Dick Tracy on the Genesis, Better than the NES Game

Most people know about the Dick Tracy game on the NES. It was one of the AVGN episodes, and quite a few people my age know about it. I remember playing it with my friends back in the early 1990s, and then playing it again in the early 2000s.

What I didn’t know about was the Sega Genesis version of the game. At first, I thought it was going to be an enhanced version of the NES game, but it is completely different. It is more of an action game, as opposed to being a detective story.

This is one of the games that I wish I had known about as a kid. It is much better than the NES game, and it is an example of one of the games that is better on the Genesis. It was released in 1991, and I don’t think my friends had a Genesis at the time, which is why I didn’t know about it.

TLDR: Gameplay and Graphics make this game much better than the NES game, despite a lack of story.

Narrative

You don’t need to find clues or anything like that. It is a simple premise of wandering around and shooting bad guys. It all leads up to a final confrontation with Big Boy.

Gameplay

I really like the gameplay! This is a side scrolling action game where you’ll occasionally have enemies attacking you in the foreground and background. There are also stages where you’ll be out of bullets and have to punch people. It is a nice way to break up the gameplay a bit.

This game makes creative use of the Genesis’s three button controller. Here are the controls:

• A – Pistol and Punch
• B – Jump
• C – Tommy Gun

The pistol and punch attacks are straightforward attacks and operate like the attack buttons in every side scrolling action game. The Tommy gun is a little different. Your character will stand still, and you’ll aim the gun with the D-pad. It operates similarly to how The Punisher on the NES does.

For most of the levels, you just need to walk to the right and make it to the end. It would be nice if there was something there, but it just stops. The boss fights are a little different, as you’ll need to shoot them with your Tommy gun while fighting off other enemies that bumble onto the screen.

There are a few more screens where you need to shoot something. It is nice that they added stuff like this to add more to the gameplay. Overall, the gameplay is much better than the NES version. There is less to worry about, and things are very straightforward.

Visuals

This game looks amazing! The graphics are the best part of the game. It shows off what the Genesis could do, and it looks so much better than what was on the NES.

Comparing this game to the NES game is like night and day. I would like to see what the Master System looks like, but I don’t want to spend the money on that version of the game. The comic book pictures look great, and the sprites are well detailed.

I love how this game looks. It is easy to see the enemies on the screen, and while they look the same, it is easy to know what weapon they’ll come after you with. It is like the bad guys were given different colored trench coats based on their choice of weapons.

Overall, this is a wonderful looking game. The enemies look great, the levels look like a grimy 1930s city, and the graphics don’t mess up the gameplay. I also like how you can break windows with your Tommy gun.  

Reviews at the Time

This game received very good reviews at the time it was released. Many of the reviews came from the UK and other European magazines. I’m not too surprised by this. I looked at three publications for this.

Mega Tech gave the game an 89/100. The review was very short. They called it a “Shinobi-style game,” and said it was “challenging and addictive.” The magazine did a lot of these short reviews, and while I would like something more, they did cover a lot of games.

GamesX gave the game a 5/5. At least that is what I think the score was. They called it an “excellent game that offers addictive one player shoot’em up action.” They went on to say that the graphics were superb.

Sega Pro was more critical of the game, but still gave it a decent score with a 76/100. They called it the best version of the game and said that it had superb graphics. They reviewed the Master System version of the game as well, which received a 34/100.

Just about every publication I looked at liked this game. The scores dipped a bit as the years went on, but this game was still received better than the NES version. I don’t really have much of a choice but to compare this game to that version of the game, and it is clear that the Sega Genesis version was seen as being better than its NES counterpart.

8/10. This is a well made side scrolling action game. It looks beautiful, and the controls are great.

Pros

• Good Controls
• Great Graphics
• Easy to Play

Cons

• A bit too easy
• Repetitive
• Lack of a story

Conclusion

This is one of the games that I wish I had played when I was a kid. It probably wasn’t all that popular in my neighborhood, because I don’t remember hearing anything about it. Most of my friends owned a Genesis, so I would’ve expected them to know about it. Most of the games I played at home were either on the NES or on the PC.

Dick Tracy was one of those things that took over pop culture for about a year. The movie came out shortly after Batman, and it was hyped up with merchandise. There were video games, toys, and just about everything else you could imagine. My friends and I rented the NES game quite a few times, and I remember having other stuff related to Dick Tracy. What I never saw was the comic strip.

There is something fun about discovering a game that you didn’t know about. I had no idea that there was a Genesis version of the game until I started collecting retro games again in the late 2010s. Finding this was like discovering something that no one knew about, even though I’m aware that plenty of people did.

If you liked this post, please check out my other posts on Sega Genesis games, such as Phantasy Star II and The Great Waldo Search.