A.B. Cop

Name:A.B. Cop
Number:103
Year:1989
Publisher:SEGA
Developer:Aicom
Genre:Racing
Difficulty:3/5
Time: 2 hours

Hey, kid, wanna play as a supercop in a cyberpunk dystopia, ramming down endless scores of baddies in your super hover bike? Not a lot of titles promise that, or even have a premise as interesting as that. Especially arcade titles. AB Cop is one of those games in the racing sub-genre of "drive that guy off the road", which seems to be deader than car combat games past a certain point. Its only distinguished from the better known titles in that genre by way of its setting.

Make no mistake, this is the face of a man who has killed innocents in the line of duty.

There are six missions in the game, played in order. Before each mission you are told why you need to take down (alive) this dangerous criminal. From drug-dealing shoguns, to escaped bio-engineered organisms, to kidnapping clowns, this game has something nuts in every level.

Once the game itself starts, its mostly simple. You have the usual turning and speed settings, that is, left, right, acceleration and brake. You also get a jump button, which can be used a limited amount of times before you need to find jump tokens. (or just die and start again) This isn't where the game gets tricky, because where it gets tricky is with acceleration. If you keep the accelerate button pressed down you are going slower than everyone else. No, how you win the game is by letting go of accelerate button for a second or so, then hold it back down for a turbo boost. Once you get that down, its really simple.

Then you just ram however many bikes off the road the game wants you. Difficulty in this case is achieved by throwing in turns, split lanes and traffic. Its not really difficult once you get down the mechanics of the game. Even with the low time limit to take out these dudes.

Where the game gets difficult is with the bosses. This is where you want to use the jumps, which cause you to deal more damage. The first two aren't bad, but the third is where they start shooting projectiles at you while swinging a sword. You are completely invulnerable to damage, but taking a hit slows you down. Naturally when you're trying to jump its troublesome when you get swatted away like a fly. Or you're trying to build up speed and get hit by a ball. They can deal some pretty mean combos on you at times too.

But even then, its not too hard. Once you figure out the trick to the game, it is by far the easiest arcade title I've played in a while. It feels underwhelming, like there should be more to it. The real prize to the game is the insanity you get stage after stage. This is the only reason why you'd play the game til the end. I don't think I was disappointed in that regard, but if that doesn't appeal to you, then there is nothing worth playing here.

Weapons:
None.

Enemies:
While the bosses had a bit of variation on them, I can't say I cared for that variation. 1/10

Non-Enemies:
Simple non-hostile cars. 1/10

Levels:
I guess there's some thought into where splits in the road are placed and the turns, but as it went on I did not feel it was getting better. 1/10

Player Agency:
The controls are somewhat awkward, undoubtedly because the game wasn't designed for the arrow keys, but some unique arcade cabinet. Turning doesn't feel right, and while there's a rythmn to the turbo function, it doesn't always work properly. 4/10

Interactivity:
Some destructible objects. 1/10

Atmosphere:
Normally, I'd just rate it as a scifi game. Its got a good vision to it. Very much a pleasant feeling game despite the violence. But something about this is just WRONG. Some of this is undoubtedly the cultural barrier, but I don't think all of it is. 5/10

Graphics:
Very nice pixel art. Nice combination of some optimistic futurism and scenic areas. Enemies could have used some more frames in their attack animations though. 6/10

Story:
Something terrible has happened A.B. Cop! You must stop the criminals! Interesting by virtue of sheer insanity. 2/10

Sound/Music:
Kind of generic happy-sounding tunes. The shorter stings between levels and whenever you lose are the best. Sound effects are fairly flat-sounding. 3/10

That's 24.

The game did sort of okay, it was no hit, but people liked it. Understandable, since there's only two tricks to the game before you can 1cc it. I could probably do that if I wanted to.