Lethal Enforcers

As a child that grew up on Super Mario Brothers with Duck Hunt, it is no surprise that I was pretty pumped when Lethal Enforces hit the Sega Genesis. With Duck Hunt, the concept is so simple it is beautiful - shoot the hell out of the flying ducks. Total kills are king and DH does not try to confuse or deceive with harsh penalties for missing. You'd expect some translation to Lethal Enforcers. You start as a cop in Chicago (although there is practically no storyline as to what you are doing and why) who must take town a crime cartel with no help. Despite enemies with submachine guns, rocket launchers, and more, you start with a pathetic six shooter. Sure you can pick up additional guns along the way, but like Lethal Enforces II, if you get hit once, just once, you loose the gun and go back to your base weapon.

The game has three difficulty settings, although I find all of them pretty damn hard. Like other games of this genre, bad guys will pop out from behind things and it is your job to shoot them within a certain time frame of they will start shooting you. Does not sound too bad right? I mean, you do have a gun and the screen is only so big. The problem here is I do not think every enemy has the same timer before they start shooting you. I swear some can take one to two seconds before you take damage whereas others fire as soon as they appear and unless you know exactly where they are going to appear, there is no way to dispatch them in time. To complicate matters even more, innocent civilians decide to pop up as well. Lethal Enforcers II has the same concept. You would think that if you were held hostage in a bank robbery, you would not stand up quickly, yell "Don't Shoot," then sit immediately back down. Cops will also pop in to 'help' you. They appear, do nothing, and then leave. They NEVER shoot anything and are just another obstacle for you to avoid. Each level is capped with a boss that usually takes an ungodly amount of shots to take out.

This brings us to the major difference between Lethal Enforces I and II. In II, if you beat the level, the level is beaten and your score is determined primarily by your accuracy. I have my reservations about LE II, but at least it is fair; if you shoot a civ, you loose one life point but otherwise you are not affected. With the original Lethal Enforcers, when you pass a stage, you are awarded a score, and hence a rank in the police department, based on your accuracy. However, if you shot a civilian or another police office, even just one, you loose ranks. For example, I beat the first stage with sixty some percent accuracy. This gave me the rank of detective (second from the bottom). However, I shot one civilian so I was demoted to the worst rank, patrolman. This blows, but what comes next is the worst. Low rank plus civilian kills equals the nice message, "Too many rookie mistakes, reloading level" (or something along those lines). Yes, you have to completely redo the level. So this puts the player at a crossroads. If your rank is too low, you have to replay the level. Thus, you want a high hit percentage and must therefore be accurate and not waste bullets. However, doing so puts you at danger of being shot because if you only fire one shot per enemy and miss one, they will most likely get you. Through all this, civilians pop up near enemies often so you really have to watch where you shoot.

I am convinced of two gameplay aspects here. One, you really have to memorize or mostly memorize each level; where the enemies are and when and where the civilians will pop up so you don't shoot them. Without this knowledge, the game is frustrating. Two, like Lethal Enforcers II, the game is much easier with two players rather than one. If you don't have the Justifier (the Sega gun), do not bother. The game is easier with even just one Justifier and another person on the control pad. The gun player can do most of the damage and the control pad player can just fire shots at a one spot in the screen (especially the boss at the end of the level). If you want a Sega game with a gun, Lethal Enforcers II is the better option.