- CRIME CITY, rampant with organized crime and corruption, is fast becoming hell on earth to it's more than 5 million residents. Burglary, kidnapping, murder and drug trafficking have all cast their dark shadown upon the once lively and honest city. Now, Tony Gibson and Raymond Brody are determined to rid Crime City of it's high level filth, crush out crime and bring back law and order.From Taito's flyer
- Tony: Prison breakers on my day off?Raymond: Let's go for a kill-time.
Crime City is a 1989 urban-themed Run-and-Gun action game released by Taito.The titular city is a crime-infested hive of gangster activities, and it's up to the two Cowboy Cop protagonists, Tony Gibson and Raymond Brody (player 1 and 2) to single-handedly wipe out crime. With a series of missions where they put a stop to robberies, drug trafficking, illegal arms deals before resolving a kidnapping when the city's mayor gets abducted by gangsters.
Tony and Raymond notably made a comeback in a later Taito urban action game, Chase H.Q..
Unrelated to the 1992 DOS game.
This game contain examples of:
- Angry Guard Dog: Dobermans are a recurring minor enemy you encounter in a few areas. Sometimes they'll actually leap out from sealed crates and barrels to ambush you! (which begs the question: are the criminals guilty for animal abuse as well?)
- Bank Robbery: The game's second stage have you thwarting one in progress at the end of the stage. It's even titled as such.
- Bottomless Magazines: Averted; your basic handgun can run out of ammunition just like your special weapons, forcing you to punch criminals with your fists. It's not too big a problem, since you can also find pickups for it along with the other guns, and respawning starts each new life off with a fresh supply of ammo.
- Bulletproof Vest: One of the many items you can collect in-game, which adds extra points to your health.
- Captain Ersatz: Tony Gibson and Raymond Brody are obvious CEs to Riggs and Murtagh from the Lethal Weapon franchise. Heck, Toney even looks a bit like a No Celebrities Were Harmed version of Mel Gibson, besides sharing a surname.
- Company Cameo: Towards the end of each stage, the news of your success is reported on the local papers, the "Daily Taito".
- Darkened Building Shootout:
- The third stage leads into a warehouse and halfway through, someone kills the lights. Your character and the mooks are still visible onscreen however, the lights goes back on when you reach the stage's boss, Fritz.
- You can trigger this on purpose during a shootout in an office; shooting the lights will plunge the area in momentary darkness, but once you reach the next area it's bright again.
- Evil Twin: The game's Final Boss and main villain turns out to be Tom, the twin brother of the city's mayor. Shortly after you defeat him, you then recover the Mayor himself, and they're actually made from identical sprites.
- Fire-Breathing Weapon: There's a Mini-Boss (called "Bob" by the end credits) halfway through the fourth level who attacks you with a flamethrower, though his flames can be dodged by ducking.
- Grenade Launcher: Used by the third boss, Fritz, which takes off a big chunk of your health per hit.
- Hand Cannon: The second player, Raymond, uses a Magnum as his weapon.
- Human Shield: Richard, the boss of the bank level uses a lady hostage as a shield while shooting at you. Said hostage can't be killed, although you suffer bonus penalties for shooting her by accident.
- Institutional Apparel: The first boss, Joe, who leads the jailbreakers, is still wearing his prison uniform (of the black-and-white stripes variety). With a vest over it.
- Martial Arts Staff: One of the mook varieties, kung-fu fighting thugs in white uniforms, who attacks you with poles (even though everyone else uses guns). Somehow there's only two of them the whole game.
- Molotov Cocktail: Some of the mooks are armed with petrol bombs instead of firearms, which they'll hurl at your direction. If dodged, the petrol bomb then shatters on the floor leaving behind a small fire burning for several seconds that can damage you.
- Not My Driver: In a cutscene, this is how the Mayor gets kidnapped.Mayor Mike: [seeing a mook in his driver's seat, holding an assault rifle to his face] Oh Maaaaaaaaan...
- Never Bring a Knife to a Gun Fight: Several of the game's mooks, including enemies in the first area, are armed with melee weapons like batons and knives. Your character(s) on the other hand have pistols as your default weapon.
- Outside Ride: The beginning of the second stage have you tailing criminals, on their way to raid a local bank, by leaping atop their vehicles to catch up with them. Miss a jump and you lose a life as you hit the asphalt and get run over.
- Spread Shot:
- A classic Run-and-Gun power up that this game also possess, allowing you to shoot bullets in arcs of three.
- From the enemy side, Richard uses a Sawed-Off Shotgun that blasts a spread of projectiles at you.
- Unexpected Gameplay Change: The game occasionally changes perspective from a side-scrolling view to a behind-the-back view.
- Wretched Hive: The titular crime city, according to the manual and flyers. It's pretty evident within gameplay given the number of gangsters and thugs you spend the whole game shooting at.
