Lethal Weapon

Ocean's come up with a game that looks blah, yet is tougher than a repeat offender. Lethal Weapon fits right into the lineup.

The Blue Badge of Courage

Ocean based this one-player action/adventure game on the hit movie of the same name. In the game you pick your favorite cop, Riggs or Murtaugh, and undertake five side-scrolling, undercover missions.

You can begin with any of the missions, which include a dockside drug dealing operation, a ransom plan, a shopping mall terrorist situation (in L.A., this is considered a state of emergency), and an office complex riddled with terrorists. In your final mission, you investigate an ex-sergeant who sells armor-piercing bullets to LA criminals.

You start off with a gun and limited ammo. As you progress, you can collect bullets, a badge that shields you from two hits, and a clock that increases your time limit.

Honey, I Shrunk the Cops

The problem right off the baton with Lethal Weapon is the scrunched graphics. The tiny Riggs and Murtaugh characters look more comic than coplike, and the villains are miniature miscreants. The standard backgrounds fail to save the game's graphics, and, unfortunately, the music's not very good, either. It would be more fun to stay at the firing range all day without earphones.

Assume the Position

The action in Lethal Weapon is extraordinarily hard, with repetitive (and sometimes unfair) game play. You'll take hits from off the screen and you won't be able to defend against some traps. Just when you think you've got it beat; your timer will run out.

If you think that sort of challenge sounds like fun, pick up this game; it deserves a shot. After a couple of hours, though, you may want to take it out back and give it a couple of shots of another kind.

ProTips:

• Try to save your bullets for end-level bosses.
• Get out of the sewer by jumping on anything that looks remotely stable.
• When you board the boat in the dock mission, wait until the life preservers fall before you move on.

Ocean is once again dipping into the cinema grab bag and pulling out a blockbuster game based on a blockbuster movie. SNES gamers will soon be under attack in Lethal Weapon, based on the movie Lethal Weapon 3.

Rigg Me Up for Action

As Martin Riggs (Mel Gibson in the movie), you're fighting a renegade excop in a massive crime wave that's rocked your familiar turf -- the streets of L.A. Well, it's not exactly its streets, more like LA's sewers, ventilation shafts, shipyards, shopping malls, and subway tunnels. Funny does Los Angeles have a subway? Hmmm! Except for the intermittent mug shot of Murtaugh when you enter the Plain Clothes department or the Internal Affairs office, you won't find Rigg's movie partner (Danny Glover) in this game.

Once inside a department, you have to kick, run, or shoot your way out. Bullet-proof vests monitor your progress. You'll need as much padding as you can get to beat these thugs.

Like in the Addams Family games, you start out in a hallway, only this one's not in a mansion. It's in the middle of a chaos-ridden police station. To begin this five-level, one-player, multi-scrolling adventure, you enter the door of the Plain Clothes department, the Narcotics division, the Bomb Squad, the Kidnapping division, or the Internal Affairs office.

The cartoony graphics should keep you intrigued. From what we've seen, they're on par with Ocean's first Addams Family game. You'll also get digitized, real video footage of the movie's actors and action interspersed throughout the game.

Lethal and Legal

If you need a deadly dose of action, you might find it in Lethal Weapon.

Published and developed by Ocean Software Ltd., this side-scroller video game was released in 1992.

The game is based on the movie series, starring Mel Gibson or Danny Glover. These two police partners have to battle with criminals around their city and all the nearby area, using fists, guns and grenades.

Actually, in the game the policemen have got Martin Riggs or Roger Murtaugh names. There are four main missions for them to complete before they can take on a final bonus mission. In the first you need to stop drug dealers, in the second - stop suicidal terrorists, then have to defuse a bomb, the fourth is to get into an office complex to set free Leo Getz. The final mission is to find out and stop an ex-police sergeant, who’s been supplying local criminals with armor-piercing bullets. For each one the player can choose the appropriate character. You must stop all those crimes in L.A, that is so much dear to you, walking around, jumping and swimming, kicking or shooting the opponents. In fact, it is more effective to punch an enemy than shoot. The music is minimal in the game and sparse interesting scenery.