Bruce Willis must have had a big influence on me in the 90s, as the Die Hard films have become a Christmas tradition, whilst the Die Hard Trilogy game kept me entertained throughout the holiday season of ’96. Another Bruce Willis tie-in I have fond memories of is Die Hard Arcade – one of the standout side-scrolling (or 3D even) beat ’em ups of the 32-bit era, essentially a Die Hard themed 3D Streets of Rage successor that Sega released in the arcades and on the Saturn.

It seems like Die Hard arcade is running in slow motion, not really choppy but sloooow. I mean even the Voice Over sounds like a slowed down tape, the voice like 2 octaves lower and the action seems to mirror that slow motion quality. I have a gen 3 I7 PC, its good enough for other games that are more demanding. Get the best deals on Die Hard Arcade SEGA Video Games and expand your gaming library with the largest online selection at eBay.com. Fast & Free shipping on many items! Moved Permanently. The document has moved here. At the time, Die Hard Arcade was quite the impressive arcade game and even more impressive on a home console. Today the visuals are clearly of their era, but feel quite solid, and the chunky, colourful characters have helped it age fairly gracefully.

So with an eye towards the title of this article… Is Die Hard Arcade still as good as I remember today?

The odd thing about Die Hard Arcade, is just how little it has to do with Die Hard. The Japanese version didn’t even have the Die Hard license, going by the moniker of Dynamite Deka instead – however the game was originally developed with the intent of being a Die Hard game, so the Japanese version just had the Die Hard references stripped out for its release… which makes practically no odds, as the only obvious Die Hard connection is John McClane as the main character, and he looks the same in both versions. (Fun fact: the Dreamcast has a sequel to Die Hard Arcade called Dynamite Cop, which has nary a mention of John McClane.)

As far as I can tell, the plot involves a Bruce Willis lookalike presumably called John McClane, progressively losing his clothes as he beats up groups of oncoming thugs. There also appears to be a little girl hiding under an old man’s desk – a man who looks nothing like Gary Oldman, incidentally – and it seems to be your mission to save her. Doing so should take skill, bravery, approximately 30-40 minutes, and if you’re playing on an original arcade cabinet, possibly five to ten pounds.

The combat feels like it owes something to Virtua Fighter – it was co-developed by one of Sega’s AM teams, however AM1 rather than Virtua Fighter creators AM2. The other half of the development collaboration was the US Sega Technical Institute, founded by the now pretty famous PlayStation guy Mark Cerny and responsible for such games as Kid Chameleon, Comix Zone and a lot of work on the Mega Drive Sonic titles. At the time, Die Hard Arcade was quite the impressive arcade game and even more impressive on a home console. Today the visuals are clearly of their era, but feel quite solid, and the chunky, colourful characters have helped it age fairly gracefully.

Aside from the kicky/punchy aspect, the stages are littered with weapons to pick up and aid your quest. Pistols and machine guns make up the bulk of the useful weapons, but things like spraypaint cans, dustbins and grandfather clocks make for the more entertaining moments. When a second player joins in for some co-op fun, things can get a little manic – sometimes feeling like a bit of a massacre even. I don’t quite remember the Die Hard movie where Bruce Willis smacked street thugs with a broom whilst his blonde, female partner unleashed hell with a shoulder-mounted missile launcher, but the enemies do technically die hard, so the license isn’t entirely tenuous.

Thanks in large part to the game’s quick playthrough time, it doesn’t really get the chance to become tedious. After a few stages of beating up hapless henchmen, the game will throw in a quick time event requiring a correct button press to dodge a vehicle or punch a dude in the face. Then there are the boss battles – typical bigger, stronger enemies with double health bars and their own little gimmick – which try to eat your credits and prevent the whole thing being a complete pushover. When it’s all finished you’re left sweaty, satisfied, though still craving a little more.

