Trivia / Stranglehold

• Executive Meddling: A very rare case of Creator Meddling, as John Woo insisted the game be in English, going so far as to have Chow Yun-fat recite his lines phonetically in English.
  • In a more traditional case, Midway higher ups mandated that the game have a multiplayer mode.
• Follow the Leader: One of several third-person shooters during the 2000's to crib the Bullet Time gunplay of Max Payne, and is frequently considered one of the better ones to do so. Max Payne itself was heavily inspired by the gunplay of John Woo's films, making Stranglehold an interesting example of this trope.
• Keep Circulating the Tapes: Midway's collapse and the game lingering in copyright limbo kept it off digital storefronts like Steam for over a decade, until GOG.com untangled the rights and added the game to its store in 2019.
• Role Reprise: Chow Yun-fat reprises his role as Inspector Tequila some fifteen years after Hard Boiled.
• Stillborn Franchise: A sequel titled Gun Runner was in pre-production shortly after the release of the first game. As seen in this early gameplay test, it was planned to be a cooperative cover-based shooter akin to Gears of War, and Tequila would have been joined by a new character played by Vin Diesel (possibly reprising his role from Midway's earlier Wheelman). Another new gameplay mechanic planned was car chases(which were originally planned for this game but scrapped part-way into development). However, Midway's deep financial troubles and eventual collapse in 2009 ended the game's development for good(as well as another game John Woo was planning to make with Tiger Hill called "Ninja Gold").
• What Could Have Been:
  • Drivable vehicles were experimented with by the developers, but in the end were cut.
  • A number of weapons were cut from the final game, several of which can still be seen on the main menu or in cutscenes. Examples include a sniper rifle, an assault rifle that looks like an AK-47, and an automatic shotgun.
  • In the unlock shop, you can unlock concept art that shows two levels that were abandoned during development-a section of Tai O that appears to take place in the surrounding rock formations and a section of Chicago set in an abandoned subway station.

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