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ESWAT: City Under Siege (Genesis, 1990)

Robot cops are all the rage these days.

Mega Man, the alcoholic detective years.
Starring Johnny Thickchin

PLAYERS: 1

PUBLISHER/DEVELOPER: Sega

GENRE: Action platformer

DIFFICULTY: Moderate

RELEASE DATE: 07/14/90 – (JP), 10/90 – (US), 12/90 – (EU)

The over-the-top action of Revenge of Shinobi has yet to be topped on the Mega Drive thus far, but ESWAT makes a valiant attempt. The latter lacks Shinobi‘s killer Yuzo Koshiro soundtrack, and at no point do you fight any 80s action stars or super heroes, but both games succeed at combining methodical action with considerable challenge.

“We can rebuild him…”

As in the decrepit Master System version, you play as rookie cop, Duke Oda, and your mission is to protect Liberty City from the evil organization known as E.Y.E.. In order to take on an entire organization by yourself, your buddies at the police force give you an ICE Combat suit that increases your health, holds several powerful weapons, and allows you to fly for a limited time. The suit does make you look like a dork, but it’s a small price to pay for the force you wield.

Duke’s gotta earn his stripes – or, in this case, a suit that makes him nearly indestructible.

Duke’s initial beat is the Liberty City streets and the corrupt prison. In these areas, he cleans up crime with only a pathetic pistol and his frail human physique. Once he’s proven himself worthy and shed his rookie status, the ICE Combat suit is bequeathed to him and the real challenge begins.

The Shawshank Redemption ride, now with triple the catharsis!

The ICE suit is worthy of any reckless action film. In addition to your standard peashooter, you can also acquire a Super shooter that unleashes three bullets at once, a Plasma Cannon with a charge that can level several enemies at once, Rockets that, when launched, stay low and explode on impact, and a Flamethrower attack that incinerates all enemies on screen (except for bosses). You can switch between any of the weapons with the ‘A’ button, but if you die, they disappear and you’ll have to find them again. Your jet pack allows you to fly high or hover, depending on the circumstance, but the charge only lasts a few seconds. Soar with caution.

“And the new recruit, excited by his first mission, jumped directly into the plasma charge…”

While the majority of the levels, like the nuclear plant and the sewer have standard left-to-right progression, two levels are masterfully crafted and worth highlighting. Level 4 takes place in a laboratory that’s slowly filling with purple ooze. There’s not a moment in this level where you feel safe. Experiments gone wrong burst forth from behind large glass containers and block your path, while you try to outrun the life-draining substance through a series of claustrophobic tunnels.

The sentient jelly descended upon the Smuckers employees.

The area known as Dark Base forces you to fly through narrow corridors and above life-draining floors. Glowing red floors fill your jet pack charge, but suck your life away, while the less common green floors charge your jet pack without any life sacrifice. There’s a moving escalator where you have to land on the right steps in order to open the next path, and a section where you’re forced to alternate between hovering around barriers and landing on a moving platform, while avoiding the red floors and the flying enemies around you. As you’re flying and trying not to die, a dark robotic figure haunts your every step. Brutal.

Duke lets out a mighty “Gwargh!” before leaving this mortal coil.

Right from the first stage, the bosses are epic. Duke starts off fighting a helicopter, then a set of twin robots before he even puts on his ICE suit. Next up are three screen-filling mechano-monsters – including a Mad Scientist-controlled juggernaut and a huge robotic spider. There’s also a sewer centipede constructed entirely of eyes and jagged edges, and finally, the leader of the E.Y.E. Corporation. Are you man-machine enough to take them all out?!

Master Chief, in a very special cameo appearance.

ESWAT is difficult, but in a way that builds your skills. The key to progression is slow, steady movement. Don’t feel the need to rush into battle. Let the enemies show themselves first, then attack as fast as you can. Why do this? Because running full bore without considering what’s next will ensure you die quickly. Even if you explore an area with caution, you’ll be hard-pressed to beat most of the levels on your first try. That’s ok. The more you memorize where enemies appear in a level, the easier of a time you’ll have.

This joyful grunt likes to hop before he tries to kill you.

If ESWAT‘s difficulty feels suffocating to you, all is not lost. Items that replenish your Life are common. With every level you complete, you gain an extra bar on your Life meter. There are three generous continues, you can turn up your lives to 5 in the Options Menu, and save for the Dark Base and the E.Y.E. Complex, the levels are pretty short. There’s always hope, even for the less skilled player.

The elevator portion is one of the hardest sections in the game.

ESWAT is technically based off of the arcade game of the same name, but the Genesis version is so different, it almost qualifies as a new title. Most of the levels and bosses are new and weren’t featured in the arcade whatsoever. Your weapons have unlimited ammunition. In the arcade, your suit breaks apart when you get hit, but in the Genesis version, you have a life bar. And, strangely, the 16-bit graphics are cleaner and crisper than the arcade’s. While I prefer the Genesis version, both the latter and the arcade are tailored perfectly for their respective demographics.

“Take that, evil.”

ESWAT isn’t a consistently great game, but its well-paced action and flashes of brilliance elevate it above most B-tier platformers. The two-level progression from puny human to Robot Cop makes you feel like you earned the suit by level three. The Lab and Dark Base areas are some of the most intense, creative levels I’ve encountered in a long time. And the jet pack – limited though it may be – gives you a freedom not found in many platformers. Yes, ESWAT controls like Joe Musashi in a mech suit, but when the results are this enjoyable, it doesn’t matter that the game is essentially lesser Shinobi. One of Sega’s unsung action titles.

B+

But Duke Oda will return in ESWAT II: Dukes of Hazard Pay!”

17 replies on “ESWAT: City Under Siege (Genesis, 1990)”

I’ve only played this a couple of times and to be honest wrote it off as a poor mans Shinobi.
Perhaps it’s worth investing more time into.

Really enjoyed your writing in this review as well Dylan top job as always.

Never played the Genesis version, but I never cared for the arcade Eswat. Completely unoriginal, I think Sega was just trying to capitalize and copy the success of Data East’s Robocop.

Robocop arcade was a very fun game back in the heyday.

Great review, never tried this game but occasionally heard some people give it faint praise, and if you’re adding to that I might just have to give it a go 🙂

I never bought this, but did beat it on a rental when it came out. I’ve said this before, but at the time I was kind of indifferent to this game because it wasn’t like the arcade. But now appreciate it more because it’s kind of better than the arcade, this game for what it was , did a good job, And it did have some cool bosses. I also would recommend it. It’s worth playing.

I remember a friend renting this, and for what little time I spent with it, I didn’t care for it very much. However, reading your review, and hearing from others that it’s a solid action title, I should probably give it another look. Interesting that they took the same approach here that they did with Shadow Dancer, in that they “pulled a Capcom” and redid the game for the home platform instead of trying to shoehorn the arcade experience into a cartridge, for better or worse.

I think my Master System II box had a screen shot of this version of the game on the back – a stunt they also pulled with Castle of Illusion. I actually liked Castle better on SMS than MD, but this? I was disappointed with the 8-bit reality. I still haven’t played the MD version.

ESWAT (Enhanced Special Weapons and Tactics) was actually the game that switched me on to Sega – the graphics and sound are terrific and I still feel that they hold up nicely today. I also like the fact that, as you say, it isn’t a lazy arcade port like Altered Beast but a completely new game that even surpasses the original.

The character of ESWAT also makes a cameo in Streets of rage if i remember rightly.

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