Clearly it can be tricky getting hold of an original arcade cabinet to enjoy Die Hard Arcade today, but if you don’t want to dabble with MAME the Sega Saturn version is a pretty impressive arcade port. There’s probably a good reason for that, with the Sega ST-V arcade system and Saturn sharing almost identical hardware. My positive perception of Die Hard Arcade probably has something to do with the fact it was released at a time when Sega were bringing a bunch of near perfect arcade ports to home consoles…

The important question then – is Die Hard Arcade as good as you remember? Well, yes, basically. It’s short and doesn’t make the best use of Bruce Willis’ likeness, but it’s a really solid example of the punching things and moving forward genre, which died out a little after the ’90s. Go ahead and give Sega’s John McClane Impersonator Simulation an hour of your quality time.

The 32-bit generation saw a renaissance within many genres as they moved to 3d, most specifically sports, racing, and 3d platformers. But it also many take a step back or disappear altogether. The scrolling shoot em up all but disappeared from America and the other mainstay of the 16-bit days, the beat em up was left on a milk carton. There were a few attempts to bring the genre to 3d but eh, the less said about those the better. Sega however that it could be done with Die Hard Arcade and aside from its far too short length should have been the model other games followed.

There’s a funny bit of history behind this game’s creation. In Japan it is known as Dynamite Deka but has no association with the movie. However one look at the box art and the main characters and it is blatantly obvious where they drew “inspiration”. Even the game’s plot of a terrorist who has taken over a skyscraper is the same. Well here they are trying to steal the contents of a vault and have kidnapped the President’s daughter as backup but that’s neither here nor there. Rather than being sued Sega of America teamed up with Fox to make this an officially licensed game like it should have been.

In terms of feel this plays less like a traditional beat em up and more like a side scrolling Virtua Fighter. The character movement bears it out as well as the floaty jumps which are identical. Thank Christ there’s no block button. One aspect which shouldn’t have been brought over is movement; you can only face left or right and you don’t walk so much as hop in spurts. It’s silly and does cause a few issues since you can’t lock onto a target; full 3d movement would have been better served. Luckily you can work around it.

The Virtua Fighter connection (albeit tangentially) does come with some sweet perks. The game has a robust fighting engine, something that most beat em ups can’t claim. There’s a pretty large arsenal of moves depending on the buttons pressed once an opponent is grabbed or in the middle of a combo. In addition to martial artistry there are a ton of breakable objects that can be used as weapons as well as a never-ending stream of bad guys with all sorts of weaponry. I dare say you will rarely find a moment where you aren’t armed or surrounded by armaments waiting to be picked up.

Die Hard Arcade Gamefaqs

The game was also ahead of its time with the incorporation of quick time events. These brief cut scenes usually challenge you to duck or pull a quick punch to avoid getting hit. Unlike modern day QTEs the penalty for failing is very small; you’ll either end up in a brief encounter or take small damage. While QTEs are on my shit list at least here they take place in between rooms rather than breaking up the action.

Unfortunately it’s all over far too fast. The game certainly lives up to the arcade in its title as it is way too short. Each of the five levels will only last a scant 5 minutes at best, meaning most will finish the game in a half hour with little incentive to go back and replay the game. By default you have a single life and 3 credits which can be tough to manage, especially as some of the cheaper enemies can catch you in a loop and drain your life bar in seconds. However you can play the optional deep scan minigame to win as many credits as you need. No matter how well executed the gameplay it can’t make up for the game’s brevity.

Die Hard Arcade Game For Pc

Surprisingly this is still one of the better looking Saturn titles. While it exhibits the low polygon look of most game from that era DHA also ran at a higher resolution than most of those same games, giving it a sharper look. Character animation is incredibly smooth and the game runs at a rock solid frame rate. Garageband windows free download deutsch. Of course most bouts take place in smaller arenas so it isn’t too taxing but considering most of that eras games ran at abysmal frame rates its much appreciated. The Saturn version’s music is redbook audio so unfortunately it constantly stops and starts with each new scene, not that it was all that memorable.

Die Hard Arcade Game Manual

If Sega had included exclusive levels or a few extra gameplay modes like the later Zombie Revenge I would have no problem recommending the game. But with so little content it’s not worth a purchase. At least the Saturn version. In 2006 Die Hard Arcade was ported to the PlayStation 2 as part of the Sega Ages line. This version is less a port and more of a complete overhaul with completely new graphics and most importantly extra modes and costumes to entice you to play the game multiple times. While it was never released here like all of the Sega Ages games it is completely in English anyway and definitely worthy of a purchase.