D.D. Crew (Arcade)

Developer:

Sega

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Release Date:

1991

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Systems:

Arcade

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Today on Super Adventures I'm hoping that D.D. Crew doesn't turn out to be another game about shooting guns on a spaceship, or else I'm going to have to rename the site to 'Sci-Fi Adventures in Gaming'. Which I don't want to do, because... uh... hmm...

Oh right, I bought a bundle of fantasy RPGs a while back that I still need to get to. Can't change the title until I've played all of them, and they're all 18,000 hours long each so you're safe for a while.

I'm not entire sure what D.D. Crew is about yet, it's another name I picked from the request list, but it's an arcade game from the early 90s and that pretty dramatically narrows down what genre it's likely to be. It's not going to be a 18,000 hour long fantasy RPG for instance. Could it be Sega's attempt at an all-female fighting game perhaps? Wouldn't shock me, but arcade titles can be devious and misleading, so I wouldn't bet on it either.

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Oh it's an all-male side-scrolling beat 'em up!

Seems that I've got four nameless characters to choose from, though they all seem distracted by other stuff right now. The first three look like they're standing out in the street, trying to stop an incoming asteroid with willpower and dramatic arm gestures alone, and the fourth is watching out for traffic.

Actually I've just realised where I've seen that third guy before...

Third guy confirmed to be Bruce Boxleitner after hitting the gym.

Oh, they do have names! Amazing wonderful names. Also King and F.F. are two heads sharing the same body.

I went with F.F. in the end, but the I'm sure I'll get chances to play as the others later, after I get a credit knocked out of me and have to choose who I want to continue as. They have to take turns you see as I'm playing it alone, and these people are way too lazy to get off their ass and watch their friend's back unless there's someone mind controlling them with a joystick and two buttons.

Like carbon monoxide!

...or a bomb in a fairground I guess. That works too.

The music here's great by the way, with its tasteful use of voice samples: Youtube link. You probably wouldn't say it's good, but it's exactly what I wanted to hear coming out of this game, even if I didn't realise it until now.

Uh... you're supposed to give us time to evacuate, or at least throw out some demands first! What's the point of phoning up otherwise? Jerks.

I tried restarting with a different character to check, but it seems that they share the same intro. So I guess they're all part of the same L.A.P.D. counter terrorism squad then, working to stop the next attack before it happens.

Or they could just go to the fairground and beat on everyone with bare arms, striped pants and weapons I guess.

You can definitely tell it's an arcade game with those sprites. I've rarely seen obese terrorists in dungarees animated with such detail and fluidity. Check out the twirls they do as I knock them down, even in defeat they go down with grace. The gameplay is pretty standard for the genre: I have to hit enemies over and over until they're all down, then the screen scrolls over a bit and I get to do it all over again.

Oh, here's the level music for you: Youtube link. Catchy 90s hip hop with a James Brown sample, looped until your ears bleed.

I've got myself an audience now! Everyone else had the sense to leave the park when the bomb went off but she's either hopeful they'll all be back soon or she's enjoying the show.

C'mon lady, can't you see me doing all kinds of counter terrorism to this guy's groin? This really isn't the time to be selling popcorn. Either run for cover or take the player two slot.

This might not look like the most interesting shot in the world, but I'm not sure I've ever seen this in a 2D scrolling beat 'em up before.

You see, I'm fighting on a merry-go-round right now for whatever reason, with the background spinning around 360 degrees as we merrily go round, and I caught this shot at just the right moment to show what the character's seeing as he's walking across the level! This is the closest you'll ever get to first person view in a classic scrolling brawler.

So I guess he's heading to the city then.

I was just about to mention that the game's had absolutely zero health-restoring snack food so far (and no props or scenery to smash), but then I came across this LIFE on the floor. I could've really used this a little earlier though, before losing my first continue and switching to pink Arnold Schwarzenegger.

King here has two extra attacks aside from the regular punch, activated by either holding up or down on the joystick while pressing the attack button... which means he's basically exactly like F.F. It doesn't seem like there's any special movies in this, and if there's real any difference between how the characters play, then I haven't noticed it yet. Well okay there's a dash attack, but using it usually hurts me, so it's special in all the wrong ways.

Streets of Rage (Genesis/Mega Drive)

Here's Streets of Rage on the Genesis/Mega Drive for comparison, with its metal bats, smashable telephone boxes, and apples. Not quite as impressive visually, but it's up against an arcade game so it'd be weird if it was.

