, the detective and his sidekick naturally charge out onto the streets and start beating bad guys into bloody pulps. Okay, maybe the story doesn't exactly go like that, but it still wins extra points for providing a bit more narrative than usual and for featuring such a flavorful setting.

Gameplay: Excellent

Jaleco's 64th Street: A Detective Story is a 2-Player action fighter that's patterned after classics like Technos' Double Dragon. Through 6 scenes, Rick and Allen bash their way through hordes of thugs sent by the kidnapping mastermind.

The level and enemy designs aren't bad. The heroes' fight begins at gritty yet vibrantly detailed streets, proceeding next into some equally grime-scattered ports and trainyards. Eventually, Rick and Allen will course through a secret factory with a rather surprising boss, the posh headquarters of the enemy leader, and then up into a dirigible for a spectacular-looking final battle over the city. Sure, some of the enemies look like flaming 1980s weirdoes, but at least they keep the pool of henchmen from consisting entirely of drab, grungy dudes you'd forget the next instant.

The occasional iron pipes and large wrenches give our fearsome twosome a little more punch, but the one thing that really sets apart this game is the never-before-seen background-directed throwing attack. Besides offering one throwing angle more than the typical action fighter, it lets Rick and Allen shatter the breakable background walls, which can also hold extra items. This additional layer of interactivity really adds to the on-screen mayhem, and one prays that all action fighters in the future will include a feature as cool as this.

Controls: Above Average

The controls are generally responsive, but the only problem lies in the somewhat unintuitive input commands between the backward strike and the stamina-costing special attack, which are easy to confuse during the heat of combat. The controls would be perfect had their commands been swapped.

Graphics: Excellent

The characters are colorfully animated, while the scenery is beautifully textured. Best of all are the numerous breakable objects that form the scenery, making the background-directed throwing attack a thrill to use for all the mess it causes.

Audio: Excellent

Completing the game's rough-and-tumble atmosphere are the unusually loud audio effects. Rick and Allen's fists pound bad guys with forceful thwacks, and the breakable backgrounds come with the matching crunching and crashing noises. Even the vocal effects seem overbalanced, with the heroes' mighty groans roaring aloud over the din of the fighting. The music fits the action well, either capturing the moods of the story's era or blasting out frantically like the adrenaline-pumping tune for the boss scenes.

Overall: Excellent

64th Street: A Detective Story holds a special place among action fighters for introducing the awesome background-directed throwing attack, along with the highly breakable scenery that makes that move so ridiculously fun. Count in the vibrant graphics and the banging audio effects, and you have here one classic that the genre's fans will definitely want to check out.