Another big difference is that my attacks are actually hitting two (or more) enemies at once in Streets of Rage, letting me take on crowds without taking unavoidable damage from the thugs I'm not focused on. It's a smarter way of handling things than D.D. Crew's 'just keep getting hit and using up credits so I can have more of your money' system. In fact I just want to turn D.D. Crew off now and play this instead, which isn't a great sign.

Both games were made by Sega and both were released in 1991, but D.D. Crew never made the jump to consoles and Streets of Rage never escaped them, so I think this is a rare case of arcade gamers getting the worse deal.

Shit, I've reached a boss with his own voice sample, and he's beating me up with sticks! I'm throwing out all my moves in a fluid chain of utter futility, while he's absolutely kicking the crap out of me. But I'm so transfixed by that background that I don't even care. I can stay here for a while more, I don't mind!

Oh, I just realised that my character this time is meant to be a boxer. Of course he is. He throws a few weak kicks in to try to hide it, but I'm onto him.


STAGE TWO.

An artist's impression of stage two, constructed from game art.

Stage Two mostly takes place in and on top of a cable car travelling high above the LA skyline, so I stitched a few shots together to show the entire level at once. I had to fill in a few tiny pieces of it myself because you never see the entire car, but I figured that the graphics are all the game really has going for it, so it's not so bad to cheat a bit to show them off.

New scenery, same familiar enemies. Who even knows where they're all coming from. My score up there is actually the number of them I've beaten to death with my hands so far, but it doesn't seem like I'm in any danger of running out.

Oh shit, the second boss is BRUCE LEE! Well he is in his close ups anyway. When it cuts to the stunt double it's pretty obviously not the same guy; you can tell because he couldn't be bothered to shave his moustache.

Rule #1 of Bruce Lee clones: don't have a moustache! It's a shame though, because he had the pants, slippers and hair right.

He wasn't wrong about the "You! Die!" thing though; it was over in one punch. Ouch.

Bruce actually went down far faster than the Stage One boss, mostly because I was actually able to hit the guy this time.

Unfortunately I was then defeated by the greater enemy: my stupidity. When the camera panned over to reveal the side of the cable car I assumed it was my cue to jump back inside, but it turns out I was meant to chill for a while and wait for a collision.

I still love this scrolling background by the way. May all these levels eventually put me on a cable car or fairground ride.

A bike kicking bonus stage! At first I assumed that this was a straight rip off of Street Fighter II's famous car kicking bonus round, but D.D. Crew came out just 4 months later, so I think it's more likely that it's a rip off of Final Fight's famous car kicking bonus round.

Fighting terrorism by punching bikes to death... doesn't really make up for all the absolutely nothing I've been able to smash up during the regular levels, especially as it's brainless tedious button-mashing destruction. Now if I'd been able to pick the bike up and throw it at someone, that'd be entirely different!

Also what's all this 'MAX' bullshit? Either drop a piping hot roast dinner out of the bike wreckage, or don't bother.


STAGE THREE.

Stage Three introduces a new enemy type, and he's carrying a machine gun! Is he ever going to use it on me though? Nope, doesn't look like it.

They don't even have the decency to drop the gun when they die, though some of them drop a handy grenade at least. Now this is finally starting to look like a proper Schwarzenegger movie!

The Stage Three boss doesn't bullshit either, and sadly that's where my counter-terrorism adventure ends.

I'm not all that sad about that though to be honest, because I found the game to be pretty tedious. Granted I'm not a huge fan of the genre to begin with, but there's no variety here and no satisfaction in smashing through the hordes of identical enemies. Also no way to make it through without soaking up damage it seems, especially in boss fights. It's probably better with some friends, especially as some versions allow you to bring the whole D.D. Crew into the fight at once, but then what isn't better in co-op?

If you want to see the rest of the game, I just discovered that rogue Super Adventures-clone website guy VGJunk played the thing to completion a few years back, and you can find his article by clicking this link. I wish I'd known about that before I started, as I could've just ripped off all his jokes and saved myself some effort.

Doesn't look like he ever figured out what 'D.D.' stands for either though.


CONCLUSION

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Punch, punch, punch, kick, kick, punch, punch, punch, kick, punch, use a continue, kick, punch, punch... it's basically that.

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That's what I thought about D.D. Crew anyway, but then anyone can have opinions. I suppose you could place a few of your own in the box below in fact, or maybe even offer some constructive feedback on my writing or website. You'll never be able to guess what the next game is though. Nope.